Murray's childhood seems to have been remembered by him in a fashion that reinforced his suicidal thought patterns. One thread Murray wrote about was of him being the "Prophetic Child."
"Prophetic Child"
Since I was at least age 6 my mother and her church friends have always told me about how my birth was "foretold." They say that while I was still in my mother's womb a "prophet" told my mother that I was to be, quote, "a prophet to the nations" and something along the lines of the next Billy Graham/Peter Wagner.[quoted at Copycat Effect -- Church Shooter: Prophetic Child ]
They said that the following verses applied to me: Mat. 12.18 and Ezk. 36:26-28
Basically, they believe that I am their "chosen one" for "the end times" and according to the Ezekial passage they believe that I am going to go back to their church/system.
The problem right now is the fact that it appears that they are always going to pursue me throughout life (and they have said so), as I am supposedly the "chosen one." As far as I can tell they did not treat the other youth the same way.
Well, I don't want to be their "chosen one" at all. I just wish I could find some way to wake up from this nightmare.
~ nghtmrchld26, 9/7/07 9:13 pm, on the Ex Pentecostal Forums - Message Board - ezboard.com.
That is sad.
I wonder how much of this is true.
I don’t doubt that his parents were committed Christians with great hopes for their kids. But they thought he was some kind of promised Messiah? Maybe so, maybe no.
There doesn’t seem to be much doubt that his failures in religion bugged him, but ultimately the responsibility was his own, I think.
The same with this Mormon angle. It’s part of the same effort to belong, coupled with a failure to belong, that was disappointed when he wasn’t chosen for the missionary deal. He tries, he fails, and he blames others, including the victims he shot.
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.
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.
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.
That's a claim...and so he joined a Mormon church which doesn't subscribe to the things you cite, and yet still ended up alienated and twisted. Maybe it wasn't them.
Before we start blaming the parents based on this kid’s rantings on-line, I think it’s important to realize that these writings are all from his perspective...Parents make mistakes, but I wouldn’t put too much credence in his rantings....people like this always blames others, never himself.