Posted on 12/13/2007 11:44:15 AM PST by colorcountry
KSL News has learned the man who went on a shooting rampage at two Colorado church properties had been baptized into the LDS Church a year ago.
Matthew Murray killed four people and wounded several others Sunday, before he turned the gun on himself. He targeted people at two Christian churches, posting anti-religion messages online before the shootings. But a year ago, he welcomed religion in his life, according to one man who taught Murray about the Latter-day Saint faith.
A.J. Ormond was there the day Matthew Murray was baptized. He says he immediately noticed a change; Murray seemed happy, calm, at peace. It was a demeanor that changed dramatically in just a year.
"He seemed like a normal person, maybe a little sheltered." That's how A.J. Ormond remembers Matthew Murray, the man police say shot and killed two at a Youth with Mission Center in Arvada, then two sisters at a New Life Church in Colorado Springs 12 hours later.
Before the attacks, he posted hate-filled messages online like "You Christians brought this on yourselves," and "All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you... as I can."
"I think everybody goes through 'Is there anything I could have done? Anything?'", Ormond said.
Ormond met Murray in November 2006 in Colorado. Murray wanted to learn more about the LDS church. Ormond and his wife worked with the missionaries in their ward.
"I think he was interested in learning about all religions, trying to figure out what fit him and his beliefs and finding somewhere where he could fit in," Ormond said.
Ormond describes Murray as polite and friendly, a young man who, despite his family's protests, was seriously contemplating devoting his life to the LDS Church. Murray's experience with the LDS Church culminated with his baptism. Soon after, he stopped going to church; and just a little over a year later, Murray was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot to his head following a shootout with a security guard.
The photos of him splashed on TV were easily recognizable to Ormond; his motives, though, a mystery. Ormond said, "It was obvious that it wasn't the person we had known that had committed those shootings and those murders."
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement saying, "We checked our records, and they confirm that Matthew Murray of Englewood, Colorado, was baptized about a year ago."
Beyond that, the church said it would have no comment.
The question would be: did Matthew actually attend the secret ceremony in person?
He was pyschotic and alienated from his Evangelical Protestant Christianity and decided to make a statement by becoming Mormon. The fact that he (allegedly) showed up with a beard and skullcap makes me think he may have been considering Islam, too. I think he was simply looking for something that would make his rejection of orthodox Christianity clear, and chose Mormonism because it was convenient and easy to do.
Basically, however, he was psychotic. Many of the Muslim converts who have killed people here have also been psychotic. However, they kill in the name of Islam, and this guy was not killing in the name of Mormonism.
He was a nut. No other word for it. He just focused on churches than than a day care or school. He probably became a Mormon because Pentacostals have traditionally had a disdain for Mormons although that is changing in the new Emerging Church model.
You’re right. It has nothing to do with Romney.
The guy was a TROP convert, just about guarantee it.
The MSM's eyes began to roll inside their head when they learned the shooter attended a Pentecostal church as a youth and was home schooled.
Then, the MSM began foaming at the mouth when they discovered a sibling attending Oral Roberts University.
Now the MSM are convulsing over this man's conversion to Mormonism.
Obviously, the troubled mind was in search of something, and had found nothing. He is to be pitied. As is the MSM.
What is a TROP convert?
Christian, Jewish and Morman beliefs do not support what this kid did. It is clear that he was a troubled kid. It is clear that he went off the deep end and did something nobody supports.
Millions of young kids attend church and temple services each week. Very few of them wind up committing this type of act.
It is unfortuante that this kid whacked out, but it no more a condemnation on religion, than it would be if he were a member of the democrat party.
If it is true (what Matthew Murray wrote), then his parents were abusive toward him from the get go and it is no wonder he turned out the way he did.
If it is not true - if what he wrote was simply the sick output of a twisted mind with no basis in fact, it just further speaks to his inability to come to terms with reality and is just another part in the larger tragedy.
I pray that it is the second option, not the first.
the religion of peace
I thought so, too, after I read the description of his outfit. But so far it doesn’t seem that any hard evidence has appeared.
Islam is so bizarre that it attracts the mentally ill or losers with an imagined grudge against society. It makes them feel powerful and makes them feel that their grudge is somehow affirmed and gives them the right to attack. I think Mormonism, in its early days, may once have done so, but I don’t think it does so anymore.
If he was Muslim or regarded himself as Muslim, I doubt that we’ll ever know about it. In any case, I think Mormonism was just a step on his journey away from the Christianity of his youth (and pre-psychotic days).
Things like this WILL screw you up!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith,_Sr.
Smith showed little interest in religion and was content to allow his wife control over the religious upbringing of their children. This indifference bothered Lucy very much. After much prayer, she said she had received a divine witness that her husband would some day accept "the pure and undefiled Gospel of the Son of God." (Smith, 56)
Smith professed that he had visionary dreams with highly symbolic content, obviously related to his ambivalence about religious faith and sometimes presaging events to come. These dreams continued after the family's move to Palmyra, New York, until he had had seven in all; Lucy remembered five well enough to quote in detail. (Smith)
In the late 1820s, Smith's son, Joseph Jr., began to tell the family about Golden Plates, which he said contained a record of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas. In September 1827, Joseph Jr. said he obtained the plates, which Joseph Sr. testified he felt and lifted while wrapped in cloth. In the following years, Joseph Jr. claimed to translate the plates into English through the use of the Urim and Thummim, a sacred device given to him by an angel of God. When the work was near completion, at the end of June 1829, Joseph Sr., and seven other men signed a joint statement, testifying that they had both lifted the plates and seen the engravings on the plates. Known as the "Testimony of the Eight Witnesses", this statement was published with the first edition of the Book of Mormon and has been a part of nearly all subsequent editions.
As I already posted, this news item was from the LDS owned KSL in Salt Lake City.
It is truly sad and frightening.
The obvious attempt by this rag to link Mormons (aka Romney) via innuedo to this deranged persons shooting spree is just another example of the depths to which liberals will stoop.
If he had a Koran in his car, or was on jihadi websites, we’ll likely never be told.
I assume the “secret ceremony” you refer to is the baptism. If this is the case be advised that LDS baptisms outside the temple are open to both members and non-members. The only criterion I know of is that normally one is invited to attend by the person receiving the ordinance.
It really doesn't matter, as he is DEAD now and no doubt some LDS faithful WILL be baptised FOR him in one of their Temple Rites® - 'Baptism for the Dead'.
It’s amazing what burdens parents will dump on their kids. I used to have a neighbor who was convinced her older daughter was the reincarnation of her dead best friend from high school. Kid was only 4 and already knew she was carrying that.
‘We don’t need to badmouth the Mormons over this nut case.’
We have to stop this nonsense. I expect liberals to attack a person’s religion, if he or she isn’t a Muslim that is.
I’m sick of seeing it in this forum. Makes us all look like backward bigots.
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