You bet! That church certainly got what they deserved, for paying the salary of a preacher who was seeing a gay prostitute. Smart of you to figure that out! Why, I'm sure you said the exact same thing I did, when you first heard about those two young sisters bleeding their lives out in the parking lot while their horrified family watched: "Hey! That's justice. Who did they think they were anyway, going to Ted Haggard's ex-church? Serves 'em right!"
Of course, none of the church members, not even Haggard's family, had an inkling what he was doing, and he was forced out of there when they found out the truth. But hey, if the head pastor is a hypocrite, then so is the entire congregation, right? MM's family lived near Denver, not Colorado Springs, and so didn't attend that church. But MM read the news stories about Haggard's hypocrisy, and just knew he had to do something about it. It sounds like you've made a great case for MM being the Avenging Angel sent by heaven to see that justice is done in this world.
And here all these stupid people were watching the news last week thinking they were seeing a rerun of "Columbine," when actually it was a rerun of "Touched By An Angel".
When I wrote that, I didn’t even know that Haggard was connected with that church. But I did know some of what the church’s theology and practices did to the shooter. It was abusive.
Furthermore, the concept of “judgment” doesn’t mean that the guilty suffer and the innocent are spared. That will not be true until the Final Judgment. “Judgment” in the meantime means the NATURAL consequences of folly—and the innocent suffer along with, or often, instead of, the guilty.
Nothing that I said meant that the innocent people killed “got what they deserved.” The double life of Ted Haggard was probably the least of the follies involved.
There is a warning in the bible about 'lukewarm' churches...
"Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."Granted we are responsible for "what" church we choose to go to...on the other hand, the children of God are considered the church...it gets a bit confusing to say the least. To know that the church is the 'right' one, we have to pray, be selective, and pray to find the 'right' one. There are so many out there. BUT, we are ultimately responsible for our own sins, choices and decisions.