Tragedy in Colorado Springs

Matthew Murray

The news from Colorado Springs keeps coming in. A troubled young man named Matthew Murray went on a rampage and left 5 people (including himself) dead. Murray was apparently a deeply disturbed individual who expressed a deep hatred of Christians. In posts on a web site for people who have left evangelical organizations, he wrote:

You Christians brought this on yourselves. All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world. -- Matthew Murray

This is an horrific tragedy. According to reports I have seen, Murray was a troubled young man, plagued by internal voices, alienated from his community and desperately in need of help.

I wanted to write about this incident because, at times, on this blog, I have expressed a measure of contempt and disdain for evangelical Christians, and specifically Christians that attend megachurches like the New Life Church where this tragedy took place.

Be that as it may, I feel nothing but sorrow for the Works family, whose 2 young daughters, Stephanie and Rachael, were among the dead, and for the the families of the other victims, including the Murray family.

I hope the leaders of the New Life Church can assuage the grief of their community. I humbly offer my own words of condolence:

Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how. --James Russell Lowell

Grief is only the memory of widowed affections. --James Martineau

This book, conceived in sorrow, composed in grief, and constructed at the brink of despair, contains my mind's best thoughts, and my soul's triumph over the powers of darkness. -- Isaac Mayer Wise