Religion
Related: About this forumRusty Houser hated women. He learned that at church.
Housers violence was not abstract. He set out to kill women in the audience for an Amy Schumer movie. His lethal violence was an expression of his contempt for and distrust of women.
And that misogyny cannot be abstracted or diagnosed away from the anti-woman ideology he learned in his community, his culture, and, yes, in his church.
Im not talking about his Southern Baptist churchs opposition to womens ordination or its blasphemous complementarian theology of male supremacy, although thats also part of it. But its possible to remain a Southern Baptist in mostly good standing while somewhat questioning that official required stance on the role of women in the church or the role of wives in marriage.
Im talking about the more fundamental teaching the paramount religious and ethical teaching of that denomination, which says that women cannot and must not be trusted. Rusty Houser was shaped by a faith tradition that does not abide any question or challenge to its official required stance of legal and political opposition to abortion.
Rusty Houser was shaped by a politicized religious community that routinely compares American women to Nazis and accuses them of killing unborn babies and thus being to blame for 9/11. Women, this central principle insists, cannot be trusted with their own sexuality or their own bodies. This is the fundamental fact it teaches about women: they are untrustworthy and irresponsible and morally inferior.
Houser embraced the premise of that teaching and like Paul Hill and Scott Roeder he took it all to heart. Now, as with Hill and Roeder, his actions are being dismissed as an aberration the consequences of his mental illness rather than the consequences of the ideology instructed and required by his church.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2015/07/27/rusty-houser-hated-women-he-learned-that-at-church/
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skepticscott
(13,029 posts)are constantly harping in the "this had NOTHING to do with religion, it's all about mental illness" meme every time a case like this makes the news, and it's really disgusting.
Something all of them should read:http://www.salon.com/2015/06/18/its_not_about_mental_illness_the_big_lie_that_always_follows_mass_shootings_by_white_males/
The core idea is this: mental illness never created any idea, motivation or belief system. Mental illness refers to the way our minds can distort the ideas we get from the world, but the ideas still come from somewhere.
struggle4progress
(119,236 posts)Posted: Jul 25, 2015 6:29 PM EDT
Updated: Jul 25, 2015 6:55 PM EDT
By Irisha Jones
... John Houser graduated from Columbus High School in 1973 before moving on Columbus State University then known as Columbus College and earning an accounting degree.
He was later diagnosed with mental illness. He spent time in a Columbus hospital and the East Alabama Mental Health Center. According to court documents from Carroll County, he posed a danger to himself and others.
He was arrested for arson in Columbus about 25 years ago also for theft in 1999 and convicted of selling alcohol to minors connected to his business in LaGrange. In Russell County, he was also denied a permit for a concealed carry weapon in 2006 because of the domestic violence report filed by his wife and the arson arrest in Columbus ...
Columbus Police Department arrest records show that Houser was arrested for theft by taking for stealing his opponents campaign signs while he was running for tax commissioner is 1996 ...
http://www.wtvm.com/story/29632539/a-look-back-into-the-life-of-john-rusty-houser
struggle4progress
(119,236 posts)By Ralph Ellis, Michael Pearson and Ed Payne, CNN
Updated 12:55 PM ET, Mon July 27, 2015
... He left a trail of erratic behavior.
His last known major legal problem came last year when he was evicted from the house he owned in Phenix City. Heath Taylor, sheriff of Russell County, said Houser returned to the house and vandalized it by pouring concrete down the plumbing and tampering with the natural gas lines, including the one that ran to a fireplace inside.
"If you'd turned it on it would have blown [flames] out," Taylor said.
He was arrested on arson charges in the 1980s when he was accused of hiring a man to set fire to office of a lawyer who represented pornographic movie theaters, according to the Ledger-Enquirer newspaper in Columbus ...
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/24/us/louisiana-theater-shooter/
struggle4progress
(119,236 posts)CBS/AP July 24, 2015, 8:42 AM
Last Updated Jul 24, 2015 6:54 PM EDT
... Formerly a resident of Phenix City, Ala., Houser had been staying since early July at a local motel, Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said. It was there that, following last night's shooting at the Grand 16 theater, investigators found wigs, glasses and disguises.
In 2008 Houser's wife and other family members asked for a temporary protective order against him. Court documents said Houser "exhibited extreme erratic behavior and has made ominous as well as disturbing statements" ...
Houser "has a history of mental health issues, i.e., manic depression and/or bi-polar disorder" the filing said. The documents also state that Houser's wife, Kellie Maddox Houser, became "so worried about the defendant's volatile mental state that she has removed all guns and/or weapons from their marital residence" ...
In March Kellie filed for divorce ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lafayette-shooting-gunman-identified-as-john-russell-houser/
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)"Depression and bipolar disorder" do not explain violent behavior. Would you kindly stop stigmatizing people who suffer from these afflictions?
Our lives are difficult enough without people like you constantly hanging shit like this around our necks.
struggle4progress
(119,236 posts)an excerpt from a news story about Houser, and the text you dislike summarizes the content of a 2008 protective order
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)Anyone even passingly familiar with your antics knows well what you're trying to achieve here.
You didn't post that story because you felt it would make for interesting reading. You posted it because you feel it satisfactorily contradicts the OP's claim that Houser's religion played a role in his violent behavior, that "manic depression and/or bipolar disorder" (which, incidentally, are the same fucking thing... so much for the authority of your beloved protective order) is itself a perfectly acceptable explanation for his murderous rampage.
But hey, that's alright. Don't let my dignity -- or the dignity of millions of other Americans living with neurochemical imbalances -- get in the way of your agenda.
cleanhippie
(19,705 posts)of their concern.
struggle4progress
(119,236 posts)By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON, RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA and ALAN BLINDER
JULY 24, 2015
... Accounts from acquaintances, law enforcement officials and court records portrayed Mr. Houser, 59, of Phenix City, Ala., who also took his own life, as a man with a diffuse collection of troubles and grievances personal, political and social who had a particular anger for women, liberals, the government and a changing world.
Because he had been accused of both domestic violence and soliciting arson, though never successfully prosecuted, he was denied a permit to carry a concealed pistol. His family repeatedly described him as violent and mentally ill; his mental health had been called into question going back decades, and he spent time in a hospital receiving psychiatric care. He vandalized the house he was evicted from last year, and tampered with the gas lines in a way that could have caused a fire or explosion.
Given his history, he should not have been allowed to own a gun, said Sheriff Heath D. Taylor of Russell County, where Mr. Houser lived ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/25/us/lafayette-theater-shooting-john-houser.html?_r=0
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)Somebody is upset about the bad news for religion. Again.
Promethean
(468 posts)or if it has been completely buried under obedience to their sky tyrant.
mr blur
(7,753 posts)one of the most useful tools in the believer's arsenal.
kwassa
(23,340 posts)Houser could have learned his misogyny from many different sources. Unless this author has evidence, he has nothing.
struggle4progress
(119,236 posts)1981: speeding charge
1988: earns accounting degree from Columbus State
1988/9?: arrested for criminal solicitation of arson in Columbus; charge not pursued
1994: enrolled in unaccredited law program at Faulkner University
1996: pleaded guilty to speeding
1996: arrested for stealing local election campaign signs
1997: pleaded guilty to speeding
1998: graduated Faulkner University
1998: runs for tax commissioner; drops out of race
1998-2001: operated Rusty's Buckhead Pub
2001: Pub shut down for serving minors; hangs swastika in protest
2002: filed for bankruptcy
2004: filed suit in plasma donation case; settled
2005: subject of domestic violent complaint; charge not pursued
2005: registers with David Duke's European-American Unity and Rights Organization
2006: concealed carry permit denied
2007: reported vehicle stolen; recovered by police
2008: wife reports him to police as "mentally disturbed"
2008/9: mental health treatment
2013: separation from wife
2014: refused to move out of house; evicted; left buckets of feces; splattered paint, poured concrete down drains, set gasoline booby-traps
2014: posts on neo-Nazi website
2015: wife obtains divorce
http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=21273&MediaType=1&Category=26
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/07/john_russell_houser_known_as_r.html
http://www.fox10tv.com/story/29644163/john-houser-stole-campaign-signs-arrested-in-1996
http://www.wvtm13.com/news/john-houser-remembered-as-watchdog-in-georgia-hometown/34341766
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/crime/2015/07/24/la-theater-shooter-idd--man--phenix-city/30612149/
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lafayette-theater-shooting/louisiana-theater-shooting-gunman-john-houser-disturbed-family-said-docs-n397726
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3173524/America-financially-failing-filth-farm-Tea-Party-member-Westboro-Baptist-supporter-opened-fire-Louisiana-movie-theater-killing-2-injuring-9-s-revealed-wife-tried-hide-guns-him.html
Lordquinton
(7,886 posts)Being spoonfed hate might have had an influence. And nice starting it off wi a speeding ticket, reveals much about your bias.
Leontius
(2,270 posts)Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)But it's strange. I can't find "fucked up brain chemistry" anywhere in my copy of the DSM. Perhaps it's outdated.
Leontius
(2,270 posts)you spout that fucking puke all the time.
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)![](http://hip2bmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/wait.jpg)
Meanwhile, I'll get the ICD-10 folks on the line. You could make the case for renaming paraplegia "fucked up spine syndrome".
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Right as usual, sir.
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)Some instructive examples:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1218&pid=126398
Don't get me wrong. I make no quarrels about my anti-theism, and I do think religious upbringing plays a role in the development of religious delusion; but I've been trained in the behavioral sciences. While not a clinician myself (social psych is my area of expertise), I've seen enough cases of psychosis to tell the difference between a mentally ill person, and person who believes stupid shit.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1218&pid=126406
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1218&pid=78330
There, hope that hel...
Oh...
Wait...
Those are examples me saying precisely the opposite of that fucking puke I apparently spout "all the time". Whoopsie!
![](http://www.lezebre.lu/images/17251-asian-troll-face-visage-asiatique-s.png)
cleanhippie
(19,705 posts)Which seems to be much of the time.
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)See what I did here? >_>
Lordquinton
(7,886 posts)But its possible to remain a Southern Baptist in mostly good standing while somewhat questioning that official required stance on the role of women in the church or the role of wives in marriage.
This is important. They don't care if you don't 100% tow the line, as long as you're a member. The structure is still rooted in hate ready to pour out at the first convenience.
Look at all these good Christian cops murdering black people wi no remorse.
muriel_volestrangler
(102,047 posts)A: Allow me to introduce Exhibit A: The Mansplainingest Mansplainer Who Ever Internetted.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2015/07/28/count-your-ribs-and-say-your-prayers-and-go-to-sleep/
(Jonathan Merritt is a Southern Baptist writer on religion, whose father was the Southern Baptist Conference President from 2000-2002)
kwassa
(23,340 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(102,047 posts)Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)Major Nikon
(36,874 posts)With the idea being Eve led Adam down the path of temptation, so therefore women are tools of the devil used to lead men astray.
Lordquinton
(7,886 posts)Or at least your interpretation.
Major Nikon
(36,874 posts)If you take out the hocus pocus, the concept does offer at least some philosophical value albeit small compared to other similar philosophical ideas that are already void of hocus pocus.
Lordquinton
(7,886 posts)Even if you don't have it rest on women's shoulders it's a pretty terrible concept.
Major Nikon
(36,874 posts)Just not a very good one. With or preferably without religion, society still needs some kind of thought process which defines one's moral duty.
struggle4progress
(119,236 posts)JULY 24, 2015
BY STEPHANIE PEDERSEN
Columbus (Georgia) Ledger-Enquirer
... Among Housers legal issues was his trying in the 1980s to hire a man to set fire to the law office of John Swearingen ... Hes always been strange, Swearingen said, adding that no one else in the family seemed to share that eccentricity: I liked his family and respected his family ... According to the Associated Press, 2008 court records show Housers immediate family sought protective orders because he exhibited extreme erratic behavior and has made ominous as well as disturbing statements ... It said wife Kellie Maddox Houser has become so worried about the defendants volatile mental state that she has removed all guns and/or weapons from their marital residence ... Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor told the Ledger-Enquirer that Houser in 2006 was denied a pistol permit ...
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article28502206.html
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)My post #1
struggle4progress
(119,236 posts)want to point out that he tried to hire somebody to commit an arson, that his family tried to get a protective order against him, that his wife decided it would be smart to hide all his guns, that he once hung a swastika on a building, and that he tried to booby trap a home he rented -- when the only explanation really needed is that he had sometimes attended a Baptist church!
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)by saying that he attended a Baptist church. The OP is very specific about what it is attributing to his religious indoctrination, as anyone who'd actually read it would know, and it's not any of the things you mentioned.
Try again.
Lordquinton
(7,886 posts)You come back with this over a week later, but nothing to back up your claims.