July 29, 2008

Rabid Religious Righties Brand Church Shooter Atheist Attack Dog. As Usual, the Right is Wrong.

Oppressed Christians... and the rest of us
Mere moments after the story broke of hate-filled whackjob Jim David Adkisson barging into a children’s production of Annie inside Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and opening fire on the crowd, CINO (Christian-In-Name-Only) fundamentalists (emphasis on “mental”) everywhere pounced:

Atheist attacks church! See how Christians are persecuted, and murdered by godless heathens! The atheist movement is on the march! It’s the end of the world! …

What, you don’t believe me? Here, see for yourself just a few of the delirious reactions:

A delusional dissonant (notice the anti-humanist, anti-science bent of the recent posts) at something called Recrudescent Religion titles his (her? its?) blog post, “When Atheists Attack,” reasoning (for lack of a better word) that this Adkisson fella couldn’t be a lib’rul-hatin’ right-winger, ‘cuz the paper says he wuz a real nice guy who just turned bad, ‘cuz… well, ‘cuz he was a God-hater, just all the rest of them atheists, like he musta been, dawgawnit:

If you’ve been following the news, you are surely aware of the recent mass-shooting attack at a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville, Tennesee. If not, then click here to find out. The news media at this stage appear to be trying to spin it as “a right winger attacks a liberal church”, or some such rubbish. However, this is not supported by the actual evidence. …

So, you have a guy who is bitter that his parents “made him go to church all his life”, who rants and raves about the “Bible contradicting itself”, and who becomes inexplicably angry when a neighbour tells him that her daughter just graduated from a Bible college. This sounds suspiciously like the formula we see with so many of the so-called “New Atheists”. Even the fact that he attacked an Unitarian Universalist assembly doesn’t necessarily argue against the notion that he was an angry God-hater. Most God-haters out there are so mixed up they can’t (or simply won’t) make a distinction between far-left groups like the UUs and fundamentalists - anyone smacking of religion draws their ire.

We can probably expect to see more of this sort of thing in this country for as long as the secularist worldview continues to advance in this country. Let’s face it - secularism is no more “rational” than anything else, despite its pretentions. Just as there are always some Muslims who will cross the line into violence because of their religious beliefs, there are secular fundamentalists who will also.

Ignoring the idiotic oxymoron “secular fundamentalist,” if there’s ever been an atheist who ran around shooting at Christians, I can’t name him. Even apart from institutionalized, societally-sanctioned, mass hate crimes instigated and carried out by sworn Christians (e.g., the Salem witch trials, the European Inquisitions, the Holocaust), more murders in which the victim represented a targeted group have been executed by the devoutly religious than by atheists.

Prove me wrong, Tighty Righties. I dare you.

Next, here’s some real Red-under-every-bed lunacy from something called The Delete France News Blog (which was cross-posted on several other right-wing-lunatic blogs, but for reasons not too hard to fathom, has since been scrubbed):

The police are being very quiet about this shooting and the suspect that was caught. I wonder why? Is this due to all of the anti-Religion hate speech coming from “the left” these days? I am not sure if you people noticed that there is a huge atheist movement going on right now. Christianity is being bashed from all angles and it is interesting that this shooter was a stranger to the church, nobody recognized him.

Religion is the thorn in the side to all Marxists that have a Global communism agenda. They feel it must be discredited and destroyed to allow their evil ideology take over.

When a commenter points out that the target was “a left wing, pro-gay Unitarian Church,” the blogger responds:

Well he was obviously further left then the commies running the church

…and later remarks:

13 people were just killed in Turkey, I am sure leftists were behind that one too….I will check that out later

And a hotbed of ignorance (and racism) that calls itself Serr8d’s Cutting Edge concludes, under the title, “Atheist madman kills two in Knoxville Church“:

The FBI was investigating, in case this was a ‘hate crime’. Funny that; all murder is hate. And, Christians aren’t on the leftist’s ‘protected’ list.

In other words, there’s no such thing as a hate crime, unless Christians are the target. Got it.

On a highly reactionary, end-of-times fundy forum called TheologyOnline.com, where the story is posted under the subject line, “Loving Atheist Enters Church and Opens Fire…,” brave dissidents who dared challenge the inevitable conclusion that Adkisson was a Christian-killing atheist were promptly shouted down, and in at least one case, banned.

Of course, posters toeing the poor-little-persecuted-Christians/it’s a sign of the end times! line (while backhanding the UU church) are still active and in good standing; e.g.:

Something tells me that if a man walks into a church and shouts “hateful things” as reported by congregation members before opening fire, he isn’t a Christian. Or it could have been a religious fanatic. It was a Unitarian church after all.

In a back-and-forth between the OP and the banned poster, the OP reacts to the reminder of Killer Christians (by way of witch hunts, the Inquisitions, and anti-Semitism) with nothing more or less than because-I-say-so insistence:

You will know them by their fruits. If anyone does these things, they are not Christian, though they may claim to be.

Finally backed into a corner, the OP blows off the issue with:

So I assumed a religion-hater did it. Is something bad going to happen now?

Hm, let me see… Assigning blame to a member of a specific minority group for a heinous crime, refusing to correct the ASS-umption, and finally equating atheists with “religion-haters”… Yeah, I’d say something bad happened: The OP just spread more lies about atheists and propagated more hatred against atheists.

Some “Christian.”

No matter — that Adkisson sure sounds like a real Christian-hater, doesn’t he?

Uh, no, he doesn’t. Apart from the idea that Unitarian Universalism isn’t your traditional Christian church (I’ll leave it up to UU’s to explain what it is), Jim David Adkisson was no atheist targeting the Lord’s People.

Per Duncan Mansfield:

A four-page letter found in Jim D. Adkisson’s small SUV indicated he intentionally targeted the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church because, the police chief said, “he hated the liberal movement” and was upset with “liberals in general as well as gays.” …

Adkisson was a loner who hates “blacks, gays and anyone different from him,” longtime acquaintance Carol Smallwood of Alice, Texas, told the Knoxville News Sentinel.

So now we know his motive. And the reason he picked TVUU as his target? It’s not lost on anyone that the church (which is welcoming and affirming), had recently erected a sign: “Gays Welcome.”

Bizarrely, Adkisson is “a 58-year-old truck driver on the verge of losing his food stamps” — “It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement,” said the chief of police — and he blames liberals for his predicament? Liberals, the unyielding promoters and defenders of labor and social welfare programs that made it possible for him to get those food stamps in the first place?

Makes perfect sense… but only to Joe Conservative.

And, as far as Adkisson’s unemployment goes, he can thank the Bush administration and the rest of the “Let them eat… nothing!” Republicans for the abysmal economic climate that’s killing blue-collars joes like himself.

But it sounds like Adkisson drank the Blame-the-Liberals-and-Gays Kool-Aid — gallons of it — and it’s no secret who spiked his glass. Just as Timothy McVeigh was “inspired” to blow up 168 people inside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City by the neo-Nazi bible The Turner Diaries, Adkisson appears to have been “inspired” by the non-stop hate speech of such rabid liberal-haters as Bill O’Reilly, Michael Savage, and Sean Hannity:

Bill O’Reilly, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity
on accused shooter’s reading list

Police found right-wing political books, brass knuckles, empty shotgun shell boxes and a handgun in the Powell home of a man who said he attacked a church in order to kill liberals “who are ruining the country,” court records show. …

Adkisson targeted the church, [Knoxville Police Department Officer Steve Still] wrote in the document obtained by WBIR-TV, Channel 10, “because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country’s hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets.”

Adkisson told Still that “he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he would then target those that had voted them in to office.” …

Inside the house, officers found “Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder” by radio talk show host Michael Savage, “Let Freedom Ring” by talk show host Sean Hannity, and “The O’Reilly Factor,” by television talk show host Bill O’Reilly. …

Owen said Adkisson specifically targeted the church for its beliefs, rather than a particular member of the congregation.

“It appears that church had received some publicity regarding its liberal stance,” the chief said. The church has a “gays welcome” sign and regularly runs announcements in the News Sentinel about meetings of the Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays meetings at the church.

Owen said Adkisson’s stated hatred of the liberal movement was not necessarily connected to any hostility toward Christianity or religion per say, but rather the political advocacy of the church.

The church’s Web site states that it has worked for “desegregation, racial harmony, fair wages, women’s rights and gay rights” since the 1950s. Current ministries involve emergency aid for the needy, school tutoring and support for the homeless, as well as a cafe that provides a gathering place for gay and lesbian high-schoolers. …

What’s more, Dark Christianity — in a well-thought-out post full of excellent research — is mulling over Adkisson’s possible far-right/dominionist links:

There’s been speculation on anti-dominionist forums on LJ that a recent church shooting (at a Unitarian church) may have been the work of a dominionist — unfortunately, this is not unlikely, as UU churches have been explicitly targeted for protests by dominionist groups and the incident occured in Knoxville, located in a part of Tennessee that is a wee bit of a dominionist hotbed. …

I will note at present, as a caveat, that we do *not yet know* what dominionist groups — if any — he was a member of; it should be noted that “Christian Patriot” militia groups and “Joel’s Army” groups *are* rather popular in eastern TN — and this is also an area of the country where there is more overt “Joel’s Army” influence over the Southern Baptist Convention than is apparent in much of the country. Eastern TN, including Knoxville itself, also has one of the decidedly larger concentrations of active Klan groups and Christian Identity groups in the US. There *is* some indication, per articles in Knoxville media (below), that the shooter did tend to have similar viewpoints to Christian Identity and Klan groups — especially in regards to anti-African American and anti-LGBT sentiments. It should also be noted, however, that there are also plenty of *non-dominionist* racist groups; western North Carolina in particular has been noted as a hotbed of not just dominionist-linked racist groups but also groups like neo-Nazis and “Confederate Skins”.

Here’s something that dovetails with that thought, from WBIR’s timeline of the shooting:

A neighbor told 10News Adkisson described himself as a “Confederate” and a “believer in the old South.” She says Adkisson self-identified in this way to her on more than one occasion, but that she didn’t know what he meant by it.

Hmmm.

Back to Dark Christianity:

There *may* be dominionist links, even aside from the obvious — namely, with the damage caused by dominionist coercive groups. Per a report in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the shooter may have been forced as a child to attend First Christian Church of Harriman, TN; First Christian Church is part of an association of “nondenominational Christian Churches” often linked to dominionism and does have a bibolatrous statement of faith. It also has connections with an explicitly dominionist anti-reproductive-health group that specialises in confrontational protest–including an exhortation to pastors to “put their lives and ministries on the line” (comparing persons who support the right to choose who would personally not have an abortion to Pontius Pilate); it explicitly promotes setting up dominionist steeplejacking of not just culture but the country, at one point, subtly hints that the US is considered a “pagan nation”, and there is also the distinct possibility that the anti-abortion group may be an Assemblies front or closely related due to known links with Assemblies frontgroup Mercy Ministries. The imagery in the church newsletter tends to be telling. There are also reports from relatives he may have had psychological issues as a youth, apparently was adopted as an infant in an arranged adoption, and had longterm harassment even after moving away by his dominionist adoptive parents and ongoing issues related to this; hence there is a real possibility complex PTSD may be a factor in a similar manner to Matthew Murray’s final breakdown.

There is also evidence that the assailant has a long history of violence and threatened violence. At one point this resulted in filing of an EPO by his ex-wife due to threats to shoot himself and his wife; the same ex-spouse has reported he was heavily into conspiracy theories re the government and hated “”blacks, gays, anyone who was a different color or just different from him”. Again, evidence points to complex PTSD as a potential factor. …

Among other things, writings by several neoconservative authors that have expressed sympathy with dominionist viewpoints (including Michael Savage, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly) have been found; among other groups, Media Matters for America has reported on inflammatory speech by these authors. Shows by these writers also tend to get play on dominionist networks, often as the only secular material (for instance, Fox News is the sole secular news provider on the dominionist DSS service Sky Angel). …

Reader dogemperor adds:

[Adkisson] being “force-fed the Bible” has been confirmed per the Knoxville News-Sentinel:

According to Massey, Adkisson talked frequently about his parents, who “made him go to church all his life. … He acted like he was forced to do that.”

(I’ve noted the church does appear to have strong dominionist links, and it does appear he was adopted in what may be a private adoption; this is, unfortunately, quite common among dominionist adoptions.)

The rather strong reaction he had with news of a friends’ daughter’s graduation from a college apparently associated with these “independent Christian” churches also points strongly to “multigen walkaway with severe complex PTSD who has likely gotten into racist stuffle to boot”.

Fascinating — especially if you’re familiar with “independent fundamentalist” churches in general (Baptist or otherwise).

Finally — although we disagree, vehemently, on the need for hate-crimes legislation (sorry, but not all violent crimes are hate crimes) — Miscellanea Agnostica sums up the Rabid Righties’ cognitive dissonance best:

Early reports had pointed out that Adkisson complained about Christians, for instance railing against a woman who told him his daughter had attended a Bible college. This fits, of course, with most Christians’ inherent compulsion to feel persecuted, and the story was told according to this angle — until Adkisson’s letter surfaced, showing his motivation to be much more personal and not a philosophically-driven effort to wipe out Christians just because they’re Christians.

So it turns out this was not a “hate crime” against Christians … it was against people of two classes that Adkisson had a personal grudge against.

Folks on the Right were — and possibly still are — railing about this being a “hate crime” because largely they despise the very notion of “hate crime.” They fear that any crime by a Christian against, say, a gay person — regardless of whether or not religion or sexual orientation played a part in the particular event — would have “hate crime” charges tacked on for added measure. Some go further, claiming that all “hate crime” legislation is, by definition, an attempt to “silence” all Christians everywhere. This sort of paranoia is, of course, yet another example of the Christian Martyr Complex, which I already mentioned. While I consider “hate crime” laws to be dubious at best — after all, aren’t all violent crimes “hate” crimes? — this fear is completely irrational.

At any rate, hopefully the Right will stop claiming this crime is an anti-Christian massacre, because truthfully, it wasn’t — and they know it.

But, of course, the professional haters out there will still try to spin it to suit their twisted agenda — like our little leather-obsessed friend, Pete LaBarbera, of Christofascists for Slander and Libel (a.k.a. Americans for Truth) — Petey’s found a way to use this tragedy to 1) denounce hate-crimes legislation, 2) satisfy his lust for the death penalty, 3) slam Out & About as “anti-family,” and 4) accuse “pro-homosexual activists” of doing exactly what he’s doing: politicizing the tragedy.

And all in just two short paragraphs.

(Petey, I think you’ve outdone yourself this time. Whatsamatter, run out of Folsom Street Fair pictures to gaze at?)

Further reading:

Right Wing Blogosphere Completely Ignores Domestic Terrorism In Knoxville
Blue Texan, Firedog Lake, July 28, 2008

In Tennessee, Eliminationism Is No Longer ‘Just A Joke’
David Neiwert, Firedog Lake, July 28, 2008

AFA Approved Comments: Knoxville Church Doing “Satan’s Work”
Jim Burroway, Box Turtle Bulletin, July 28, 2008

Posted by: Sapphocrat

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