Rushing to Judgment

"If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God then you are a religious Christian. Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. We do however believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform. This makes us Christian.”

— Anders Behring Brevik

"If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you. No one shows greater love than when he lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you."

— Jesus (from the International Standard Version)

You are probably saturated with news reports about Anders Behring Brevik. Brace yourselves, I think this is going to be a long ride. The road is already full of turns and double bends. I am not going to spend much time on the details of this loser's murderous rampage, you can get plenty of that material elsewhere.

After holding off for a while so I could attempt to be less guilty about rushing to judgment than other people, I believe there is enough information to say this: There is not enough information.

Some atheists were gleefully joining the chorus of the news media that this guy is a "right-wing Christian Fundamentalist". He allegedly referred to himself as a Conservative and a Christian on Facebook, but the Facebook material is highly suspect, especially since the version in Norwegian was removed and a fake-looking version was put up that included the terms in question. Edit: Chris Plante of WMAL asked some very pertinent questions, including: Which Christian "Fundamentalist" organization was he affiliated with? Were they applauding him?

Get a load of this rush to judgment:

This guy assumed I was writing about the killings in Norway, and didn't even read the linked article!

People on the left just love to throw around pejorative terms to intimidate and hurt others. Yet, I seriously doubt if they know what "Fundamentalist" means. (I gave a definition and some thoughts on that here.) And what does the word mean in Europe and other parts of the world?

Let's get something straight right now. Someone who believes in the fundamentals of the Christian faith and adheres to the teachings of the Bible does not go out killing people.

Let's get something else straight right now. He made some remarks identifying himself as a Christian, but only in the loosest possible sense. People call themselves "Christian" because of culture (that is, not Muslim or Buddhist, for example). Norway is not a "Christian nation", it is very secular (but maybe it will become a Christian nation.) Brevik denied faith in Christ. Nor did he say that he was acting on behalf of any religious organization or in the name of Jesus. (Sam "Ben Stiller" Harris is not impressed with his alleged Christianity, either.) Leftists are having a wonderful time trying to use this genetic fallacy to make Bible-believing Christians look dangerous.

The leftist media are also attempting to taint Conservatives by  unjustly naming Pamela Gellar as one of his influences. So? He had many. He was also supposedly in the Knights Templar. Shall we blame them, too? Hey, how about his Darwinist beliefs? Well, Darwinism, when taken to its logical conclusion, leads to eugenics and other nasty philosophies (I touched on that concept here). So, do we round up atheists and other Darwinists? Edit: He is also a global warming skeptic (like sensible people) and also a reader of the New York Times. Do we logically conclude that Times readers are potential terrorists? See, the blaming philosophies can work against leftists, too!

At any rate, people should stop and think instead of reacting, being in a hurry to point fingers and say, "Aha! Let's blame Christians!"

Idiots. 

Addendum 2, 4-27-2012: Brevik was a Darwinist, and this is a natural result of social Darwinism.