THE MARTYRS OF COLUMBINE
Also by Justin Watson The Christian Coalition: Dreams of Restoration, Demands for Recognition
THE MARTYRS OF COLUMBINE FAITH AND THE POLITICS OF TRAGEDY JUSTIN WATSON
THE MARTYRS OF COLUMBINE Copyright Justin Watson, 2002. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2002 978-0-312-23957-2 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published 2002 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-38701-4 DOI 10.1057/9781403970008 ISBN 978-1-4039-7000-8 (ebook) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Watson, Justin, 1957 The martyrs of Columbine : faith and the politics of tragedy / Justin Watson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Scott, Rachel (Rachel Joy) 2. Bernall, Cassie, 1981 1999. 3. Columbine High School (Littleton, Colo.) Students Biography. 4. Christian martyrs Colorado Biography. I. Title. BR1608.5.W38 2002 272.9 0973 dc21 2002016919 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Letra Libre, Inc. First edition: November 2002 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In memory of Cassie Bernall Steven Curnow Corey DePooter Kelly Fleming Matthew Kechter Daniel Mauser Daniel Rohrbough William Dave Sanders Rachel Scott Isaiah Shoels John Tomlin Lauren Townsend Kyle Velasquez
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Contents Preface ix Introduction It Pierced the Soul of America 1 1. Martyrdom: The Blood of the Christians Is the Seed 9 2. Cassie Bernall: Feeding the World with One Word 29 3. Rachel Scott: Starting a Chain Reaction 51 4. The Politics of Tragedy: I Will Heal Their Land 79 5. Defenders and Debunkers: What Really Happened? 115 6. Conclusions: Print the Legend 147 Notes 161 Index 208
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PREFACE J ust as I was completing this manuscript, the world changed. After the events of September 11, 2001, the Columbine High School shooting of 1999 suddenly seemed to belong to a lesser order of public significance. As traumatic as Columbine continues to be for the families and friends of the victims, I wondered if Columbine was relevant in an era in which we counted our casualties in the thousands rather than the dozens. I wondered if anyone remembered Columbine, if anyone still cared. I discovered, or rather rediscovered, the vitality of the memory of Columbine, and of its most celebrated victims, Cassie Bernall and Rachel Scott, at a church in rural Pennsylvania in late October 2001. 1 The church was holding a Hell House event, an evangelical Christian alternative to the traditional Halloween haunted house. The church described it as, A demon guided walk-through tour that WILL change your life. Visitors to the Hell House are led by a guide, costumed as a demon, through a series of decorated rooms in which scenes of evil, sin, and death are enacted. The demon-guide provides gleefully malicious commentary as visitors are shown the funeral of a gay man who has died of AIDS, a bloody abortion, a depressed teenager committing suicide, and the aftermath of a fatal car crash caused by alcohol. The next scene begins with students sitting in a school library. From the dialogue, we learn that some are Christians and some are
not. Then two teenage boys, one named Eric, burst into the room with guns. The students panic and scream. Two of the Christian girls, named Cassie and Rachel, are asked if they believe in God. When they say Yes! they are each shot in the head. Then the two boys ritualistically kill each other. The demon-guide proclaims, Once again I win! The following scene is Hell, in which visitors meet Satan, who proudly claims credit for killing Cassie and Rachel, and see the damned in eternal torment. One of the damned cries out in regret, Oh, why didn t I listen to Cassie?! The final scene of the tour is Heaven. Here visitors see a skit and hear a short sermon that make clear that the only way to avoid Hell is to accept salvation through Jesus Christ. There are hundreds of such Hell Houses conducted around the country each year using the Hell House Outreach Kits developed and distributed by a Denver-area church, located just 17 miles from Columbine High School. The kit contains many scenes and each church chooses among them according to its own needs, resources, and preferences. 2 There is no way of knowing how many churches have used the scene based on Columbine and its martyrs, or how many thousands of visitors have seen it. But the mere fact that a church on the other side of the continent would enact that scene hints that Columbine its martyrs and its meaning have entered the folk tradition of American evangelicalism by becoming part of the way the promise of salvation is presented to America. As such, Columbine and its supposed martyrs merit the attention of those who want to understand not only evangelicalism and American religion, but the human need and capacity to make suffering meaningful, the religious task par excellence. In the course of this project, I have had to explore a record of atrocity: autopsy reports, police statements of children watching other children being slaughtered, and video images of blood-soaked carpet. To deal with such material on a daily basis poses the danger of desensitization to horror. In addition, the various personal, relix THE MARTYRS OF COLUMBINE
gious, and political responses to Columbine that I have examined have at times moved me and at times appalled me. This is all to say, I did not expect the journey I have taken. The core struggle for me throughout this project was to maintain a fully humane empathy for the suffering that radiates from this event while dispassionately seeking answers to my questions. These dual commitments led to certain moral dilemmas. On April 25, 2000, Jefferson County, Colorado, authorities released to the public a videotape containing graphic images from the day of the massacre and its aftermath. The following morning, I watched on television as an anguished Beth Nimmo, the mother of Rachel Scott, denounced the release of the tape. I m outraged, she said. It does so much harm to the victims and their families. I don t see any good coming out of this. 3 I put down my coffee and looked at the To Do list that I had written the night before. The first item was Order the tape. I asked myself if I was crossing a moral boundary between a legitimate intellectual curiosity and a morbid fascination that could serve no good purpose. After some hesitation, I did purchase the tape and used it in my research. But I have not employed it in public presentations about Columbine. 4 I have also found myself in the course of this study talking to persons who have drawn inspiration, hope, and strength from the martyr stories of Cassie and Rachel. And my duty has been to ask, What if it didn t happen that way? I have always tried to ask that question as gently as possible. But often I have sensed in the moment those persons consider that question a subtle change, a loss of innocence, or a new strain on their faith. People are sometimes changed by my questions but I haven t stayed around to deal with the effects. I have moved on to ask someone else the same questions. Does my obvious responsibility to expand knowledge outweigh my less obvious responsibility to these persons? Some may dismiss these reflections as excessively introspective and quite unnecessary. Perhaps they are right. But for me, the blood and grief of Columbine demand something extra. I can only hope PREFACE xi
that in the course of this study I have managed to be both a decent human being and a responsible scholar. Ultimately it is you, the reader, who must judge my efforts. But before I begin, many people deserve my heartfelt thanks. I started this book while teaching in Tallahassee at Florida State University and I finished it while plying my trade at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Many an academic project has not survived such a transition, and the fact that this one has is testimony to the support and encouragement I received from the members of each school s Department of Religion. I m particularly grateful to the chairmen of these programs, FSU s John Kelsay and Lafayette s Robert L. Cohn. Despite the fact that I was only a visiting member of the Lafayette faculty, I was provided with a full-time research assistant, Amy Dziekonski, during the summer of 2001 under the auspices of the College s Excel Scholar program. Without her diligence and dedication, I doubt if I could have finished this project in a timely fashion. Many organizations, publications, and individuals aided in this project by providing materials and information that otherwise would have been unavailable to me. These include Yvonne Osmun, Ty Tyler, Alan Lampe, Connie Michalik, Kevin Simpson, The Columbine Redemption, Darrell Scott, Torchgrab Youth Ministries, Bruce Porter, Christianity Today, Wendy Murray Zoba, Plough Publishers, Chris Zimmerman, the Records Division of the Jefferson County, Colorado, Sheriff s Office, and the librarians of Strozier Library at FSU and Skillman Library at Lafayette. I am also grateful to my editor at Palgrave, Gayatri Patnaik, whose enthusiasm and professionalism made this book possible. I d like to extend a special thanks to Jennifer Fleischman, a dear friend for many years who created the diagram of the Columbine library in chapter 5. Finally, I must also thank all of my friends, near and far, for the support and kindness that sustained me throughout this endeavor. xii THE MARTYRS OF COLUMBINE