Worshipers at Annunciation Catholic Church in southwest Minneapolis gathered this weekend for Masses, the first since last week’s horrific attack that killed two children and injured 21.
Pastor Dennis Zehren told parishioners, “We watch for that light that will scatter every darkness, we watch for that light that will never fade, that will only grow stronger. We watch for that light of the world. That light of the world is Jesus Christ.”
Families at the church and parish school are mourning the deaths of the two children slaughtered, Fletcher Alexander Merkel, age 8, and Harper Lillian Moyski, age 10.
Jesse Merkel, Fletcher’s father, posted a heartbreaking message on social media.
“Yesterday, a coward decided to take our 8-year-old son, Fletcher, away from us. Because of their actions, we will never be allowed to hold him, talk to him, play with him, and watch him grow into the wonderful young man he was on the path to becoming,” he wrote.
Harper’s parents, Michael Moyski and Jackie Flavin, described their daughter as “a bright, joyful, and deeply loved 10-year-old.”
Those interested in finding out what all happened last week have likely had to scan the internet to piece the puzzle together. That’s because while facts are fickle things, news coverage these days often includes fiction masquerading as truth.
Stories have referenced the murderer as Robin Westman, which was a legal name, but then they repeatedly referred to him as “her” or “she” when, in fact, Westman is male.
But the fiction didn’t start there.
Back in 2019, a district judge processed Westman’s request to change his name from “Robert” to “Robin” and noted the individual “identified as female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
Individuals petitioning courts to recognize their new identities is all a charade and circus – but a tragic one with dire and increasingly deadly consequences.
Going along with mental illness, acknowledging a lie as something true, fanning a fictitious fantasy, is all a modern-day epidemic.
Reporters covering this story are understandably heartbroken digging into the details – but then go right along with the fundamental falsehoods that lie at the foundation of the story. They write things that just aren’t true. They refer to Westman as “she” or “her” simply because he said so.
Robert Westman has clearly been mentally ill for years – and yet in the interest of political correctness, officials have cooperated with and even enabled his delusion.
It seems from personal journal entries that, at some point, even Westman himself acknowledged what authorities and officials have been afraid to say themselves.
“I only keep [long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans,” Westman wrote. “I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself.”
In another journal entry, he wrote: “I don’t want to dress girly all the time but I guess sometimes I really like it. I know I am not a woman but I definitely don’t feel like a man.”
So much for the lie of so-called “gender-affirming care.”
Various media outlets have gone out of their way to question any motive for the attack, instead suggesting Westman showed hatred and disdain for everyone. They conveniently leave out evidence that he posted a video with Jesus in the bullseye of a target and obviously chose his own former Catholic school as the setting for his evil and final act.
But perhaps most telling is a journal entry where he writes, “I am not well. I am not right. I am a sad person, haunted by these thoughts that do not go away. I know this is wrong, but I can’t seem to stop myself. I am severely depressed and have been suicidal for years. Only recently have I lost all hope and decided to perform my final action against this world.”
Sexual confusion and delusion don’t always lead to a mass shooting, of course, but enabling and even celebrating what is an obvious lie benefits absolutely nobody and puts countless individuals and groups into grave and perilous danger.
Image from Getty.
