Certainly he bears the lions share of responsibility for all his decisions and doings.
Certainly for willfully feeding on death and destruction so intensely for so long.
on the other hand . . .
he did not spring forth from the womb like that. Lots of conditioning etc. went into exacerbating whatever human evils lurked in his soul.
And . . . sadly . . . some very good, very well intentioned Christians . . . didn’t do all they might have done. And, no doubt, some of them did dreadfully in handling him.
all that must be taken into consideration.
And, there but for the grace of God . . . could go almost anyone with the right—errrr—wrong circumstances at critical stages.
Given the genetic component of many mental conditions, you do not know what was nature and what was nurture.
Lots of conditioning etc. went into exacerbating whatever human evils lurked in his soul.
Yes, I do believe that listening to depressing, suicidal lyrics, when combined with the genetic markers for clinical depression or other mental illnesses, can do that to you.
But again, I see no evidence as of yet that the parents were significant "exacerbators" of evil. From the perp's own unstable rantings, it appears to me his mother was a strong influence in the opposite direction, in that she tried to remove these violent videogames and Death Rock music and so on, from the house.
And . . . sadly . . . some very good, very well intentioned Christians . . . didn’t do all they might have done. And, no doubt, some of them did dreadfully in handling him.
I don't mean any offense here, but this really takes the cake! You don't know how hard any of these people tried! You don't know who behaved "dreadfully"! There is plenty in Matthew "Marilyn Manson" Murray's own words that shows many people have long tried to help him. What gives you the right to make such highly critical, sweeping accusations towards a large group of people?
And . . . sadly . . . some very good, very well intentioned Christians . . . didn’t do all they might have done. And, no doubt, some of them did dreadfully in handling him.
As more news comes out, your assertion looks less and less true. Earlier this evening, I posted a link to a new story today that told how a family tried hard to help MM, even offering to intercede with YWAM on his behalf, but were turned down flat. They told how they tried hard to love this self-tortured, mentally ill young man, but were rejected.
And now, yet more stories are coming out, of people trying hard to help him, but getting rejected as well. This time the story is of a psychologist connected to the ex-Pentecostal forum who did her part to help, to no avail. This is the news article: FBI got tip warning them about gunman
But before I give the excerpt, I just want to say that I am starting to see a pattern here.
What I see is a young man drowning in an icy pond, screaming for someone to save him. Passerby after passerby throw him life preservers. But he rejects each life preserver, and continues screaming for someone to help him.
After he finally drowns, a new crowd comes along, carrying a giant finger - the finger of blame - and point it at all the people who threw him life preservers.
Here now is the excerpt:
Seven months before the shootings, Marlene Winell, a former psychologist, heard of Murray's postings on an anti-Pentecostal Web site. She posted a message publicly to him writing, "I can see that you are in a great deal of pain and I'd like to invite you to contact me."
"One of your readers has contacted me to express concern, and I'd like to be helpful if I can. People do care about you and there is hope."
Winell, who spoke to 9Wants to Know Tuesday afternoon from San Francisco, says she wishes she could have helped Murray.
"This was a person who was definitely in a lot of pain," she said. "I simply invited him to contact me because I can understand when someone is experiencing these feelings they are very intense feelings."
Murray responded to Winell's postings saying, "I've already been working with counselors." He also wrote, "It's so funny how many people want to help you and love you and counsel you... when there is money involved."
! ! ! ! Notice he didn't just connect "money" with "counsel". He also connected "money" with "love". He seems to be saying that he actually thought people who were trying to love him were somehow expecting money out of it! It's like he had some kind of magic eyeglasses on that depicted every person in the world as a prostitute.
I am confident there will be more stories like this coming out in the near future, for as long as the story is still getting airtime, and until the next major news story makes this "yesterday's news" and it disappears. I hope before that happens, there will still be time for more examples to reach the public eye of Christians who tried their best to help him, but failed. Not because they didn't try. But rather because their best, no matter HOW good their "best" might be, would never and could never be good enough for this young man.