Religion: Journalists must connect faith to Aurora facts
By Terry Mattingly

Once again, shocked onlookers painted from familiar palettes as they described the latest young man to march into the public square with his guns blazing.

The alleged killer was a quiet loner who excelled at school.

He was a normal guy who loved movies and superhero tales, only he cheered for the villains. When hanging out in bars, he was usually sitting alone.

Journalists also quoted people who knew the family and said that suspect James Holmes was once, as The Los Angeles Times noted, “heavily involved in their local Presbyterian church” in San Diego.

You see, even a kid from a normal church can evolve into someone who dyes his hair red, allegedly buys 6,000 rounds of ammo, girds himself in a full-body armor suit and, when surrendering to Aurora, Colo., police, identifies himself as the Joker, the incarnation of postmodern evil.

“What does ‘Presbyterian’ mean in this context? … It’s like no one really stopped to ask if there was something about this particular label — the actual content of this word — that connected in any way to this event,” said Aly Colon, a nationally known journalism-ethics consultant.

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