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Fort Worth, TX
Sanctuary lost: Are youth in Texas the latest round of martyrs?


The September shooting at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Tex., added to the death toll the number of Christian students killed recently. In April, students seemed to have been hunted down for their Christian stance by two suicide-gunmen in Littleton, Colo., then eight days later, Jason Lang, the son of a pastor, was shot and killed by a former high school student in Taber, Alta., and in 1997, three students were killed by another student at a prayer meeting before classes at a high school in West Paducah, KY.

Many evangelical leaders are beginning to see Christians as the latest victims of hate crimes usually targeting visible minorities. They also view those attacks as acts of aggression by Satan and feel that this is the new wave of persecution for the Christian church in North America.

Al Meredith, pastor of the Wedgwood Church, tried to explain the senseless act of the suicide-gunman to one reporter: “If I were Satan . . . and wanted to deliver a death knell to the kingdom of God, I would target this church.”

Larry Ashbrook, 47, wearing blue jeans and a black jacket and smoking a cigarette, entered the church Sept. 15 as 150 young people were listening to a Christian rock group. After shooting a janitor and two others, he entered the sanctuary and began cursing and making derogatory comments about Baptists. He then fired repeatedly with a semiautomatic handgun, pausing at least twice to reload. Authorities estimate that 30 shots were fired. In the end, three adults and four teens were killed and seven others ranging from ages 12 to 41 were wounded, three seriously. Ashbrook sat down in a rear pew and shot himself in the head. Authorities said the killer had six full clips left when he took his own life.

The shooting took place during a worship service planned as a follow-up to the morning’s “See You At The Pole,” a youth outreach event in which young people gathered at their schools’ flagpoles before the start of the schoolday for prayer.

Despite Ashbrook’s anti-religious tirade during the shooting, authorities say they do not have a motive for Ashbrook’s actions. FBI agents found journals at Ashbrook’s home filled with “religious” and “anti-religious” writings.

Franklyn Harber, evangelist-in-residence at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and one of the first to minister to the shooting victims at the scene, called the victims martyrs. “These young people definitely died for their faith. [The gunman] was shooting them because they were professing Jesus Christ.”

Meredith said the church would continue its ministry as soon as police finish their investigation. “Our heart’s desire is that the king of darkness will not prevail over the kingdom of light.  – Evangelical Press News Service, Time

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Last modified October 13, 1999.

© 1999 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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