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Religion has been twisted
I have been a dedicated Christian man for over 30 years now. When I was growing up, I was taught that Christianity and similar faiths are supposed to represent love, generosity and forgiveness. Lately however, with some of the hatred and bigotry that is being screamed from the pulpits in churches, synagogues, temples and meeting places in this country and around the world across many faiths, a person could be forgiven for not knowing that.
Religion has somehow been transformed over the years into something that many of us do not even recognize now. The only way to utterly quash this is for the people who are hearing it to stand up and refuse to listen to it anymore, if they even realize what they are hearing. Many pastors and religious leaders are very charismatic and quite convincing. It is up to each of us as individuals to know whether we are hearing a message of love or a message of hate.
The fundamental question here is do we blame the shooter or do we blame the individuals that clearly manipulated and brainwashed him into doing what he did resulting in tragedy? Our thoughts and prayers our with the families.
Aaron Rowe
Post Falls