Religiously motivated violence

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Murders in churches: are
Christians being targeted?

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Overview:

High levels of fear are circulating within the Christian community. This is nothing new, particularly among those Christians who interpret the Bible literally. They have always been concerned over whether they and their loved ones will make it into Heaven, or be punished eternally in Hell. However, more recently, some believe that major persecution of churches in North American is imminent, and may already have started.

There have been fears that their pastors will be thrown into jail for simply reading the Bible in church, if the proposed hate-crimes legislation is passed. Fortunately, at least this concern appear to be groundless. It became law during 2009-OCT. No charges have been made under this law for hate speech, and none are ever likely.

Many Christian leaders say that they have already detected ominous signs of a serious increase in religious hate crime -- the assassination of Christians across the U.S., presumably by non-Christians bent on exterminating Christianity. They feel that conservative Christians in particular are being directly targeted. 

This essay examines recent murders that have occurred either:

	Inside or in front of Christian churches, or
	Motivated by religious hatred.

We have also included a mass murder at a Unitarian Universalist (UU) church. Only about 15% of UUs consider themselves to be Christians and almost no fundamentalist and other evangelical Christians consider UUs to be fellow Christians. However, there are so many similarities to other murders involving Christian churches that we have included this mass murder with the rest.

Conclusions:

We have tentatively concluded, on the basis of the relatively few events that have occurred, that:

	Almost all of the murder victims in churches and other religious buildings are conservative Protestants.
	Most of the perpetrators are also conservative Protestants.
	No general targeting of Christians is taking place in the U.S. (unlike other countries in the world).
	American churches, like its schools, are relatively safe places. There have been 18 murders over the past 9 years in or at churches. This compares to approximately a quarter million homicides at other locations during the same interval.

As of 2009-SEP the two most recent murders at churches were:

	A mass church killing during 2008 in a non-Christian sanctuary -- the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville TN. The perpetrator was a person who objected to the faith group's liberal views in general and their attitude towards homosexuals in particular.
	The 2009 assassination of Dr. George TIller, an abortion provider, in Reformation Lutheran Church, in Kansas City, KS.

Topics in this section:

	Recent killings in or at American churches: 1974 to 1999-JUL: Atlanta, GA; Daingerfield, TX; Gonzales, LA, Bloomington, IN.   1999-SEP to 2003: Ft. Worth, TX; Rochester Hills, MI;   2007: Arvada & Colorado Springs, CO. Background of perpetrator Matthew Murray 2008: Knoxville, TN Public comments on media articles about the Knoxville murders   2009: Wichita, KS
	Analysis of killings: Are Christians being targeted?; More detailed study of some murders of Christians; Conclusions

Related essays on this web site:

	School shootings in North America
	Why did the Columbine / Littleton CO tragedy happen?
	Religious intolerance and related topics

Copyright © 1999 to 2009, by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance 
Originally posted: 1999-SEP-28 
Latest update: 2009-JUN-02
Author: B.A. Robinson

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