Monday, July 28, 2008

Another Hate Crime

by Pa Rock

A lone gunman walked into the Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, TN, last Sunday morning and opened fire with a shotgun. He managed to kill one person and critically wound four others before being subdued by church members. The shooting was apparently random, being an attack on the liberal philosophy of the church rather than specific individuals. The shooter, Jim D. “David” Adkisson, was said to hate blacks, gays and anyone different from himself.

I didn’t know much about the Unitarian Universalist Church, but after this tragedy I have begun to educate myself on the group. If it really is the bastion of liberalism that the shooter thought it was, there might be a place on one of the pews for me – and I intend to explore that possibility more fully.

Let us hope (and pray) this act of twisted bigotry can serve as a catalyst to make us all open to the feelings and needs of one another. The act was violence, the reaction needs to be reaching out with love and understanding to make the world a truly inclusive place for all.

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