Details About the Sect Involved in Shooting at Hotel Church

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBRLL2I96E.html

Terry Ratzmann, the man who police say killed seven people and then himself during a church service, was a member of the Living Church of God, a born-again denomination that focuses on "end-time" prophecies.

The church's estimated 6,300 members in 40 countries place a strong emphasis on using world news to "prove" that these are end times, to be followed by Christ's second coming.

This year, the group's leader, Dr. Roderick C. Meredith, wrote that events prophesied in the Bible are "beginning to occur with increasing frequency." snip

He advised members to gather emergency food supplies and follow government instructions on how to prepare for an emergency. He also warned about a coming "financial emergency" and cited an article from the San Francisco Chronicle about the financial fallout as baby boomers retire.

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[BrklynLiberal]

1. oy.....guess he was trying to hurry it along. How sad.

To me it indicates that this kind of group tends to attract people with psychiatric problems.

[Warpy]

2. The guy was a good photographer

I've been looking at the offerings that haven't yet been scrubbed from his website, http://my.execpc.com/~traven/

I usually don't get morbid enough to look at this sort of thing, but it's Sunday morning in flyover country. I'm glad I did, because some of his photos are wonderful.

It's just a sad, sad situation that unhappy people keep getting sucked into these cults by charismatic yahoo pshychopaths.

This guy would have continued on for years, harmlessly growing his odd plants and taking his photographs, had not pernicious fundy religion intervened.

[gizmo1979]

3. Didn't really fit the profile did he?

[Catt03]

4. What happened to this man?

He certainly loved beauty and was talented.

[SmokingJacket]

5. It's said he was depressed.

I wonder if he was taking anything for it.