In wake of shooting, is it safe to be liberal?

Unitarian pastor questions ‘fundamentalist values’

By Rob Cullivan

The Gresham Outlook, Aug 5, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (14 Reader comments)

Jim Clark / Gresham Outlook

Unitarian Universalist minister David Maynard of Gresham has created debate with a letter he wrote, suggesting a Knoxville, Tenn., church gunman intentionally targeted “liberals.”

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On July 27, Jim D. Adkisson, 58, reportedly entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., with a 12-gauge shotgun and allegedly took the life of Greg McKendry, 60, who had tried to stop him from shooting.

Another congregant, Linda Kraeger, 61, died later from wounds inflicted by the suspected shooter.

According to several reports, Adkisson now stands accused of opening fire during a children’s play at the church, wounding four women and three men, and killing McKendry and Kraeger. A letter Adkisson allegedly wrote, left behind in his SUV, stated he targeted the church members because he hated “the liberal movement” and “gays.”

In response to the tragedy, the Rev. David Maynard, pastor of Eastrose Fellowship Unitarian Universalist Church in Gresham, wrote a letter to the editor of The Gresham Outlook. The letter raised issues The Outlook wanted to explore further.

Maynard’s letter reads as follows:

“As a Unitarian Universalist (UU) minister, I take the murder of two parishioners at our sister UU church in Knoxville, Tenn., very seriously. Apparently the accused shooter was seeking to kill ‘liberals’ before he himself was to be shot by the police. Due to the courage of congregants that morning, he was stopped after firing three rounds. I am terrifically sad at the death of two good people and proud of the bravery of their fellow worshippers.

“Two additional observations are, first, that I’ve never heard of ‘liberals’ taking up arms and shooting random people in public. All too often I’ve heard of unhealthy persons espousing fundamentalist values wreaking just that kind of havoc. Liberals are more likely to teach peace than wielding a gun. Second, a few years ago it was popular in some churches to say ‘if you were accused of being a (insert name of faith), would there be enough evidence to convict you?’ I am ironically proud that, indeed, Unitarian Universalists as outspoken ‘liberals’ on issues like same-sex marriage, civil rights of all kinds, and abortion rights, are well-known enough to get the attention of a sick person out to get liberals. I hope we never lose that courage of our convictions that making a better world for all is our collective responsibility.”

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