Friends and former colleagues interviewed by AP described Boelter as a devout Christian who attended an evangelical church and went to campaign rallies for President Donald Trump.

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[–] 65 points 1 year ago

Of course he was deeply religious and conservative.

That's in keeping with his conduct.

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  • [–] 55 points 1 year ago

    The party of domestic terrorism strikes again

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  • [–] 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Trump fan and murderer? Doesn’t sound too Christian to me.

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  • [–] 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Ah yes, I believe it's the 6th commandment "Thou shalt not kill, unless you disagree with the person you're killing then it's totally fine"

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Technically the commandment is, "Thou shalt not murder" and I've heard some use that as an out. If the commandment was "Thou shalt not kill", then one would violate it if one were in the military or police and had to kill someone, or even if one had to kill someone in self defense. They see it as a rule against committing unjustified homicide. If the person deserves to die, then it's okay to kill them.

    Yeah, convoluted logic, but we're talking about people who believe an invisible sky wizard is watching them all the time and will consign them to eternal torture if they whack off.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Also the next thing Moses does after Mt Sinai is go and genocide an entire nation. Also the previous thing Moses did before Mt Sinai was genocide an entire nation with God-powered finger-lasers

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  • [–] 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Funny how people who believe in imaginary 'friends' tend to be the first to reveal themselves as psychopaths. Was it "god's plan" for you to be a murderer?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Labeling a religious figure as an imaginary friend is very reductionist. Instead, go to the root issue. Right wing political messaging corrupted and brainwashed this person to be an ultra nationalist using lies to prey on his core beliefs through fear, religion, and superiority complex.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Reductive? Maybe. Accurate? Certainly.

    The point is- this person's brain was primed with indoctrination already. He just swapped gods. Religion is a sickness, and he is a great example of how bad that sickness can get.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    Religion is a sickness in YOUR opinion. Rationalism is just as dangerous as any other -ism whether it be Buddhism, Catholicism, Confucianism, Moral Absolutism, or Atheism. Just because you think you're right doesn't mean that you are. Instead maybe focus on spreading your moral message constructively instead of destructively. You're bullhorn-ing exactly what his indoctrinators said the outside world is trying to do--destroy his religion.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I'm sorry you feel that way. You're just wrong, though. Religion is cancer, and should be treated as such. Private spirituality is fine, but once you start saying what others are allowed to do based off of your religious upbringing, it's literally just fascism with an imaginary friend as the leader.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I see the issue. You're throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Obviously telling others what they can and can't do or sowing violence while using your religion as justification is bad. But even the bible says that spirituality should be practiced in private. There's nuance to the world and just because bad things happen due to corrupted religious teaching doesn't mean that all religion or spirituality is bad.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Obviously telling others what they can and can't do or sowing violence while using your religion as justification is bad.

    Yet that's every single religion. So yes, toss the baby with the bathwater.

    But even the bible says that spirituality should be practiced in private.

    It also says the exact opposite.

    "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20)

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    You're conflating missionary messaging with publicly practicing faith and praying. The message there, presumably, is to bring philanthropy to every person on the planet to teach and recruit others to do good in the world. If your sticking point is "teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" then yes that's every religion but also every government faction and moral think-tank in totality. People telling people what they can and can't do.

    What's your end goal here? Ban all religion and tell people what they can and can't believe in? If you and someone share philosophical beliefs you're not allowed to meet up and talk about them?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Missionaries are supposed to exemplify everything about a religion, so they can spread it. The two things are so intertwined, they can easily be conflated.

    The end goal is ban all organized religion. Religion is a personal choice, and should never be used to determine what others not practicing it are allowed to do. Talking about religion is fine, practicing yourself is fine, creating institutions based off of it is not.

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  • Look, I don't even attend a church. I haven't regularly attended a mass since I was a kid so about 2 decades ago. I grew up catholic and my personal beliefs about sexuality, abortion, and mandated attendance caused a separation from the church. I didn't even get married in a church or by a priest. But core tenants of the Catholic faith still helped shape my altruistic nature and moral compass. And although I left the church out of convenience, I could just as easily stayed within the church and developed those same principles and convinced others.

    We could ban all organized religion tomorrow and it wouldn't have a significant effect on my life. I can tell you that it would have a significant negative impact on the direction politics would take afterwards though. Where do you then draw the line on what constitutes a religion and what other group gatherings you can ban? What happens to all the people that were a part of organized religion and poured all of their social needs into that basket? Do you think they would have some sort of eye opening experience or would they just devolve into a chaotic mess with a loss of purpose and self?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    You can't destroy religion. Religion is not real. It's fiction. Fiction is not real, it's made up. It's stories made to entertain, Jesus, Harry Potter, James Bond, Darth Vader... all fake. Just stories.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (1 child)
    [–] 12 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Not a trans person, gay person, Muslim or Mexican????? CRAAAAZYYYY!!!!!

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    No surprises here.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    And he learned nothing but hate from both.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago*

    He was a member of New Apostolic Reformation, a Christian terrorist group. A group that is popular with Republicans like house speaker Mike Johnson.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    He was so deeply religious and conservative that he donned a fucking breaking bad mask to do some murder and mischief.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    The friend's name was Shitsherlock, first name No.

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  • /waits for the Right wingers to declare “mental illness”. The only time mental health matters to them.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago
    [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    He abided strictly by the 13th commandment: "thou shall not kill those who agree with you"

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  • [+] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 6 months ago)
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  • [+] -6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

    This is the exact bullshit we could brand someone that follows Islamist ideology with.

    The major difference: Islamist groups purposely (as I recall learning in a college level North American religions course taught me) twist actual Islamic ideology while the Christian Right just doesn’t understand the religious text they claim to follow.

    EDIT: Going to Trump rallies could be equated as the Christian Right version of terrorist training camps.

    EDIT 2: My point about describing someone who assassinated people as “religious”, will place a false connotation on a group. It either paints the killer as misguided or followers of that religious faith as bad people. This is what happened with 9/11.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago

    the Christian Right just doesn’t understand the religious text they claim to follow.

    A less generous interpretation is that they do but don't care about the parts they disagree with. There's a lot of cherry picking going on with them, and that totally tracks with being the world's #4 exporter of cherries.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    The FBI, CIA, DOJ have been warning about violent Christian Nationalism for years now. They've been the biggest threat to America for a long time now.

    Pretending these people aren't religious nuts doesn't help anyone.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Islam, just like Christianity, has many different groups that believe the same basic doctrine but disagree on many points. The main splits in Islam (that echo some aspects of the Catholic vs. Protestant split) as Sunni and Shia. Each divides and divides again into small communities centred on one mosque (just as, eg, Protestantism divides and divides down to individual congregations).

    The big question is: how do groups of people decide which parts of the religious documents, history and practice are more relevant or even correct?

    Some groups are quite 'secular' (like the Church of England) while others are quite 'fundamental', meaning that they much more strictly follow whatever the group decides are the foundation of the religion.

    Is it possible to be able so say which of these groups is right? It seems to me that we have been fighting over this since before records began, so we most definitely do not have a way to do this that any majority agrees with. I don't think anyone can say:

    Islamist groups purposely ... twist actual Islamic ideology while the Christian Right just doesn’t understand the religious text they claim to follow.

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  • [+] -16 points 1 year ago
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