REDEEMING COLUMBINE
By Phil Hadley
20th April 2004
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An entry on Eric Harris’ web site said, “I don’t care if I live or die in the shoot out. All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you p****** as I can.” With his friend, Dylan Klebold, they had planned the attack for a year.
The bombs were designed to cause death, destruction and mayhem. Some of the victims were on a hit-list, chosen because they were either good athletes (known to US teenagers as jocks), black or Christians.
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She shared a photo video class with Eric and Dylan. When the boys turned in their violent video that depicted their fantasies of death and destruction, Rachel turned in a photo assignment of the hand picture that declares “Tomorrow is not a promise...where will you spend eternity?” The teachers did not challenge the boys’ project, and their parents were not aware of what they had produced. Rachel stepped out on a limb and challenged Eric and Dylan about why they were so obsessed with killing and death. She tried to find out why they would produce something of that nature. She wanted to help them and possibly paid with her life for daring to do what no one else was willing to do.
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Rachel had a sense that she wasn’t going to live a long life. On 21 May 1998 these were the words she wrote, the only words in her diary that day, “This will be my last year, Lord, I have gotten what I can. Thank you.”
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That feeling changed several days later when the police released the backpack Rachel had been wearing at the time of the shooting. It contained her last two diaries. “I was absolutely stunned when I turned to the last page of the diary,” Darrell says. “There were 13 tears falling from her eyes and she drew it 30 minutes before she died. 13 victims were killed from the guns of those two boys.”
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“You know I do,” replied Rachel.
“Then go be with Him,” responded Harris before shooting her in the head.
One entry in her journal says, “He gave His life for me, I will give my life for Him.”
Cassie Bernall was a beautiful, all American teenager. However, at the age of 14 she and a friend planned to murder a teacher. She also threatened to commit suicide. She dabbled in witchcraft and started to play around with drugs. She constantly argued with her parents.
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On the night of April 19th 1999 she added a PS to a note to a friend at school saying, “PS. Honestly, I want to live completely for God. It’s hard and scary, but totally worth it.” She gave the note to her friend Amanda the following morning at school.
At lunchtime she went into the library to work on an English assignment on Shakespeare. When Harris and Klebold entered the library, one of them yelled, “All jocks stand up! We’re going to kill every one of you.” Student Aaron Cohn, a ball player, was spared because a girl leapt on his back while he lay on the floor, covering the baseball slogan on his shirt. “They were laughing after they were shooting,” Cohn says. “It was like they were having the time of their life.” Isaiah Shoels, who was black, was one of those to fall. One assailant said, “Oh, my God. Look at this black kid’s brains. Awesome, man!” Craig Scott, Rachel’s younger brother was next to his friend Isaiah. He played dead and escaped death.
Eric Harris slapped the table under which Cassie Bernall was hiding and shouted “Peek-a-boo!” He pointed the gun at her head and asked, “Do you believe in God?”
She said, “Yes.”
He laughed, pulled the trigger and blasted her into eternity. She probably never heard his next question “Why?”
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Two years on and Columbine understandably struggles to cope with the tragedy. The Sheriff’s report, Law Suits, claims that a draft warrant to search Eric Harris’ home after complaints about online threats about killing and bombing was never executed, calls of cover up in the official investigation, arguments on gun laws, video games and youth culture.
Five Christians died that day in Columbine. Many more were wounded. Their families see the massacre as a spiritual event. Rachel’s mum, Beth Nimmo, says, “We have focused more on the healing process and trying to bring something good out of Columbine. We don’t want the tragedy to have the final say. We want good to triumph over the evil of that day.”
Darrell Scott, Rachel’s father, formed the Columbine Redemption,
a ministry that seeks to continue the “chain reaction” Rachel spoke of in her journals with regards to walking the talk. Other members of the family also speak and testify at church meetings. On the
second anniversary Darrell is speaking at a Columbine church.
Cassie Bernall’s legacy will be an orphanage in Las Lajas, Honduras, once the bureaucratic obstacles the government keep placing in the way have been over come. It is built and running as a day care centre but doesn’t yet have the green light to open as a full time orphanage.
So what of us, Christian young people in Cornwall? Rachel Scott’s mum says, “The courage to stand for godly truth in a time and place where you feel you may be standing alone can best be drawn from my daughter’s words penned in her journal just a few days before her death.
I’m drowning
In my own lake of despair.
I’m choking
My hands wrapped around my neck.
I’m dying
Quickly my soul leaves, slowly my body withers.
It isn’t suicide,
I consider it homicide.
The world you created has led to my death.
We live in that world. Do your friends know you are a Christian? Does your life match what you say? Are you what you believe? Rachel wrote, “You can start a chain reaction by acts of kindness.” Jesus Christ may not call you to die for Him but he does call you to live for Him.
“I want to lay a challenge before each and everyone of you young people here today. The torch has fallen from Rachel’s hand. Who will pick it up again? Who will pick up the torch again?” |
“Young people here today, hear me. I want to issue a challenge to each and everyone of you. Don’t despair of life; don’t despair of what has happened to you.
Rachel carried a torch, the torch of truth, the torch of compassion, the torch of love, the torch of the good news of Jesus Christ, her Saviour and lord, who she was not ashamed of even in her hour of death.
I want to lay a challenge before each and everyone of you young people here today. The torch has fallen from Rachel’s hand. Who will pick it up again? Who will pick up the torch again?”
For further information
Read:
Rachel’s Tears – Beth Nimmo & Darrell Scott
The Journals of Rachel Scott – Beth Nimmo & Darrell Scott (aimed at younger readers)
Chain Reaction – Darrell Scott
Web sites:
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