I very recently published my theory that Ratzman's killings were explained by M. Scott Peck's analysis of evil in "The People of the Lie" -- that Ratzmann was unable to confront evil in himself, and thus lashed out at others to hide evidence of his own wrongness from himself.

Again, the critical point here is that "evil" people are actually those who believe they are "good". It is the very act of believing, and being convinced you are "good" which is what makes you very evil. Even if you never do anything as obvious as killing someone.

Compare this AP wire article to Peck's comments and my own.

Peck:

The evil are the last people to ever go to a psychotherapist. The evil hate the light- the light of goodness that shows them up, the light of scrutiny that exposes them, the light of truth that penetrates their deception.

News excerpt:

Shirley Ratzmann said her 44-year-old son, Terry Ratzmann, had a history of depression "relating to job problems for the last couple of years," but had not seen a doctor about it, a medical examiner's report released Thursday shows.

I pegged Terry's motive:

[After the first church split] a pastor again says something which apparently deeply conflicts with [Terry's] beliefs. Who knows what -- it could have been another thing which repudiated his "Armstrongism", or it could have been something which repudiated some pet theory which he held, but the rest of the congregation did not.

Regardless, this time, the blow is harder to avoid. The point hits home. Instead of breezing by it, he can barely contain his rage. His ego has been challenged. Again, this is not about facts -- this is about preserving one's own sense of righteousness or goodness at any cost. Being wrong is intolerable, since the entire ego-structure was tied up in differentiating from all those "wrong" people on the other team....

Regardless, rather than admit he was really, really wrong about something, and thus might be evil rather than good and elite, Terry instead projected the evil outwards: The pastor was evil. The people who agreed with the pastor were evil. They were going to try to threaten his belief system again -- his very goodness.

News excerpt:

Shirley Ratzmann also said the Living Church of God congregation her son attended had split from another church a few years ago.

"She stated that her son did not agree with the new pastor's point of view, but 'didn't harp on it,'" the report said.

My prediction regarding Terry's shooting pattern:

So to destroy this evil, he brought a gun to church and took out the pastor who had said the offensive thing, as well as -- at first -- people he suspected agreed with him on that point. Perhaps later he fired at random.

His longtime friend screamed at him, imploringly: "Stop! Stop! Why?"

Now Terry was faced with more evidence of his own evil. Why? There were bodies everywhere. People bleeding, people screaming. Once again, he had to shut out the intolerable suggestion of his own evil.

He turned the gun on himself and fired.

News excerpt:

Police said they think Ratzmann may have targeted his pastor's family and shot others at random Saturday when he walked into the service at the Brookfield Sheraton hotel and fired 22 shots from a handgun.