# Church bombing - the good news? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 8, 2012, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/church-bombing-the-good-news/637040 "2012-10-08T01:15:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/church-bombing-the-good-news/637040/1 "2012-10-08T01:15:18Z")
[A 23-year-old Elk Grove Village, Ill. native has been arrested over his alleged plot to firebomb dozens of Miami, Okla. area churches.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/07/gregory-arthur-weiler-ii-_n_1946363.html) “[P]olice say he planned to use [50 molotov cocktails] to destroy every church in the Ottawa County area, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The houses of worship include many different religions.” I don’t know what they mean by “many different religions” - Baptist and Episcopalian, or Buddhist and Christian? - but apparently this was not an action of religious bigotry, exactly. Sociopath, schizophrenic, agent provocateur, militant atheist? Anyhow, I hope to find out more about this story. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/church-bombing-the-good-news/637040/2 "2012-10-08T03:01:04Z")
The article has a statement saying that his family reports he is mentally ill. So I suspect that’s the answer right there. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/church-bombing-the-good-news/637040/3 "2012-10-08T03:48:06Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > The article has a statement saying that his family reports he is mentally ill. So I suspect that’s the answer right there. Well, possibly, but I wasn’t looking for an answer, I was hoping for a discussion. “Mentally ill”, especially as used by family, is a very broad term. And, now that I think of it, assembling and plotting to use enough incendiary devices to destroy “every church in the county” does not sound like something a person using heroin or alcohol would have the energy and focus to do. Either way, I will stipulate we have a bona fide disturbed individual here. However, I am curious about what is being this story. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/church-bombing-the-good-news/637040/4 "2012-10-08T06:27:58Z")
If he’s mentally ill, his motives aren’t really going to make sense. It’s not about being a militant atheist/Christian/Buddhist, whatever. It could be that he thinks that he’s a government agent and the churches are a front for Al Qaeda. And you’d be surprised what people with a serious psychiatric illness can have the “energy” to do. Look at some of the crap Charles Manson came up with – about how the Beatles were sending secret messages about a race war through the White Album. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/church-bombing-the-good-news/637040/5 "2012-10-08T06:53:02Z")
That’s weird. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/church-bombing-the-good-news/637040/6 "2012-10-08T23:31:08Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > And you’d be surprised what people with a serious psychiatric illness can have the “energy” to do. Look at some of the crap Charles Manson came up with – about how the Beatles were sending secret messages about a race war through the White Album. No, I wouldn’t be, sadly. But it’s not the illness I find doubtful, but the heroin and alcohol. Other drugs - methamphetamine? - I might accept, but this does not sound like the work of a person who abuses narcotics. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/church-bombing-the-good-news/637040/7 "2012-10-09T00:38:03Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > If he’s mentally ill, his motives aren’t really going to make sense. Not necessarily; his motives could make sense, but his methodology could be completely out of what because of his disorder. Or his motives might make sense, but be based on delusion. A plan to shoot your neighbors because they are Martian subversive agents makes sense internally; it’s irrational because the neighbors aren’t Martian agents, not because shooting them if they really _were_ would necessarily be a bad idea.