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KSL says a bishop was shot and killed today in California. Internet rumor has it that it was a gay man who shot him over the bishop’s support of Proposition 8 (he supposedly gave $1,500). Does anybody know more about this? I pray that this isn’t true
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/29/2058346/lay-bishop-fatally-shot-at-mormon.html I also read that the man was killed by police a few block away. Apparently, the Bishop had six kids, the youngest of whom is a baby. My prayers are with the family and the ward. Someone on the news was saying the shooter didn’t even know the bishop, he was just after any random LDS leader for whatever reason. I’m trying to put myself in the shoes of the wife of the murdered Bishop. How would you feel about Church service and involvement after something like this, as the surviving spouse? What meaning would you attach to it, and how would you cope? By the way, I can’t see any news articles that directly tie the shooting to Prop 8.
I am pretty sure I knew this guy. He looks exactly like one of my FHE brothers from college… whose name was Clay and was from CA. I don’t remember what his last name was, but I found some pics in an old album, and they look just like him! I am very sad about this. The friend I knew was very kind and sweet. Now six young boys are without a father. Violence is never an answer to anything. So heartbreaking. Here is the latest on this: Man accused of killing church leader was former member of LDS church, felt wronged, brother says
ERIC WOOMER •
EWOOMER@VISALIA.GANNETT.COM • AUGUST 30, 2010The brother of the man police say shot a church leader Sunday says his brother was mentally ill and felt wronged by The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints – a church he was a member of in the 1980s.
Mike Ward, the younger brother of Kenneth Ward, 47, says his brother took their grandfather’s handgun and shot lay Bishop Clay Sannar because Ward felt that that a Bishop, not Sannar, had wronged him in 1988.
Ward called Visalia police after shooting Sannar, police said, and lead them to his childhood home on Divisadero Street, off Burrel Avenue, where police shot him to death.
“This is not politically motivated. This is not because of Prop. 8, ” Mike Ward said. “He was a great bigger brother. We are so sorry to the victim’s family. “
Kenneth Ward and his parents and sister live in Modesto. Mike Ward lives in Bakersfield.
Ward said his brother believed he had been “shunned to hell” by the Bishop and that is why he asked for a Bishop when he walked into to the church Sunday around 12:30 p.m.
Mike Ward says his brother did not know Sannar.
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A news report I read on the net said that the murderer was not Mormon, but didn’t cite the reason for the statement. My immediate personal reaction was that this is the fruit of anti-Mormon venom like that which can be found on the internet. But I have no information to support my suspicion. American society has become so uncivil in the last couple of decades. We no longer can disagree with someone without personally attacking and vilifying anyone who disagrees. Politicians do it, the media displays it, and individuals just act it out. Society teaches on virtually every level that it is OK to express anger, hatred, and even violence. Gays, Muslims, Blacks and Mormons are some of the easy targets. I am scared to death by the potential for evil coming from shock jocks like ______ , ______ and those on ______ news. (I’m withholding names hoping to not risk inflaming anyone.)
I just hope the murder of this Bishop is not part of the broader tendency in our country to express our anger with violence. May peace be with Bishop Sanner’s family, friends and ward at this difficult time.
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