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Saturday was unthinkable. Terrible.
Eleven people were killed when an anti-Semite opened fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Six others were injured.
Among the six injured were 4 police officers.
The alleged shooter, 46-year-old Pittsburgh resident Robert Bowers who was wounded by the police, is now in custody in the hospital but is expected to make an appearance before a judge today.
Be informed. Be vigilant.
The killing
Bowers has been charged with 29 federal counts including hate-crimes and firearm offenses.
The Wall Street Journal said this yesterday:
A man who authorities said expressed hatred for Jews before killing 11 people and injuring six others during a Saturday morning synagogue service has been charged with 29 federal counts including hate-crime and firearm offenses.
Of the injured, four were police officers, Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said. Two men are in critical condition, including a 70-year-old and a 55-year-old police officer. The rest are doing well and recovering, officials said.
The suspect, 46-year-old Pittsburgh resident Robert Bowers, made anti-Semitic comments including “all Jews must die” during an exchange of fire with police, according to a law-enforcement official.
The charges, which were detailed in a statement Saturday night by the U.S. Attorney in Western Pennsylvania and the FBI, include counts of obstruction of exercise of religious beliefs and firearm offenses.
Mr. Bowers, who allegedly carried an assault-style rifle and three handguns during the attack, sustained gunshot wounds from a shootout with police and is in fair condition at a hospital, officials said. He was confronted by police as he exited the temple, and then went back inside, where he was apprehended by SWAT team members, officials said.
Bob Jones, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Pittsburgh, said the FBI believes the suspect acted alone. Authorities are searching his home and social-media accounts for further evidence.
Timothy Meads wrote for Town Hall: "America was reminded today that evil walks amongst us..."
Many across America and the world echoed those sentiments---indeed evil walks amongst us.
Hours after the killing in the synagogue, President Trump tweeted this:
"Anybody that does a thing like this where innocent people that are in temple or in church -- we’ve had so many incidents with churches. They should suffer the ultimate price," Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One. "They should pay the ultimate price. I’ve felt that way for a long time. Some people disagree with me. I can’t imagine why. But this has to stop."
Later Saturday, while speaking at the national Future Farmers Association convention, he told the kids and their leaders that the shooting was a "wicked act of mass murder." He said: "Today with one unified voice we condemn the historic evil of anti-Semitism and every other form of evil." And the President said, "we come together as one American people"...as Rabbi Benjamin Sendrow stepped forward to offer a prayer.
Sendrow invoked God's blessing on those who grieve and called on Americans to "stand tirelessly" with President Trump as he "fights evil on all fronts."
But not all are standing with the president as he "fights evil on all fronts."
The press is working tirelessly to fix blame for the killing in the synagogue---and all other evil.
The lunacy in the press.
With the killing in the synagogue coming hours after bombs being mailed to Democrats, the Left went into meltdown this weekend.
Media Research Center was following the lunacy.
They found CNN blaming Fox News' coverage of the migrant "caravan" moving through Mexico toward our southern border as the reason Bowers committed the killing in the synagogue. And they included all right-wing news in general for creating anger in the culture, with bombs and killings as the result.
Another CNN story was accusing Trump of blaming the "victims" by recommending armed guards.
ABC's George Stephanopoulos wasted little time yesterday reporting that Trump is "at the center of all the political violence right now"---the president is creating the rage.
That is a reoccurring theme in the far Left news narrative.
"People often have the strongest feelings about the things they know the least about."
Keven Williamson published a provocative story in the National Review yesterday, in which he says, "Rage makes you stupid."
I don't agree with some of what he says, nor all of where he goes with his story, but his collection of documented incidences of how the media works to enrage an uninformed public merits a moment of consideration.
Rebecca Traister, an editor for far Left New York Magazine, has published a book celebrating the "revolutionary power" of anger, which was celebrated at the left-leaning Atlantic under the headline advocating "the seismic power" of "rage." In September, the Washington Post affirmed that rage is healthy, rational, and necessary for America.
Even last week, NBC news praised a television show for depicting "anger as righteous and necessary." NBC had just run a segment encouraging certain politician partisans to "embrace their rage."
Earlier this year, a New York Times Magazine featured an article that explored "anger" or "rage" as a "tool to be used, part of a well-stocked arsenal."
The press has perfected the art of parsing news stories to bend the truth to the Left and their preferred politicians and agendas.
The more uninformed the public, the easier the task.
This weekend the news media has pivoted. The narrative now is that Trump and his conservatives have created the rage and are therefore responsible for the evil.
Williamson says, "Sorting all that out sometimes requires careful thinking, which is difficult to manage when you are high on rage."
A biblical consideration:
Righteous anger is being angry at what makes God angry. God is not fundamentally angry. He is fundamentally righteous. God's anger is a byproduct of His righteousness. And it comes slowly.
Here's what righteous anger looks like:
1. Righteous anger is aroused by evil that profanes God's holiness and perverts His goodness---lawless deeds (II Peter 2:7,8).
2. Righteous anger sees the log in our own eye and we repent before addressing the log in other's eyes (Matthew 7:5).
3. Righteous anger is grieved, not merely infuriated, by evil. Jesus flipped the tables in the temple, but he was deeply grieved over the sin that required Him to do so (Matthew 23:37).
4. Righteous anger is governed by God's love and is therefore slow to be expressed (James 2:13).
5. Righteous anger acts swiftly when necessary. Some forms of evil require us to be quick to speak and quick to act. The slaughter of the unborn under the guise of women's health care and the perversion of God's model for human sexuality and marriage and family are fundamental to humanity, and to God's heart.
Be angry and sin not.
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful.