Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Christian Crime Continues

If it weren't for the fact that this guy is probably mentally unbalanced I'd be declaring it International Religious Intolerance Month.

Murder suspect says he was doing God's work

A Cypress man charged in the death of a Southwest Airlines flight attendant said Saturday that he was doing God's work when he went to a Montrose-area bar last month, hunting for a gay man to kill.

"I believe I'm Elijah, called by God to be a prophet," said 26-year-old Terry Mark Mangum, charged with murder June 11. " ... I believe with all my heart that I was doing the right thing."

Interviewed in the Brazoria County Jail Saturday morning, Mangum said he feels no remorse for killing 46-year-old Kenneth Cummings Jr., whom relatives described as a "loving" son who never forgot a holiday and a devoted uncle who had set up college funds for his niece and nephew. He worked at Southwest for 24 years.

Mangum, who described himself as "definitely not a homosexual," said God called on him to "carry out a code of retribution" by killing a gay man because "sexual perversion" is the "worst sin."

Mangum believed Cummings to be gay.

"I planned on sending him to hell," he said.

Cummings disappeared June 4. His charred remains were found June 16, buried on a 50-acre ranch near San Antonio owned by Mangum's 90-year-old grandfather. more

A Hat Tip goes to Andrew Sullivan for pointing out this story. However given the recent attempted church fire bombings by self styled radical Christian activists I find it odd that he opted to use a story about a man who is probably mentally ill to set up his question,"And this is different from Islamist barbarism how, exactly?" when there are much better recent examples available that don't have such an easy answer/defense.

However his post did however receive and interesting rebuttal from a reader and a thoughtful post by Kevin Sullivan which is well worth reading.