| Demons + root of bitterness = many dead people Part 1 (Copyright) by Curtis Dahlgren (Stephenson, Michigan) |
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| “The question isn’t why an all-powerful God allows tragedy to happen; the question is what is wrong with us that we take the freedom God made us with and use it for tragedy?” – Steve Deace THIS is the column I’ve been procrastinating on writing. Through personal experience, I’ve been forced to study the subject of mass shooters. I knew one. I even traveled with him to events and shared motel rooms with him. In the middle of March 2005, he shot and killed seven of my close friends and himself during a church service. I was on my way there, but due to a car problem I turned around and went home. I lived to write another day. Ironically, on New Year’s Day that year, I had posted a column entitled “Why does God allow such things to happen.” To the end of his life, the leader of our church wondered why such a thing happened. Could it be that God allowed it so that some of us could relate to the victims and survivors of mass shootings, and to enable us to find causes and solutions? The apostle Paul warned us very strongly about allowing a root of bitterness to take root in our minds. ” . . some commonalities do stand out. A 2016 study published by psychologist Dr. Peter Langman revealed that 82% of the perpetrators of mass shootings came from broken homes with seriously dysfunctional families where ‘not just divorce and separation, but also infidelity, substance abuse, criminal behavior, domestic violence, and child abuse’ were present. The shooter in our case lived with his divorced mother. He had been bullied on the school bus years ago, something we didn’t know. I saw his temper, and sadly offended him once. His defense mechanism was humor, but life was getting tougher for him, not better. And finally, we believe, he was possessed by a demon. A judge’s husband had been shot in Chicago a few days before, and the killer drove to Milwaukee. A cop thought he was parked suspiciously and approached him, and the guy committed suicide. Unfortunately, that doesn’t kill the demon. And it looks for someone else to possess. We believe it found Terry a few miles away, and the rest is history. A few days later an Indian school in northern Minnesota was shot up, probably by the same demon. The shootings in 2022 ought to convince us that America needs a great spiritual Awakening. If not now, WHEN? Here’s the column I wrote a couple of months before the 3-12-05 Brookfield shooting: “Why does God allow such things to happen?” “If there is no God, what makes the next Kleenex pop out?” — anonymous “If God allows such things to happen, He must be cruel.” — anonymous “non sequitur, n; (Latin) it does not follow” — Webster I RECENTLY mentioned that I think we are living in the time described by the Bible as “the time of the Great Hatred” (Hosea). ” . . For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places . . . And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.” — Matthew Well, in consideration of Japan’s 2011 tsunami, I want to repost the article I posted on New Year’s Day in 2005 — shortly after the Indonesian quake and great tsunmi of December 2004. A friend of mine said that it was one of my best columns. Here are at least a few excerpts. — www.RenewAmerica.com/columns/Dahlgren/050101 — Atheists, agnostics, and doubting Thomas’s do not “feed” on the WORD (instead they focus on talking points, catchphrases, and non sequiturs). In recent years, almost any pithy or overused phrase might end up being referred to as a non sequitur, but I’m talking about the original meaning: in logic: a conclusion or inference which does not follow from the premises. Darwinism is such an “inference”! It was even based upon deliberately chosen faulty premises, which is even worse. Start with a fallacious premise and you will end up with fallacious conclusions, given enough time! Atheists always ask, “If there’s a God, why does He allow such things to happen?” Turning the question into its unstated premise, it is essentially: “If there were a God, he/it wouldn’t allow such things to happen” (another faulty premise leading to many faulty non sequiturs). At times such as this one, we need to get “back to the basics” with a child-like Faith. Someone sent me a cartoon this week showing a little boy in prayer, and he says to God, “Things are going pretty well here in school and everything. Is there anything You need?” Believe it or not, the Word says that there are some things God needs! A. “I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before Me for the land [as Moses did], that I should not destroy it.” — Ezekiel 22 B. Another thing God needs is people who are “ready to give an answer to every man who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you” — as Peter said — or “give an answer to an honest question.” C. Darwin’s faulty premise that growth in scientific knowledge would lead naturally away from God, has not proven to be a credible premise in actual practice. The more we know, the less we really know, if you know what I mean, and about two thirds of Americans refuse to accept Darwinism or macro-evolution (adaptations may produce changes, but they say nothing about origins). On December 10, 2004, the AP said, dateline New York, “A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than five decades has changed his mind. He now believes in God — more or less — based on scientific evidence and says so on a video released yesterday. Antony Flew, 81, has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said from England.” — Seattle Times, 12/10/04 “UNCOMMON DISSENT: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing” is a recently published book by William A. Dembski. Scientific studies analyzed by the National Institute for Healthcare Research have shown that religious activity increases one’s life expectancy (and the more public the religious activity — active worship and church volunteer work, etc. — the longer the life). P.S. I’m sorry, and so is God, that so many lives are cut short. He’s going to click on the “pause” button (maybe soon) on “nation against nation” and all the anger, bitterness, and hatred. PPS: And our demons will be restrained. “Cut the days short for the elect’s sake,” Father. |
| Mental health, demons, and shootings Part 2 (Copyright) by Curtis Dahlgren (Stephenson, Michigan) |
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| “Cut the days short for the elect’s sake, Father.” – conclusion to my previous column I DIDN’T PLAN to post a column today, but I just wrote something interesting on Facebook and one thing led to another. I take homicides and mass shootings personally, because as I said, I lost seven good friends plus the shooter-friend who obviously had “issues.” I can count a total of at least 12 people who were friends or neighbors who were murdered. As I said, there wasn’t a single murder in our county during the decade of the 1950s! I think you know what has changed: coddling of criminals, failing public schools that never flunk anyone anymore, and the decline in religion as a factor in the culture of society. This week I’m going to focus on mental health. That’s one thing that can certainly be treated. Here’s the piece I wrote this morning on my Facebook timeline: Speaking of mental health, l just read a good article in Reader’s Digest’s large print edition, May 22, which l got free at the library the other day: “A baseball player’s second chance.” He was from Las Vegas and signed with the Texas Rangers in 2010 (his brother was drafted by the Brewers in 2006). Drew Robinson made the majors in 2017 but was shuttled back to the minors a few times. In June he hit a homer for his first hit in the “bigs.” He got traded to St. Louis but had to have elbow surgery in 2019. The Giants then took a chance on him, but the virus shut down baseball in 2020. A week later he bought a gun and shot himself. He lived at home without medical care for about 20 hours. He thought about trying again, to shoot himself, but after taking a Tylenol he took that as a sign that he wanted to live. With much medical care, of course. “He could be loud, bombastic, always trying to look and act cool. But neither Daiana nor the world could see Drew how he saw himself – not as the jokester but as the joke.” The 9mm bullet had taken out his right eye and exited his left cheek, just missing his other eye. He thought about trying again, but after taking a Tylenol, he took it as a sign that he wanted to live, and he called 9-1-1. “Hitting major league pitches with two working eyes is extraordinarily difficult. Doing so with one is next to impossible. “ But he began to work out again, and on October 21, 2020, 6 months after his “suicide,” he hit a ball over the fence at the Las Vegas Park local pros use for batting practice in the off-season. He had spoken to the Giants staff and players in September about mental illness. On the day after he had hit that ball out of the park, he got a text from manager Gabe Kapler and was given an invitation to go to minor league spring training. He actually played half a season for the Sacramento River Cats before retiring. I had heard of Gabe Kapler before, but not the River Cats or Drew Robinson – and I used to be into baseball. I hope the story gets wider exposure because Drew wants to help other people. I know a guy who had problems with such issues and who was helped by the story of Boston’s Jim Piersall in the 1950s. “Fear Strikes Out” was a book that was made into a movie (well worth reading or watching again!). Drew Robinson ended up working for the Giants’ front office as a mental health advocate. He still has the bullet that “changed his life.” Sometimes he’ll take it out of the box and say: “I’m stronger than you. I’m stronger than l thought l was.” P.S. Kudos to the Reader’s Digest for this story by Jeff Passan (from ESPN). Picking it up when l did was propitious. ——————————————————————————— Reprinted with permission from: Renew America http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/dahlgren/220131 ——————————————————————————— Editor’s Note: Part 1 of this article is talking about the March 12, 2005, shooting at the Living Church of God Services in Brooklyn, Wisconsin by Terry Ratzmann. Seven people were killed and four people were injured and then Terry Ratzmann killed himself. Even after all these years all these various articles in regard to this shooting can still be found on the internet. Thomas M. Geiger wrote a book shortly after the shooting titled “Martyrdom in Milwaukee: A Treatise on the Brookfield, Wisconsin, Shooting”. It is a good book to read if you really want to know what happened through the eyes of a member of that congregation. I believe the book is out of print now but there may be a few used copies floating around. Below are only some of the internet links telling of this great tragedy. Laura Lee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Ratzmann#:~:text=Terry%20Michael%20Ratzmann%20(April%2029,in%20Brookfield%2C%20Wisconsin%20in%202005. https://www.fox6now.com/news/brookfield-hotel-was-scene-of-mass-shooting-in-march-2005 http://www.thejournal.org/issues/issue98/living-church-of-god-shooting/lcgprel.html https://www.abebooks.com/signed/Martyrdom-Milwaukee-Treatise-Brookfield-Wisconsin-Shootings/30998611978/bd |
| Iron Sharpening Iron In regard to: Demons + root of bitterness = many dead people Article by Curtis Dahlgren Comments by Curtis Dahlgren (Stephenson, Michigan) |
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| Thanks. I’m sure you heard about the LCG (Living Church of God) shooting. l was on my way there but went back home on account of a car problem. |
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