Blasphemous Rumour: February 2009 Archives

United States: A man walked into Robert H. Schuller's church, the Crystal Cathedral, and shot himself in front of a cross.

Betty Spicer, a volunteer usher at the famous sanctuary, said she greeted Smick when he entered. She said he handed her a folded note with two cards inside as the man told her: You may want this.

Spicer said he then walked to the foot of the cross. She and Yvette Manson, another volunteer, said they thought Smick was praying when they heard a pop.

The man used a semiautomatic handgun, said police Lt. Dennis Ellsworth.

At the same time, church volunteers were telling a group of visitors about the church's suicide prevention programme, which is based on prayer rather than anything with any basis in the real world.

Man kills self in SoCal televangelist's cathedral—International Herald Tribune, 19th February 2009 (thanks, Pastor Best OPI),