Christians are no longer safe to practice their faith in the United States, Reverend Franklin Graham warned following reports that the victims of the Oregon college shooting were specifically targeted because of their faith.
"Persecution and targeting of Christians isn't just in Iran or the Middle East; it's right here in America. The bold souls at Umpqua Community College who stood up to say they were followers of Jesus Christ were heinously gunned down with no mercy," Graham shared on his Facebook page.
He then shared a link to a report made by CNN, stating the account made by one of the victims named Anastasia Boylan. Because of the attack, Anastasia needed to get spinal surgery. She told her father and brother before going to the operating room that she was actually one of the fortunate ones, because the gunman entered her classroom and fired indiscriminately. She said her professor was shot point blank in the head.
Everybody in the classroom immediately dropped to the ground, but while he was reloading his gun, the gunman asked the Christians to stand up.
"And they would stand up and he said, 'Good, because you're a Christian, you're going to see God in just about one second,'" she said. "And then he shot and killed them."
Cassandra Welding, another student who was in a different class, was also one of the fortunate ones who left the school unscathed. However, she and the rest of her classmates who also survived the carnage are still trying to recover from the trauma.
"We locked the doors, turned off the lights, and we were all pretty much in panic mode," Welding said. "We called 911 and called our parents, our loved ones... We didn't know what was going to happen, if those were our last words or not."
Ten people were killed because of the attack, including the gunman himself, who committed suicide during an exchange of gunfire with lawmen. Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin added that seven other individuals were injured.
He initially refused to divulge the name of the shooter so as not to give him any publicity. "I will not name the shooter," Hanlin said. "I will not give him the credit he probably sought."
However, reports later revealed the identity of the gunman: Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, who identified himself as a "mixed race."
