Matthew Murray and Other Church Shootings

The cold December night was shattered by a hail of gunfire, when 24-year-old Matthew Murray stormed into the Youth With A Mission training school in Arvada, Colorado, on Sunday. The rampage ended with two dead and numerous others wounded. Mere hours later in nearby Colorado Springs, two young girls were murdered at the New Life Church by the same disturbed young man, who killed himself. But, the question that remains for people around the country is who was Michael Murray?

A brief overview of Matthew Murray reported in the Denver Post offers a glimpse into the young man's history. He's the son of highly respected neurosurgeon Donald S. Murray and grew up in a rather privileged home. Matthew lived in Arvada with Donald and his wife Loretta at the time of the shootings. He was briefly enrolled at Arapaho Community College and Denver Christian University, but dropped out quickly. Murray was never a bold, outspoken youth, but rather remained quiet, alone, oftentimes desolate. Matthew was enrolled in the Youth With A Mission missionary school, and was active with them for 5 years, before being removed in 2002.

Fellow students and staff noticed a severe level of instability in Murray, and feared that sending him on missionary trips was detrimental. He had begun to hear and respond to "voices", and the school feared for the safety of Murray and fellow students. Peter Warren, director the Youth With A Mission, commented to the Denver Post on Murray's health, stating: "issues with his health made it unsafe for him to do so," referring to Murray's upcoming missions.

A search warrant executed Monday uncovered evidence that Murray had been in contact with the missionary school, sending volumes of hate mail to the organization in recent weeks. The contents of the mailings were unspecified, but were reported to be very unpleasant and threatening. Since his leave from the Youth With A Mission facility in 2002, Murray had reportedly become very active in circles where leaving mainstream religion and anger towards organized religions were the focal point. Murray had been a frequent blogger, often writing of his hatred for the Christian faith and of religion in general. His final posting on a website he frequented was made at 11:03 a.m., 11 hours after the massacre at the Youth With A Mission facility, and merely two hours before the shootings at New Life Church foretold of his rampage.

A portion of his final remarks reported in The Denver Post, are as follows: "You christians brought this on yourselves," Murray writes in his 452-word harangue: "I'm coming for EVERYONE soon and I WILL be armed to the @#%$ teeth and I WILL shoot to kill. Feel no remorse, no sense of shame, I don't care if I live or die in the shoot-out. 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." His writings were often eerily similar to those of Columbine High School Eric Harris. An exerpt from a notebook belonging to Harris is eerily familiar to the notations left by Murray, stating, ""I'm coming for EVERYONE soon, and I WILL be armed to the (expletive) teeth, and I will shoot to kill." These rantings speak of a deeply disturbed soul, and Murray certainly fit that persona.

While the rampages that led to the loss of 5 human lives on a cold Sunday morning are certainly saddening, they are not unique. Foxnews reports that in August of 2007, a lone gunman, Eiken Elam Saimon opened fire in a Missouri Micronesian church, killing a pastor and two other church goers. The shooter carried two handguns and a larger gun, which is quite similar to the Colorado shootings, although Saimon eventually surrendered to police and is awaiting trial. In October of 2003 as reported by CNN, a woman entered a church in Atlanta, Georgia, killing her mother and the minister before turning the gun on herself. The incident occurred very early on a Sunday morning, and there were not many people in the building yet.

The Atlanta incident involved a revolver recovered at the scene, and was an apparent murder-suicide by a distraught woman afraid to leave her elderly mother behind. One of the largest, and by far most tragic, church shootings in US history occurred in 1999, in a church in Fort Worth, Texas, reports the BBC News. A man dressed in black, smoking a cigarette entered the church and opened fire on the worshipers, killing 7 people, and then himself as he was fired on by police officers. Witnesses said that the shooter had numerous disputes with people in the church, arguing with them about their religious values before the shootings occurred. Many of these victims were young people, as were the victims of the Colorado shootings, making the ties between the two stunningly similar.

Mass murders are a tragic event regardless of the venue, but churches are becoming more and more prevalent places of not only worship, but of death and violence. Matthew Murray was a very disturbed young man who deemed it appropriate to take out his rage and anger on a system which had, at least in his mind, wronged him, and tragically lives were lost because of one young man's disturbed fantasies. Churches should be a place of peace and worship, but more and more frequently, they are becoming pits of pain and despair, and hopefully that trend reverses itself soon, and no more lives are uselessly spent.

Jeremy P. Meyer, Erin Emery and Christopher N. Osher, Diatribe foretold church shooting horror, The Denver Post
Foxnews, Suspect in Misourri Shooting Charged With Assault, Murder
CNN, Atlanta Church Shooting Leaves 3 Dead
BBC News, Americas Teenagers Die In US Church Shooting