by DATA-DOG 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Religion has little relevance in this situation other than this nut bar preconceived that there would be a lot of people inside the church and most likely assumed that no one was carrying a gun.
Which makes him not only a cold blooded murderer but a cowered.
I wondered how long it would be before an OP emerged along the lines of, "While I disagree with what happened, I can understand why..."
I did not have to wait long - even before motive was known..
This was an egregious, unforgivable act of shocking violence that claimed both young and old, alike. The wounds are so raw that to attempt to "understand" seems almost obscene.
Yes, that's exactly what we need -- more laws -- tighter control. Why hasn't anyone come up with that idea? For example, why don't we make drugs illegal? What an ingenious idea! That will solve everything! No more heroin overdoses. No more addiction. Let's call Congress!!!Pretty sure that we are just about 10 mass shootings away from waking up and realizing that guns are something that deserve tighter control than the pathetic gun laws we have now. Any day now..
Uhh...Steve... Saying that I am beginning to understand why an individual may feel a certain way, is not agreeing with their actions.
I understand why Dubs feel they must practice shunning, but that doesn't mean I condone it.
Your "along the lines of.." is not at all what I said. Therapists are trained to understand why someone may feel a certain way. That's a far cry from approval.
Also, I'm not minimizing the situation.
DD
Language matters.
If a man violates a family member, it just wouldn't be appropriate for anyone - professional or otherwise - to say, "It's my job to try to understand why he did it."
It would be far more appropriate and fitting to remove the word "understand" altogether and say, "I need to examine the factors that likely contributed to this tragedy."
Ditto any unspeakably egregious human behavior.
Anyway, just wondering what your thoughts are.
My thoughts are somewhat in alignment with yours. Only exception is that for some reason too many people tend to classify or put every single person who commits a violent crime like that in the same place, in the same category and/or in some kind of political context.
The reasoning for one person to start shooting a church may have nothing to do with why the other guy started shooting at people in a concert, or the other who started shooting people at a church with mostly black people, or the other who started shooting at children in a school, or the other that started shooting at gay men in a dance club.
The act of violence may be the one and only thing that they have in common (aside from access to so many weapons).
I think people around them ignore the signs. Mental health and prevention of violence are never things that people seem to care about. There's no way that people just start shooting others without having some kind of background story, being like the ones that you mention in your post, or other. Whatever it is, that kind of violence is not going to stop for as long as people continue neglecting addressing people's mental health, being PTSD, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Extreme Hatred for other Races/Cultures, Bipolar Disorder, or Internalized Homophobia.
And then there are the ones who don't have any mental health issue, but are convinced that they are entitled to commit such acts. We, coming from an organization that capitalizes in brainwashing and negative influence, should know well how many stupid things people can do under the negative influence of other(s). Some of those people are perfectly functional and in their right mind, just convinced that it's ok to kill people.
"some individuals may feel that violence is their only choice..." but of course individuals mentally disturbed, insane. It's not the law of the jungle.
If one wants to destroy a congregation, shooting it up is the worst thing you could do. Or blowing up or burning down a church. All that is going to do is cost the congregation some money which is extorted from the flock, and tighten the bond they had as a group of xians. In the end, the people will be poorer, and their faith will be stronger. This is the opposite of what you want to accomplish.
The better way would be to undermine people's faith. Most xians are impossible to reason with, because they have that blockage every time you present them with information that contradicts their krayst. Using their own LIE-ble to rebut their doctrines, you will merely be cut off as trying to undermine their faith. You could use black magic to weaken their faith, allowing doubts to invade the whole congregation, and slowly undermine their will to attend those foul indoctrination/enslavement sessions. Temptation also works--at least some will quit attending or stop donating money. If that goes on long enough, you will end up with a very small group of devout xians with nowhere to go because their church will not be able to support itself, and a majority of people that stop wasting their time and money on church.
DD,
Great question: "If you reap what you sow, will Religion ironically bring about its own demise?"
