Details Emerge
"The ultra-religious home-school curriculum that Matthew Murray ranted about in Web postings before he opened fire at two Christian centers forbids dating, rock music and "wrong clothes." It advises young men and women to live at home until their parents release them and counsels parents to choose marriage partners for their offspring.
...
[Bill] Gothard's teachings have been criticized by other conservative Christians who allege he has deviated from true Bible teaching and that his stand against rock music — even Christian rock — suspicion of modern medicine, belief in spiritual roots of disease, and opposition to women working outside the home and "evil" toys are wrong. Gothard warned followers in a 1986 letter that Cabbage Patch dolls can cause "strange, destructive behavior."
Swanson does not blame Gothard's teachings for Murray's actions and pointed out that Murray seemed in his writings to be following the example of Columbine shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who were educated in public schools. But he said there are home-schooling lessons that can be taken from the Murray shootings.
source: The Denver Post
It's child abuse. The influence of Bill Gothard's teachings on Matthew Murray is already up at Wikipedia. You be the judge.
And here's the killer, Matthew Murray, in his own words.
I still remember how we were told that “The Simpsons” was a very evil and Satanic TV show with the intent of causing people to leave Christianity (as if that’s a bad thing). As a teenager my mother had the TV tuner removed by a TV technician so that it could only receive from the AV inputs, meaning, could only watch VHS and DVDs. I remember me and the other church youth would go over to the Senior pastor’s house and ask to watch the very same movie that his 10 year old son or daughter had told us they’d watch and be told “sorry guys, that’s rated ‘R,’ it’s not Godly.” Of course we’d ask “but then why do you have it?” Sometimes he’d lie, other times he’d just say “sorry…you can’t.”
I remember wanting to listen to Christian music and be told by my parents and other church members that we couldn’t, EVEN THOUGH the senior pastor’s and other church leader’s families did.
Internet was treated as one of Satan’s special weapons in the “end-times” to promote sex(which everyone knows is of the Devil…..) Everyone was terrified that one of us teenagers might get a glimpse of a naked body and become demon possessed... Music was VERY restricted of course... Books were VERY restricted. We were only allowed to read Christian books and forced to memorize the bible. When Harry Potter came out we were all given lectures about how “we’re living in the end times and Satan is trying to capture the children and make them all witches!!!!” I knew of a few people who got harassed for letting their kids read Harry Potter.
I remember with all these different forms of media it was like I was always in Mission Impossible. We were either at church or being brainwashed in Christian home school. When we did have free time…we were either forced to pray, read the bible, do chores, or…..well nothing since we were not allowed to do anything. We were all being trained to “become the future of Christianity.” “The chosen generation that is going to turn America back to God in these last days.”
“The chosen generation who are going to become great prophets and pastors and evangelists and missionaries in the world.”
“The chosen generation who are going to take over the world and do away with everyone else’s false satanic religion and take dominion until Jesus returns!!!!!!”
Well, I got all fed up with the insanity, hypocrisy, conflicting doctrines, the and lack of absolute answers in regards to “salvation,” heaven and hell and other theological issues, the child abuse, brainwashing, lies, gossip, scandals, threats and fear mongering. I got tired of always hearing “oooohh, you’re saved by grace, not by works!” “Everybody loves you! Jesus loves you!” only to hear about how I was going to hell for watching “The simpsons” or could lose my salvation and could never be certain if 30 years from now I might lose it due to some odd sin and die in an accident and end up in this eternal hell preached to us day and night.
This is obviously an extremist cult, an abusive atmosphere, maladaptive, closed, sick, and dangerous. Why is this allowed to happen? Why do we allow subcultures like these within America to teach obviously deranged "values" to youngsters and to enfeeble them? What is it going to take for us to summon the collective will to say, "I'm sorry, some viewpoints just aren't valid, and you have no right to shoe-horn your kids into something they cannot be"?
Of course the killer is ultimately responsible for his choice to murder innocent people. But when are we going to start asking what happens when kids and young adults kill? (Especially if the young adults are taught to stay at home until mommy picks out a spouse for them?)
Certainly Murray’s parents were wrong to raise him in this way, but we should not just blame the parents, either. In fact I feel horrible for them. People must really be hurting to embrace such a morbid, rigid, and life-denying paradigm. They tore this kid down unintentionally because they’re tearing themselves down, too, and that has got to stop. The last thing Murray's parents need to do now is blame themselves. This event has multiple causes.
But I would say to Murray's family: Life is supposed to be fun. People don’t need to follow stupid rules invented by religious hucksters, or worry incessantly about letting their kid listen to some rock music, or try to manufacture the coming of some distant utopia through your relatives. Parents are supposed to make mistakes, anyway. You can guide, but you can’t control how your kids turn out.
You are a noble creature, the product of millions of years of evolution. Millions of years of successes (and mistakes), and you turned out basically good, so take a little pride in yourself! Trust yourself. Most people will be okay if they allow themselves to become themselves. They don’t need to embrace the silly, cheesy, and ignoramus teachings churned out by the likes of this Bill Gothard and Ted Haggard and Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, et al. Most Americans are head and shoulders above these frauds, if they would only believe that.
Everybody is somebody, but nobody wants to be themselves.
-Gnarls Barkley
A big thank you to Thought Theatre.
...
[Bill] Gothard's teachings have been criticized by other conservative Christians who allege he has deviated from true Bible teaching and that his stand against rock music — even Christian rock — suspicion of modern medicine, belief in spiritual roots of disease, and opposition to women working outside the home and "evil" toys are wrong. Gothard warned followers in a 1986 letter that Cabbage Patch dolls can cause "strange, destructive behavior."
Swanson does not blame Gothard's teachings for Murray's actions and pointed out that Murray seemed in his writings to be following the example of Columbine shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who were educated in public schools. But he said there are home-schooling lessons that can be taken from the Murray shootings.
source: The Denver Post
It's child abuse. The influence of Bill Gothard's teachings on Matthew Murray is already up at Wikipedia. You be the judge.
And here's the killer, Matthew Murray, in his own words.
I still remember how we were told that “The Simpsons” was a very evil and Satanic TV show with the intent of causing people to leave Christianity (as if that’s a bad thing). As a teenager my mother had the TV tuner removed by a TV technician so that it could only receive from the AV inputs, meaning, could only watch VHS and DVDs. I remember me and the other church youth would go over to the Senior pastor’s house and ask to watch the very same movie that his 10 year old son or daughter had told us they’d watch and be told “sorry guys, that’s rated ‘R,’ it’s not Godly.” Of course we’d ask “but then why do you have it?” Sometimes he’d lie, other times he’d just say “sorry…you can’t.”
I remember wanting to listen to Christian music and be told by my parents and other church members that we couldn’t, EVEN THOUGH the senior pastor’s and other church leader’s families did.
Internet was treated as one of Satan’s special weapons in the “end-times” to promote sex(which everyone knows is of the Devil…..) Everyone was terrified that one of us teenagers might get a glimpse of a naked body and become demon possessed... Music was VERY restricted of course... Books were VERY restricted. We were only allowed to read Christian books and forced to memorize the bible. When Harry Potter came out we were all given lectures about how “we’re living in the end times and Satan is trying to capture the children and make them all witches!!!!” I knew of a few people who got harassed for letting their kids read Harry Potter.
I remember with all these different forms of media it was like I was always in Mission Impossible. We were either at church or being brainwashed in Christian home school. When we did have free time…we were either forced to pray, read the bible, do chores, or…..well nothing since we were not allowed to do anything. We were all being trained to “become the future of Christianity.” “The chosen generation that is going to turn America back to God in these last days.”
“The chosen generation who are going to become great prophets and pastors and evangelists and missionaries in the world.”
“The chosen generation who are going to take over the world and do away with everyone else’s false satanic religion and take dominion until Jesus returns!!!!!!”
Well, I got all fed up with the insanity, hypocrisy, conflicting doctrines, the and lack of absolute answers in regards to “salvation,” heaven and hell and other theological issues, the child abuse, brainwashing, lies, gossip, scandals, threats and fear mongering. I got tired of always hearing “oooohh, you’re saved by grace, not by works!” “Everybody loves you! Jesus loves you!” only to hear about how I was going to hell for watching “The simpsons” or could lose my salvation and could never be certain if 30 years from now I might lose it due to some odd sin and die in an accident and end up in this eternal hell preached to us day and night.
This is obviously an extremist cult, an abusive atmosphere, maladaptive, closed, sick, and dangerous. Why is this allowed to happen? Why do we allow subcultures like these within America to teach obviously deranged "values" to youngsters and to enfeeble them? What is it going to take for us to summon the collective will to say, "I'm sorry, some viewpoints just aren't valid, and you have no right to shoe-horn your kids into something they cannot be"?
Of course the killer is ultimately responsible for his choice to murder innocent people. But when are we going to start asking what happens when kids and young adults kill? (Especially if the young adults are taught to stay at home until mommy picks out a spouse for them?)
Certainly Murray’s parents were wrong to raise him in this way, but we should not just blame the parents, either. In fact I feel horrible for them. People must really be hurting to embrace such a morbid, rigid, and life-denying paradigm. They tore this kid down unintentionally because they’re tearing themselves down, too, and that has got to stop. The last thing Murray's parents need to do now is blame themselves. This event has multiple causes.
But I would say to Murray's family: Life is supposed to be fun. People don’t need to follow stupid rules invented by religious hucksters, or worry incessantly about letting their kid listen to some rock music, or try to manufacture the coming of some distant utopia through your relatives. Parents are supposed to make mistakes, anyway. You can guide, but you can’t control how your kids turn out.
You are a noble creature, the product of millions of years of evolution. Millions of years of successes (and mistakes), and you turned out basically good, so take a little pride in yourself! Trust yourself. Most people will be okay if they allow themselves to become themselves. They don’t need to embrace the silly, cheesy, and ignoramus teachings churned out by the likes of this Bill Gothard and Ted Haggard and Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, et al. Most Americans are head and shoulders above these frauds, if they would only believe that.
Everybody is somebody, but nobody wants to be themselves.
-Gnarls Barkley
A big thank you to Thought Theatre.
Labels: child abuse, Colorado shootings, Matthew Murray, pentecostals, religous extremism, violence
posted by Kristine | Wednesday, December 12, 2007
|
14 comments