| [Ben]: | Wisconsin shootings | No discussion found | If you've turned on the TV recently, you know that there was a multiple shooting on Saturday at a church in Wisconsin.
"Say, doesn't Ben go to church on Saturday?"
Yes, I do.
"So, were they in your ..."
No that wasn't my church, but if you've been watching news reports, you'd know that it was a "splinter" group of WCG. I go to a similar "splinter" group.
"But Ben, I heard on FoxNews that such 'splinter' groups are cults - in fact, I heard a self-proclaimed cult deprogrammer dude and an FBI agent interviewed on Geraldo and they said that your church is actually a lot like David Koresh's Branch Davidians. Why, I seem to remember the FBI agent mentioning that your cult does militia training and stuff! I even heard Geraldo say that the proof was the shooter managed to reload his handgun!"
Bloody hell ...
Look, the Living Church of God was a little more "end-times" oriented than I tend to be, but we're no more "cultish" than the mainstream churches that practice ritual cannibalism (*cough* communion *cough*) and such. This dude was a nutjob. He didn't get weapons training from his church, LCG isn't Waco II, reloading a handgun is not evidence of an advanced paramilitary education and if the accuracy of media reports on this are any indication, nothing they say on a given day is worth listening to.
Here's the truth:
My family attended a congregation with many of the members of LCG in Wisconsin about 18 years ago. My parents knew personally most of the victims and victims' families. One of the victims went to school with my mom. These were honest, average people who happened to go to church on Saturday and read the Bible a little differently. They were harmless, good, caring folks who were murdered by a lone psychopath that happened to attend the same congregation.
That's it. Can we lay off the witch hunt? |
| 2005-03-14
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Wisconsin shootings |
