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Jul
28
Here’s the AP article that featured that headline.
Great way to persuade people to think differently than they currently do and enshrine and cherish freedom of speech as well as freedom of and from religion. Enforcing one set of beliefs by threatening people who don’t believe what you do into silence.
Ah, those crazy family values.
Investigators described [suspect Jim D.] Adkisson as a former member of an Army airborne unit who trained as a mechanical engineer and had held jobs across the country. He had apparently been out of work since 2006, and believed liberals were taking jobs he should have, Owen said. Investigators are not aware of any affiliation with a church or with any known hate groups. Adkisson had no next of kin or family, police said.
According to a four-page manifesto police found in his SUV in the church parking lot, Adkisson believed the church to be a bastion of liberalism in an otherwise socially conservative area of eastern Tennessee.
“That church had received some publicity in the recent past regarding its liberal stance on things,” Owen said, “and that is at least one of the issues we believe caused that church to be targeted”.
The church’s website speaks of its “long and rich history of taking stands for social justice,” and said it has fought since the 1950s for racial desegregation, fair wages and equal treatment for women and homosexuals. It provides sanctuary for political refugees and founded a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The church hosts social events for gay and lesbian teens.
Now, what is so add to me, is that President Bush instituted the Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, which would see more social services be supported by government dollars but be provided by places of faith (although not spent in a way that would conflict with the freedom of or freedom from religion).
And we know that Barack Obama in fact has said that he wants to expand on or at least improve the functioning of such service provision.
I don’t understand how this gentleman believes that liberals are taking away his jobs, when it’s been conservatives’ policies that have led to outsourcing and that push free market solutions that aren’t working to create more jobs.
What exactly was this man angry at?
Jim D. Adkisson, 58, ranted that “liberals and gays” taking jobs had prevented him from finding work. He wrote that he expected to keep shooting parishioners until the police showed up and killed him, Knoxville, Tenn., Police Chief Sterling Owen told a news conference.
Owen said police recovered 76 shotgun shells after Adkisson allegedly opened fired in the sanctuary of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Three shells had been fired before church members tackled Adkisson, but two people were killed and five more wounded by the blasts before he was wrestled to the floor.
We are such a misguided society when it comes to taking action that will really impact cultural change. I think we’re afraid of what will happen if we succeed.
Okay – I just have to ask: What will the conservative talk shows say about this? If abortion clinic violence is justified in the name of protecting unborn life, is church violence at the sight of religious institutions that promote social justice also going to be found justifiable in some way too?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:27 pm July 28th, 2008 in Politics
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12 Responses to “AP headline: “Police: Man shot churchgoers over liberal views””
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What conservatives justify killing abortion doctors? The majority of conservatives do not support killing abortion doctors.
You know – you are probably right, and I probably know that. But between Michael Savage saying that 99% of kids with autism are brats, the HHS wanting to categorize all contraception as abortion and hypothetical bloggers trying to intimidate other bloggers into not writing legitimate criticisms of elected officials who represent them directly?
Now this man not liking liberals so he goes and shoots people in a church?
Wouldn’t you say that this stuff is beyond the pale?
And actually – I want to add one more incident – Joe Cimperman’s house being set afire last night.
I didn’t approve of some of his tactics in the primary race against Dennis Kucinich, but deliberately setting a fire to his home (that link mentions the possibility and another article I read said that they’d found an accelerant on the premises)?
Seriously – again, what is wrong with people?
You conveniently missed this article which addresses this guy’s hatred for Christians.
Using your own logic, didn’t he just shoot his own?
But then again, using your logic, it’s the Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld trio that causes this shootings in the first place.
Gordon – you wrote, “You conveniently missed this article which addresses this guy’s hatred for Christians.
Using your own logic, didn’t he just shoot his own?”
Are you familiar with the UU?
And Gordon – is there a link you meant to leave?
I picture this guy listening all the time to Rush and the rest of the non-stop liberal haters. This crazed man lost his job. His liberal wife divorced him years ago, so he’s all about shooting up some of those damn femi-nazi gay-loving unitarians. Nuts, of course. But certainly not helped any by the rhetoric of right wing radio. No it doesn’t make sense — killing people who subscribe to a philosophy of reaching out to the poor working class, but progressives still allow ourselves to be defined by the Rushes of the world.
Of course that stuff is off the charts, but that is those are considered the extreme. I could also refer you to conservatives like David Broder, George Will, and Tucker Carlson – folks I’m sure you don’t agree with politically but make rational arguments without being being inflammatory.
Village Green – you know, we talk about or say someone must be “crazy” to do something and we say it in a colloquial way, but there is just nothing colloquial about a person doing what you describe here, “killing people who subscribe to a philosophy of reaching out to the poor working class…”
I find Broder and Will’s arguments reasonable more often than not, that’s why I will read them, because they use facts and good logic and I can still disagree with their support for those reasons and logic. If you don’t use those elements as the basis of an argument, you’ve lost me from the beginning. Tucker Carlson is not nearly as solid as those two and Kevin O’Brien is far closer to Tucker than he is to Will or Broder, much as he might think otherwise. His attacks are snarky, personal and often too over the top to be taken as serious methods of persuasion.
Will and Broder in particular wants to persuade you – they don’t care about winning a battle or the war and they focus on that.
Most others just want to spew and express their frustration that in a democracy you can’t have it your way all the time about everything. Of course complaining is fine and activism is good to keep the tug of war making sure we’re in a place where we don’t devolve into Zimbabwe or Sudan, God forbid.
But to have everything be one way?
Ick.
i would have protected you and ushered you to safety. he should have started at UCC in Chicago. we could lose rev pfegler and rev wright and not many would miss them. america’s shotgun-wielding hunters have come home to ROOST!
about the cimperman fire: do you think he was tipped off at the upcoming fbi raid and had some boxes of records he needed to be burned before their arrival. could be……
i did find it kind of strange that the mans house was engulfed in a blazing fire and he was smiling and waving at the camera. seems like strange behavior to me. what do you think jill? i have a suggestion for some alternative behavior.