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In a tragedy that has become all too common in the states, 26-year-old Christopher Harper Mercer opened fire yesterday on Oregon’s Umpqua Community College campus armed with several handguns and one long gun. The most recent reports indicate that ten people lost their lives and many more were injured. While much of the response was predictable and repetitive — promises of prayers, political battle cries from both sides of the aisle regarding gun control, etc. — there is one specific detail of the story that has featured prominently in media coverage across the board. As the Washington Post reports, Mercer may have been targeting Christians explicitly.
As members of the media and armchair detectives scrambled to learn more about the man with an axe to grind with Christians, another tidbit came to light that seemed to solidify this story as one of Christian persecution. On a free dating website called Spiritual Passions, Mercer identified himself as “Not Religious, but Spiritual” on his profile. He was also listed in a group on the site called “Doesn’t Like Organized Religion.” As the profile made the rounds last night, the dominant narrative was that an atheist had targeted Christians in an act of terrible violence.
But is that really why Mercer did what he did?
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Based on what we’ve learned so far, blaming his supposed atheism requires acceptance of a lot of flimsy evidence, while other possible motivations are readily available.
Let’s be clear: what happened in Oregon yesterday is incredibly tragic. Yes, let’s mourn the lives lost and celebrate those who showed courage under fire. But before you assert that this is somehow proof of some contrived “War on Christianity,” you’d do well to take a step back and take a look at the whole picture. This isn’t the smoking gun you thought it was.
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