Whatever the reasons turn out to be, there are at least two lessons I hope y'all take away from today's events.
One is that you can bet that the members of this congregation will find a novel way to approach their healing -- and in doing so, they'll set example for the rest of us to watch carefully. If (when) mental illness becomes the issue, they will respond to this man and his family with compassion and justice, because that's the UU way. And if hate turns out to be part of the story, too, then Knoxville, TN is about to have a dialog on hate crime that will leave nobody in town untouched or uninvolved. That's the UU way, too.
The other is that this congregation's cool, brave response shows, once again, that it's past time to drop that old stereotype, and stop underestimating the courage and intelligence of the religious left in America. We've gotten incredibly short shrift over the past few decades -- not only from the religious right, which thinks we're the minions of Satan on earth; but also from fellow progressives, who think that "religious" is a synonym for crazy, dangerous, irrational, and definitely not an asset to the movement.
I was in a meeting yesterday afternoon, at church, when the phonecalls started coming in. We UUs are a pretty small, tight community, and news of the shootings in Knoxville immediately stunned, casting a pall over the rest of the afternoon.
I went home and searched the web: who was he? why? There were few details uncovered over the course of the day.
There was a lot out there in the blogs, and in various newsite's comment threads. Some of the comment threads were deeply disturbing. Things like, at least it happened to a bunch of bible thumpers, or, on sites where posters knew that UUs aren't "bible thumpers", stuff about maybe we should worship Jesus if we don't want to get shot at.
I stopped checking those sites.
Elsewhere there was discussion about whether the church was targeted because it is liberal. I was going to post this morning that such speculation is counter-productive and unecessary, but it turns out that the man did leave a note saying that he planned the shootings because he hated the liberal movement".
I still don't think talking about his motives is productive.
This is pretty clearly a man with a mental illness. He apparently was not part of a liberal-hating group of any kind, just a guy without a job.
I don't think this signals the beginning of any kind of backlash- though I do believe the country is changing and that there will be backlash from various quarters. I just don't believe that this particular incident is necessarily symptomatic of anything.
I am so sad for the church members and friends. I am grateful for the knowledge that the UUA is supporting them with crisis ministry teams. I am so grateful that surrounding churches in their community are offereing them support and love.
And I have a spark of recognition- proud recognition- for who we are, and who those congregants are. The gunman, they say, did not expect to leave the church alive. He expected to be killed by police.
The members of the congregation who tackled and held him assured that he would not die there. And he will now stand trial. And that is a very good thing.
Scott emailed me this morning full of praise for the heroes who intervened and kept him from reloading and firing again. I'm very proud of them, too. And heartbroken that one of them is dead.
Anyway. The point of this post is that yesterday was a tragedy, and mourning is the thing to do right now. And sending love to those who are personally affected.
Political agendas and paranoia can wait.
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