Almost-apeshit at the Crystal Cathedral !

Correspondent:: "chmicharles"
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 00:53:30 -0500

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http://tinyurl.com/569se

Gunman opens fire at landmark Crystal Cathedral - No one hurt
By Laura Wides
ASSOCIATED PRESS
8:51 PM - PST December 16, 2004

GARDEN GROVE - A gunman opened fire inside the grounds of
the world-famous Crystal Cathedral on Thursday, but no one was
hit and children in a church day-care center were rushed to
safety, police said.

A police SWAT team quickly surrounded the gleaming
glass-and-steel cathedral and its surrounding buildings,
and a police spokesman said the gunman, a disgruntled
or depressed cathedral employee, was holed up inside
an office. Everyone else on the cathedral grounds was
believed to have been safely evacuated by late Thursday night.

Police were talking by phone with the man and
hoped to persuade him to surrender, said Lt. Mike Hanfield.
"We're just going to wait and see how things go," Hanfield
told The Associated Press. "He's despondent.
He's talking about hurting himself.

Police didn't know what prompted the shooting.
The man, believed to be in his 50s, was not
immediately identified. He was armed with a
handgun and had fired several shots, according to police.
"He's threatened to commit suicide if we come
into the office or we disclose any information
about him," Hanfield said.

The gunfire erupted shortly before 5 p.m., less
than two hours before the cathedral's annual
"Glory of Christmas" holiday show was to begin.
Children who had been in a cathedral day-cay
center waiting for their parents were safely removed.

The cathedral, a huge, sprawling structure not far from
Disneyland and baseball's Angels Stadium, is home
to the Rev. Robert Schuller's international Crystal
Cathedral Ministries and claims a congregation
of more than 10,000 members.
The internationally televised "Hour of Power"
is broadcast from there.

Schuller, who was at home when the shooting
occurred, came to the command post police
set up near the cathedral and has offered
to speak with the man. "He does know
him, and he's offered to help," Hanfield said
of Schuller. "So we're just trying to decide
how to go about this."

Schuller spokesman Michael Nason said the
shooting apparently took place on the
cathedral's concourse level, which is located
below the main auditorium and is the staging
area for the choir.

Some 100 cast members were preparing
for the Glory of Christmas show when the
shooting took place, Hanfield said.

The program began with the goal of becoming
a holiday tradition in Southern California.
Today it draws visitors from around the world
to a show that includes Christmas carols and a
production featuring live animals and such special
effects as flying angels. Prerecorded orchestration
by the London Symphony Orchestra provides the
musical backdrop for live performances by adult
and child soloists. The cathedral's world-renowned
pipe organ also fills the all glass structure with holiday sounds.

Two programs were scheduled Thursday night,
one at 6:30 p.m. and another at 8:30 p.m.
Both were canceled. (Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.....!)

Schuller, the cathedral's longtime leader, arrived in
Garden Grove in 1955, founding a local Reformed
Church in America congregation. He gained
international fame almost immediately when he rented
the Orange Drive-in theater and began conducting
Sunday services from the roof of the snack bar.
As his congregation grew rapidly, he launched
plans to build the cathedral, which quickly
became an architectural icon. His son Robert
Anthony Schuller is also an ordained minister
and preaches at the cathedral.

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Now THIS is a news event that would have had me pullin down my
Haines and floppin out the ole one-eye trouserpepperoni via MSN
Live video spoogin like a horse all over the LCD screen,
Why didn't he have a freakin AK-47 with six spare 70-round
bananna clips and fragmentation hand grenades velcroed
to a flak-vest for Allah or something? Yeah! that's the
ticket, a little bit of *Falauja or Baghdad* at the Crystal
Cathederal from some camelfucker named Habib?
Such a good pre X-MAS opportunity for a major
apeshit wasted on a dumb disgruntled employee puta!

Correspondent:: König Prüß, GfbAEV
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 06:17:39 GMT

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chmicharles wrote:

> http://tinyurl.com/569se
>
> Gunman opens fire at landmark Crystal Cathedral - No one hurt
> By Laura Wides
> ASSOCIATED PRESS
> 8:51 PM - PST December 16, 2004
>
> GARDEN GROVE - A gunman opened fire inside the grounds of
> the world-famous Crystal Cathedral on Thursday, but no one was
> hit and children in a church day-care center were rushed to
> safety, police said.
>
> A police SWAT team quickly surrounded the gleaming
> glass-and-steel cathedral and its surrounding buildings,
> and a police spokesman said the gunman, a disgruntled
> or depressed cathedral employee, was holed up inside
> an office. Everyone else on the cathedral grounds was
> believed to have been safely evacuated by late Thursday night.
>

Thanks for posting that; I was going to, but figured that it has
become so commonplace that it might hardly be worthy of note.
If it ain't them it's the Mormons or some dammed Amway cult.
I think that the bit, "not far from Disneyland" was a key item.

Googling religion+insanity:
Results about 469,000 for religion+insanity. (0.17 seconds)
--if that tells you anything. Some telling reading!

Correspondent:: König Prüß, GfbAEV
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 13:43:45 GMT