Single-Minded: An Independent Journal of Fact and Opinion

We've all seen the picture. The large domed head setting atop a massive neck, one eye squinting slightly as if sighting down an imaginary rifle barrel. Buford Oneal Furrows--the good 'ol boy personified--walked into a Jewish Community Center and shot up a bunch of kids. Buford described his mission as a "wake-up call to America to kill Jews." Well, Buford, we're awake now.

It would appear from the pamphlet found in your van that you are sympathetic to the ideas espoused by a group called Christian Identity. If I have this right Christian Identity believes that before Christ can come again for Judgement Day or whatever it is He is coming back for, the earth must cleansed of Satanic forces, said Satanic forces being the usual suspects--Jews, blacks, homosexuals and the various and sundry anti-Christs known to be walking the Earth. (Wonder if anybody has told these fellows about the red heifer deal?)

Well, hey, Buford, I can understand where you're coming from. When I was going to VietNam, many of your Christian buddies back then we're chanting "Kill a Commie for Christ." Sure, the faces may change, the color of the skin may get lighter or darker, but the mission is the same. If the baby Jesus needs you out there doing his work, and if that means killing somebody, well, that's that.

And I'll say one thing in your behalf, Buford. You were definitely ready to do the Lord's work. The inside of your van was filled with ammo boxes full of bullets, and I hear tell you had smoke grenades, Army training manuals, web belts, beef jerky, and God knows what all else. Yes sir, you were set for anything L.A. could throw at you.

And what was that about killing the postal worker. Was he in the way of Jesus coming back, too? Or was this just your little private joke? I'm sure the man's family would like to know.

Truth be said, Buford, you and your Christian cohorts scare the bejesus out of me. How can you and your buddies in the various militant Christian movements, including the anti-abortion extremists, how can you sit there and tell me it is okay to murder someone in cold blood in the name of Jesus? How can you have so COMPLETELY MISSED THE POINT of the gospel of Christ?

Maybe its true like the man on TV said, that you are just a psychopath who gravitated to these groups so that you would have a license to kill. But there are others, men such as Richard Kelly Hoskins, the author of that pamphlet they found in your van. They provide the phoney-baloney intellectual underpinning that empowers you to go out and shoot old women and little children. They are the true evil.

August 1999

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buford furrow's day offing