Shooter Read Sexist Christian Author's Book Before Female Aerobics Class Massacre
As George Sodini wrote on December 29, 2008, "Just got back from tanning, been doing this for a while. No gym today, my elbow is sore again. I actually look good. I dress good, am clean-shaven, bathe, touch of cologne -- yet 30 million women rejected me -- over an 18 or 25-year period."
On Tuesday August 4th, 2009, computer systems analyst Sodini walked into a Pittsburgh gym, pulled guns out of a duffel bag, turned off the lights, and sprayed bullets into a LA Fitness Center woman's aerobics class of roughly thirty, killing three. The leader of the class, who had just announced that she was pregnant, was wounded along with at least eight others, some of whom were shot multiple times.
Media analysis has so far ignored or glossed over Sodini's religious affiliations but the shooter's Internet diary suggest his last readings were the Bible and a book by a Texas evangelist, R.B. Thieme, Jr. who has written that husbands own their wives, as literal property and promoted an odd teaching that for each man on Earth there exists only one correct "right woman" in all creation. According to Thieme, men can recognize their divinely-appointed opposites without physical contact, through something Thieme called "soul climax" [see R.B. Thieme, Jr.'s "Doctrines of The Bible: Doctrine of Right Man and Right Woman" (Microsoft Word Document format).]
After perpetrating the massacre, Sodini committed suicide. He left behind chilling weblog entries outlining his intended plan. According to forensic psychologists such as former FBI agent and ABC News consultant Brad Garrett, Sodini fit a classic "shooter" profile. Garrett told ABC that Sodini, "spends a lot of time in his blog talking about how he was mistreated as a child. He felt he went through life feeling no one cared for him, loved him or nurtured him. As he got older, he likely isolated himself more and more and was able to justify his disturbing behavior. His perceived rejection justifies his actions."
George Sodini's weblog lays considerable blame for his self-admitted psychological problems on the Pittsburgh-based Tetelestai Church which by his account Sodini attended for 13 years, up through 2006. The pastor of Tetelestai, James R. Knapp, is one of a few luminaries in the small fundamentalist universe under the sway of Texas evangelist and prolific author R.B. Thieme, Jr. -- a retired US Air Force Colonel known to wear his old military uniform while giving sermons who has been accused of cultic and authoritarian practices and wrote doctrine asserting that "[a] married woman is the property of the man she marries."
Sodini broke with Tetelestai in 2006 but his weblog writings indicate that he recently held considerable anger towards the church. As George Sodini wrote December 31, 2008,
" "Be Ye Holy, even as I have been Ye holy! Thus saith the lord thy God!", as pastor Rick Knapp would proclaim. Holy shit, religion is a waste. But this guy teaches (and convinced me) you can commit mass murder then still go to heaven.... guilt and fear kept me there 13 long years until Nov 2006. I think his crap did the most damage."
In his final weblog entry on August 3rd, 2009, written before carrying out the LA Fitness Center slaughter, Sodini wrote, "I was reading the Bible and The Integrity of God beginning yesterday, because soon I will see them." The Integrity of God was a privately published book by R.B. Thieme, Jr. and the apparent reference suggests that while George Sodini was estranged from the Tetelestai Church he was still under the influence of Thieme's writing, which may have exacerbated Sodini's social maladjustment and inability to meet women because of an extreme, idealistic doctrine Thieme espoused known as "right man/right woman."
According to R.B. Thieme Jr.'s Right Man/Right Woman doctrine, "there is only one right man for one right woman and vice versa, 1 Cor 7:2-4." Thieme's doctrine was decidedly male-centric: "The husband is the authority in marriage." It also suggested women civilize savage males: "God protects women from tyranny by the training of the little boy by his mother. His mother teaches the man respect for womanhood, and keeps him from becoming an animal." Thieme wrote that, "God always brings the right woman to the right man.... [ Bible] Doctrine is your right woman until God leads her to you." [emphasis by R.B. Thieme, Jr.]
Thieme also declared that "Bitchiness in a woman is an indication of the wrong woman," and his doctrine claimed that prospective "right men" could intuit their respective "right women" through something Thieme termed a "soul climax." But, pastor Thieme emphasized, "Sex before marriage destroys your capacity to have a soul climax."
George Sodini complained of never having slept a night next to a woman for over two decades, and so a maxim from R.B. Thieme, Jr.'s "Doctrine of Adultery" (Word Document of Thieme doctrine) may have been especially depressing: "People who are losers in life are losers in marriage... Losers are not people who fail but people who do nothing about their failures." Sodini specifically noted in the heading of his weblog diary, "Never married."
In a July 20th, 2009 entry -- less than two weeks before he shot a hail of bullets into an exercise class of women and then turned his gun on himself -- George Sodini wrote,
"I guess some of us were simply meant to walk a lonely path. I have slept alone for over 20 years. Last time I slept all night with a girlfriend it was 1982. Proof I am a total malfunction. Girls and women don't even give me a second look ANYWHERE. There is something BLATANTLY wrong with me that NO goddam person will tell me what it is...
I can just start being self-righteous and say I live a good, clean life. I am holy, that's all Rick Knapp stuff."
An August 6th ABC News story reveals that Sodini might have been willing to reconsider his plans to attack the LA Fitness Center if he had been able to meet women :
"At the gym I saw a woman I like. I see her at the park and ride sometimes, so she isn't a stranger. Occationaly [sic] she makes good eye contact and smiles, etc. She is maybe 40ish, and attractive to me," Sodini wrote on his blog and then hid from public view with a veil of computer code.
"I made brief conversation to her and a younger woman she was with today. To get a friend like her (and for night time action) I would cancel this plan, or put on hold, at least for a while."
For such a deeply socially estranged man did R.B. Thieme Jr.'s teachings, which saddle male-female relations with almost impossibly idealistic expectations, exacerbate preexisting socio-sexual alienation to the point where George Sodini felt unable to relate to the female sex in any other manner than down the barrel of a loaded gun?
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I'd like to encourage Bruce and readers - keep an open mind about R.B. Thieme Jr. I'd strongly encourage you to order some of his publications/pamplets. On many subjects. They're free. Find out for yourself. Here's the link: http://www.berachah.org/ordering_information.htm
Before you pass judgment on this man, at least read a few of his short books. They're free - won't cost you more than the price of a stamp. You'd be greatly surprised to find out some of the folks in this nation who've studied under R.B. Thieme, Jr. Many recognizable. Pastor Thieme, even after his death this past Sunday, continues to have an enormous worldwide ministry, mailing out thousands of mp3 lessons and publications monthly. Bruce, don't knock it 'till you try it! DD
Regarding Pastor Thieme, Jr....
I've been under his ministry since I was a teenager. The man is an academic and the slanderous association made by this author against him is lazy.
I just finished earlier this year his series from 1992 on Christian psychosis - and Sidoni is obviously a nut job made worse by his use of Christianity as an excuse for this evil murderous rampage.
Also, Colonel Thieme died on Sunday - so when I found this garbage written by Bruce Wilson looking for a local Houston press release it makes my disgust with Mr. Wilson's ignorance much more emotional which is not as it should be.
I am 32, half-black and gay - and Colonel Thieme was my pastor and I would like to see if Mr. Wilson is a propagandist or if he would actually like to have a dialogue with someone more than happy to discuss Christianity and Pastor Thieme's teaching style, intellect and impact on my life personally.
Mr. Wilson, it will require you to use that noggin'. Are you up for it? I am available to chat here or offline. You should always have a follow-up story and what an angle you would have contrasting a "yuppie, white, straight, knuckle dragging redneck" as HuffPuffers characterize most Christians with someone who's none of those things but is also under Pastor Thieme , Jr. (through DVD).
Finally a thread that isn't all about bashing women, men, or dating gurus; this thread is almost spot on, but to complete the picture you have to remember the missing ingredient -according to his blog 20 year sober George picked up a drink this May. Nothing worse that bad religion and whiskey mixing in your brain; even a sane person would easily be driven completely off his rocker with this combination, a loner like George didn't stand a chance. He really committed suicide long before he put a bullet in his brain when he picked up that first drink after 20 years.
I don't understand why the press is focused on Sodini as this 'lonely' single when he was not. He was influenced not just by religion but the 'seduction community' movement, which is completely about feeding fantasies that these men are entitled to women, more than one woman, and usually younger 'hot' women.
Sodini talks about 'young women' in his weblog. He mentions this movement explicity in both his youtube videos, and refers to the 'community' and to R.D. Steele, [one of the movements founders] whose seminar he attended. Men who have problems relating to women emotionally attend these groups. He was not looking for a women his age, or for a real relationship, he was looking for a woman '10 to 15 years younger' which he also says in his video.
Somewhat equivalent to women looking to trap an older man as a sugar daddy, these men want younger women as trophies to make up for their disappointments, and for some, male rage that they have not had what they feel they deserve. Reading about it on the net, it's as depressing to read about as women coldly targeting rich old men for their money. I didn't know relationships between the sexes had reached this new low. This is where the real story is, not about Sodini as a 'lonely hearts single'.
http://www.seductionbase.com/
A person as seriously ill as Sodini is not going to be able to mature socially--not in the absence of any opportunity to do so. He was fixated on all that he'd missed out on as a young adult. Couldn't this account for his fixation on younger women? I think it's quite possible he was literally stuck in that phase of his life, trying to make it right after the fact. That was the period of what he saw as his great failure. He wasn't tracking things very rationally.
His view of women was as immature as we'd expect it to be, given his situation.
To suggest that he wasn't really lonely is insensitive, to put it mildly--it's clear he was horribly lonely. We shouldn't casually (or otherwise) deny someone's humanity, regardless of what that person may have thought or done.
To many people are writing off this killer as a typical religious fanatic. But in fact, he was highly critical of religion:
His December 28, 2008 web post:
"I have been in barrooms and church groups. The worst people by far are the religious types. Especially a right-wing, stiff-faced fundie like [name removed] condescending, demeaning, passive-aggresive person. Frigid, rigid, linear and totally inflexible. Being a very serious person, he cannot hide his frown-lined face. He better not try to smile; lest his face might crack. I knew children of parents who grew up in strict religious homes. Religion has a certain stink to it of guilt, shame, fear, and that moral standard that always contradicts the natural tendencies and desires of a person. Therin lies the conflict. Young person cannot experiment with things to decide on their own and establish their own parameters. So they tend to cut loose and really rebel much worse than the average young person. Ma and Pa never know what goes on."
Excellent point--I'd noticed that, too. But the game here is to blame religion. This is accomplished by starting with the premise that religion is at fault and then shaping data around that assumption. In the absence of solid data, insinuations will do.
Don't let Sodini's words get in your way.
"Be Ye Holy, even as I have been Ye holy! Thus saith the lord thy God!", as pastor Rick Knapp would proclaim." ... "I think his crap did the most damage."
Yes, and shortly after that blog posting, he chickened out on blowing people away.
Eight months later, he was back to reading Thieme & the bible, and this time, he didn't chicken out.
One of my favorite parts of Anna Karenina is when Stiva thinks he has ruined his marriage, not because of his having an affair with another woman, but instead, because when his wife confronted him with the affair, he let out an involuntary, silly smile. Stiva was convinced it was that smile that was responsible for all the problems between him and his wife.
See Bruce Wilson's Profile
Sodini wrote in his last entry - as I've noted - that he was preparing for his planned massacre by reading 1) The Bible, 2) a book by R.B. Thieme. Jr.
It is neither sympathetic to, not hostile to, Christianity or religions in general to note that. Those are simply facts. Read into them what you want.
Insinuate. Retreat.
Repeat.
I didn't say you were hostile to religion
My point is that you should have included the December 28 post in which he harshly criticizes religion, including "right wing, stiff faced fundies". Clearly, HE was the one who was hostile to religion. So to simply dismiss him as a stereotypical fundementalist right winger is simply inaccurate.
Sodini didn't have to read Thieme to get the message that husbands own their wives and that women are just property. All he had to read to get that message was the Bible. The Bible also has lots and lots of killing of women in it. So why criticize Thieme's writings without also criticizing the Bible?
See Bruce Wilson's Profile
Thieme interprets the Bible - as you are doing, as anyone would.
But, the Old Testament is Jewish scripture and yet Jews haven't traditionally taken the Old Testament as justifying female subjugation. They take it in another direction.
"God protects women from tyranny by the training of the little boy by his mother. His mother teaches the man respect for womanhood, and keeps him from becoming an animal."
No God does not protect women from Tyranny, their families do, or their families don't.
The mother plays a role, the father can play a greater role in a males child's life by how the father treats the wife and mother.
There are young adult males, which quake at the poor teachings and examples of their church going pops, who wrapped up abuse with fear, extreme views, and limited character.
I'm sure that was part of the mix, but it sounds like this guy was a veritable melting pot of neurosis.
extreme teachings can bring on neurosis or exacerbate it --- there are methods to mind control, which influence some of the acting out, cultic groups thrive on bringing in people who are isolated for one reason or another, people in a life changing event, a loss, a conflict, in a state of rebellion, or young adults breaking away from their families for the first time.
Yes, it's hard to imagine how things might have gone had George not gotten the idea fromThieme that two decades without sex made him a loser. It's not as if he would have encountered this idea anyplace else--not on TV or in movies, not in magazines or on Internet message boards, and not from coworkers or from bar conversations. In fact, celibate, never-married men are commonly regarded as heroes in our pop culture.
Yes, it's quite clear that Sodini's level of self-loathing and sense of great personal failure wouldn't have reached violence-inflaming levels without Thieme's unconventional suggestion--clearly at odds with the values of current pop culture--that George's personal life was anything but a raving success story.
For somebody who claims not to be a fundy, you spend entirely too much time defending the fundies.
Here is a quote from the author from below. I have a feeling that you even read it before you posted your righteous outrage.
"Clearly, there were many factors that played into Sodini's actions, and so I don't want to heap all blame on his former church, but R.B. Thieme's influence can't be discounted."
Here's another quote from the author. This is the paragraph I was responding to:
"George Sodini complained of never having slept a night next to a woman for over two decades, and so a maxim from R.B. Thieme, Jr.'s Doctrine of Adultery' (Word Document of Thieme doctrine) may have been especially depressing: 'People who are losers in life are losers in marriage... Losers are not people who fail but people who do nothing about their failures.' Sodini specifically noted in the heading of his weblog diary, 'Never married.'"
Since the exact same message is broadcast in stereo 24/7 in our society, it's ridiculous to suggest that Thieme's words pushed him over the top in that regard--the proverbial final straw could have come from any one of innumerable sources. Co-workers' talk, an HBO comedy special, a newspaper piece on the plight of the dateless, one of the 30 "enlargement" ads aired during MSNBC's weeknight line-up, and so on. It could have come from some well-meaning person asking if he'd ever been married or if he plans to.
You've quoted Wilson as saying that Thieme's words were one of many possible influences on Sodini's actions, yet Wilson also insinuates they may have had a final-straw effect. Which were they? One of many or the final source? This is highly manipulative journalism, the kind writers engage in when they long to make a charge but have nothing much to back it with.
When I got to this part:
"Perversions of Right Man/Right Woman.
1. Auto-erotism, masturbation, or self-response to self."
it reminded me of Mark Sanford, he referred to 'self-response to self' in his bizarro mea culpa for his sinful Adventure Vacation in the Argentinean bush.
All you need to know about Christianity, straight from Paul: "The kingdom of God is not about words, but about POWER." (1 Corinthians 4:20) If you don't like crazy women-haters and closet whack jobs having power over you, leave Christianity. Try spirituality instead.
Let's take another random phrase,this time out of this article: "His perceived rejection justifies his actions.". Do you think because this sentence appeared in the article, the author is trying to excuse the shooter's actions? Out of context sound bites of sacred writings will not get one far on the spiritual path.
those who worship a puppeteer in the sky will always be puppets.
This is such a tragic story, people and their families and friends that had no connection to his suffering and anger have to pay the price for his actions. His religious connection to such a fundamentalist church isn't so much the message, as was the obvious inability to fulfill his social or spiritual needs. The apathy the group had toward him is borne out as no one was able to see how truly disturbed he was. When I look at groups, and especially church groups that have the unstable members snap, I wonder how people cannot tell the ones on the fringe and befriend them and help them offer them some compassion as in the book they read every Sunday. Misogynistic messages aside, isn't that the underlying message of church groups is to look out for each other and help each other, not leave the broken brains to twist in the wind? But most likely they are down on psychology, prayer will solve all problems, and ignore that disturbed people need and deserve help and yet another aspect of the health care system that is in serious need of reform.
Whether his religious beliefs were far out or not, he shot these people because he was an angry nut job.
Fascinating. This is the first place I've heard about Sodini's religious affiliation, and it totally makes sense. Apparently he was involved in the "seduction" community which is made up of men who make money by selling older losers like this guy with the notion that young women are a commodity that can be aquired by any man through the use of "pick-up artist" tricks, available to anyone who buys the books and videos. It's every bit as misogynistic and bizarrely outdated as the teachings of this church. What a sad subculture.
See Bruce Wilson's Profile
And, Sodini bought it - he didn't seem to know any better.
If you check out the Thieme doctrine Word docs. I've linked to, you'll find Thieme's articulation of his rather highly detailed, utopian fundamentalist idealization of romantic love, often strongly misogynist.
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