Race, religion draw focus after killings of eight, including six Asian women
Weekend Plug-in 🔌
Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” features analysis, fact checking and top headlines from the world of faith. Subscribe now to get this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr. at therossnews@gmail.com.
(ANALYSIS) Was race a motive in Tuesday’s killings of eight people — including six Asian women — at three Atlanta-area massage parlors?
Was religion?
These are among the questions after the arrest of a White suspect with ties to a Southern Baptist church.
Despite police downplaying the role of race, the shootings have stirred national fear amid “reported record numbers of hate crimes and incidents of harassment” against Asian Americans, note the Los Angeles’ Times’ Jaweed Kaleem and Richard Read.
The first details concerning 21-year-old suspect Robert Aaron Long’s faith background were vague, with the Daily Beast indicating that “he was big into religion.”
But then Washington Post religion writer Sarah Pulliam Bailey interviewed his youth pastor:
As a teenager, Long would stack chairs and clean floors at Crabapple First Baptist Church in Milton, Ga., said Brett Cottrell, who led the youth ministry at Crabapple from 2008 to 2017. Long’s father was considered an important lay leader in the church, Cottrell said, and they would attend morning and evening activities on Sundays, as well as meetings on Wednesday evenings and mission trips.
“There’s nothing that I’m aware of at Crabapple that would give approval to this,” Cottrell said in an interview, referring to the shootings. “I’m assuming it’s as shocking and numbing to them as it has been to me.”
Today, a front-page story by a team of New York Times reporters, including religion writer Ruth Graham, focuses on Long’s battle against a “self-described sex addiction”:
Months before Robert Aaron Long was charged with carrying out a bloody rampage at three massage parlors that horrified the nation and stoked a furious outcry over anti-Asian violence, the 21-year-old suspect who had grown up in a conservative Baptist church appeared fixated on guilt and lust.
As investigators on Thursday pieced together whether and how racism and sexism might have motivated Tuesday’s attacks, people who knew Mr. Long offered new details about a dangerous collision of sexual loathing and what a former roommate described as “religious mania” that marked his life in the years before the shooting spree.
Mr. Long, whose church strictly prohibited sex outside of marriage, was distraught by his failed attempts to curb his sexual urges, said Tyler Bayless, a former roommate who lived with Mr. Long at a halfway house near Atlanta for about five months beginning in August 2019.
In the past, I’ve asked: Do we really need to know what makes a mass murderer tick? (Click the link if interested in that subject. The answer is not simple.)
Want to know more about those who died? The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Alexis Stevens, Joshua Sharpe and Shaddi Abusaid turn to the victims’ families.
Meanwhile, three Associated Press religion writers — Luis Andres Henao, Mariam Fam and Jessie Wardarski — talk to Asian American Christian leaders who say their congregations are “saddened and outraged” by the Atlanta-area killings. Those leaders are “calling for action beyond prayers.”
And Religion Unplugged’s own Hamil R. Harris reports on the response of grieving faith leaders in Atlanta.
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. Jennifer Lyell wanted to stop her abuser by telling her story. Instead, her life fell apart: Anybody else tired of seeing Religion News Service national reporter Bob Smietana’s name in this weekly column?
If he’d just stop writing such important, thought-provoking stories — such as this latest one on a Christian survivor of sexual abuse — I’d stop mentioning him so much.
2. Faith leaders' year of pandemic: grief, solace, resilience: The Associated Press global religion team has produced a number of excellent roundups/photo packages during the pandemic.
This is another fine example, written by Luis Andres Henao, David Crary and Mariam Fam and featuring stirring photography by Jessie Wardarski, David J. Phillip, Emily Leshner and John Minchillo.
3. This Christian designer’s success in high fashion challenges the norm that sex sells: I don’t read a lot of stories about fashion, but I loved this Religion Unplugged profile of Natasha Lambkin by Kelly Wairimu Davis.
“Brands like N A T A S H A cater to those who hope that companies will be more inclusive of modest fashion, especially in mainstream spaces,” Davis writes. “Due to the influence of social media, there is a growing demographic of people who desire to honor their religious traditions without compromising fashion and style.”
More Top Reads
• Vatican rules out blessings for same-sex relationships, despite calls for liberalization (by Francis X. Rocca, Wall Street Journal)
• With humor and biblical authority, Beth Moore captivates evangelical women (by Ruth Graham, New York Times)
• Chicago parish fiercely backs priest after sex abuse claims (by Sophia Tareen, Associated Press)
• Christian singles aren’t waiting for marriage to become parents (by Kara Bettis, Christianity Today)
• Black Christians discuss how faith informs their stances on abortion (by Juan Mejia, Allie Yang, and Taigi Smith, ABC News)
• Irish humor, Irish temper: how Biden’s identity shapes his political image (by Matt Viser, Washington Post)
• Anti-abortion bills abound; their fate in court is unknown (by David Crary and Iris Samuels, Associated Press)
• Two churches — one Black, one white — look to the future with hope (by Mya Jaradat, Deseret News)
• Did you go to church last week? Might depend on who’s asking (by Daniel Silliman, Christianity Today)
• Jesuits in US pledge $100M for racial reconciliation (by David Crary, Associated Press)
• Catholic Church’s direction on Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine raises questions (by Deepa Bharath, Mercury News)
• In Southern California, Black churches are using their land to build housing for homeless people (by Alejandra Molina, Religion News Service)
Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines
For the past six years, veteran NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten has focused on coverage of religion and belief, and he has done an excellent job.
This week, Gjelten revealed plans to retire April 9 after 38 years with NPR.
“I would not have stayed so long had I not believed deeply in the model of journalism and storytelling that we have established, but as I told my colleagues, it is to the NPR audience that I feel the deepest connection,” he wrote on Facebook. “I doubt any news organization has such an intimate relation with its news consumers. It's the power of radio. Readers may be loyal, but listeners become friends. Still, it's time to move on. I'll stay active. I intend to spend more time bicycling, hanging with my beloved granddaughters, and pursuing some new writing projects.”
Charging Station: In Case You Missed It
Here is where you can catch up on recent news and opinions from Religion Unplugged.
• How Kanye West’s ‘Jesus is King’ Grammy win redefines contemporary Christian music (by Jillian Cheney)
• Dead Sea Scroll fragments with biblical verses discovered in Judean Desert cave (by Gil Zohar)
• Faith leaders get COVID-19 shots to show trust in vaccines at White House event (by Hamil R. Harris)
• Senate hearing on Equality Act shows division between faith groups (by Meagan Clark)
• Ugandan NGOs, many faith-based, at risk of closing after government suspends EU funds (by John Semakula)
• Remembering Luis Palau and his last trip to Peru: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’ (by Richard Ostling)
• Exclusive: Cardinal Zen says Chinese church without Vatican’s help will ‘die out soon’ (by Timothy Nerozzi)
• Religious leaders remember Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado, a conflict the world forgot (by Tom Osanjo)
• How much more evidence is needed before the international community acts on Xinjiang (by Ewelina U. Ochab)
The Final Plug
My pledge to Washington Post religion writer Michelle Boorstein is this: I’ll keep reading your important journalism, such as this week’s story on the Equality Act.
In the meantime, how in the world did I miss Boorstein’s viral panda tweet back in January?
Can’t we all agree that the world needs more tweets like that?
Bobby Ross Jr. is a columnist for Religion Unplugged and editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 15 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.