The unanswered question

Posted at 1:29 PM on August 5, 2009 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice

It wasn't that long ago that the story of someone walking into a fitness club and opening fire because he couldn't get a date would dominate an entire news cycle. Now, these things slip deeper into a newscast.

George Sodini killed three women and wounded nine others in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania. Police say he may have fired as many as 52 shots before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide.

Mass shooting after mass shooting after mass shooting, the question is always the same. Why? Even when we have the answer, we still have the question.

Sodini kept a Web diary on which he laments his inability to get a date and says "the worst people by far are the religious types."

Which makes one of his last entries -- Monday's -- all the more strange:

Unfortunately I talked to my neighbor today, who is very positive and upbeat. I need to remain focused and absorbed COMPLETELY. Last time I tried this, in January, I chickened out. Lets see how this new approach works.

Maybe soon, I will see God and Jesus. At least that is what I was told. Eternal life does NOT depend on works. If it did, we will all be in hell. Christ paid for EVERY sin, so how can I or you be judged BY GOD for a sin when the penalty was ALREADY paid. People judge but that does not matter. I was reading the Bible and The Integrity of God beginning yesterday, because soon I will see them.

His Web site has been taken down but wikileaks.org has the diary posted.

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Comments (8)

Don't look for "why" in the words of a madman, Bob.

All we know he commited a terrible act. That's likely all we will know.

Madness guards its secrets well, and so does Evil. Both dwelt within this man.

Posted by Bob Moffitt | August 5, 2009 2:20 PM

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Wow...a shooting, and they haven't blamed it on videogames! Yet.

Posted by Tyler | August 5, 2009 2:35 PM

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The combination of religious fervour and mental illness is often a heady brew.

Posted by PpFt | August 5, 2009 2:38 PM

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The unanswered question is: why don't these profoundly disturbed individuals who are intent on killing themselves have the guts to just take themselves out, instead of taking others with them?

One question that has been answered is: is life in the U.S. cheap? Yup, because if more value was put on human life, our society would make it a lot harder for wackos to gain access to their weapon of choice.

Posted by bob | August 5, 2009 3:15 PM

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I wonder how many people out there are just like this guy, except won't commit these brutal acts. Did he just want attention? Something totally different in his life? He sure got all that.

As a gun control advocate, I don't think this story has anything at all to do with guns.

I also wonder if we can really prevent these terrible things. Somehow, I doubt it.

Posted by Disco | August 5, 2009 3:24 PM

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What I don't understand is how he can keep such a public journal on the internet, and no one found it, or they found it and thought "Hm, this is kinda weird. It's a plan to shoot people at a gym." I just don't know how he (or the journal) slipped through the cracks. Very sad story.

Posted by Kim V | August 5, 2009 4:19 PM

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Senseless killings happen often in a senseless world.

http://erikhare.wordpress.com/2007/04/17/making-sense/

All of us in this competitive, individualistic culture have very tenuous connections to help us through. That's the problem.

Posted by Erik Hare | August 5, 2009 4:41 PM

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As a pastor-in-training, what I find disturbing is the shooter's contention that "Christ paid for EVERY sin, so how can I or you be judged BY GOD for a sin when the penalty was ALREADY paid." As part of the "theological intelligentsia" this is something that I try to preach, believing that our God is a loving God. And yet there are parts in the bible that clearly state that there are those who will be judged by God for their actions (Matt 25:31-46, or the 2nd article of the Apostles Creed for example). And yet I do not hear this part of the bible being preached anymore (and I am not sure that I would preach it either, for fear of pissing off my community). And yet it's there. Would the shooter have thought twice about his act if he had heard this? I can't answer that, but this does reinforce to me this whole post-modern notion of relativism. And maybe this is where evil gets its foothold so that senseless (to us) acts like this are propagated.

Posted by boB from WA | August 5, 2009 6:31 PM

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