It may be true to say that only two things are known for sure about the recent tragic killings in Norway. The first is that the whole event is beyond comment when it comes to sheer horror and evil. The second is that the man who committed these murders, Anders Behring Breivik, is a very deranged and conflicted individual, probably suffering from some severe and, as yet, untreated sociopathic or narcissistic personality disorder. But even at this early stage, I think we can also see in this tragedy how theological illiteracy, as well as gnostic-type secret societies and Internet war games can contribute to the warping of sick minds.Not wanting to go into detail, and just commenting on what I have read in the press, it seems to me that Andres Breivik is prone to severe fantasy. He also appears to have had a highly dysfunctional childhood, and also seems obsessed with himself and his desire to project a "strong" image. All these traits point to a person who might be suffering from some severe disorder of the ego, which has obviously led to some extremely disjointed and unbalanced thinking.
It is now known that Breivik belonged to secret societies, such as the Freemasons, and believed himself to be a member of some exclusive modern "Knights Templar". In fact, some Masons enjoy this type of fantasising, and there already exists, so I believe, a branch of Freemasonry that claims to be of "Templar" origin. Needless to say, it is probably true that most of the men who join such neo-Gnostic groups do so out of a sense of inadequacy or from a desire to feel some "power" or sense of superiority over those who are outside the group. The same mentality - to a greater or lesser degree - is found in other cults and Gnostic movements, ranging from mystery religions to Nietzschean-type pagan or atheistic organisations.
Anders Behring Breivik also appears to be a very conflicted and ideologically lazy individual - in that his ideas often contradict each other, whilst his so-called "Manifesto" seems to have been copied verbatim from the deranged Theodore Kaczynski's "Unabomber" manifesto. He also appears to have been inspired by the paranoid Oklahoma Bomber, Tim McVeigh, who also committed mass murder and belonged to secretive fringe groups.
It was telling that the BBC and other media outlets with a bias against Christianity spent a lot of the past weekend calling Breivik a "fundamentalist Christian", mainly because of the man's Facebook page and some comment made by a Norwegian police officer. But, although Anders Breivik seems to have wanted to save "cultural Christianity", it plainly appears from his "Manifesto" that he didn't really believe in God, and was in reality a social-Darwinian ("survival of the fittest") with an assumed bent towards the philosophy of the Ubermench. He claimed in his "Manifesto" that he was "a man of logic" and that he wasn't "an excessively religious man" - so much for the Christian fundamentalist theory! He also claimed that "it is essential that science takes an undisputed precedence over biblical teachings. Europe has always been the cradle of science, and it must always continue to be that way." These sentences sound more like Dawkins than Billy Graham to me.
Anders Breivik is obviously theologically illiterate and his notions of the medieval Crusades seem to have stemmed from fiction and fantasy, the type we find in The Da Vinci Code or in the war games he appears to have played on-line. Apparently, though, he did attend a Lutheran church from time to time in Oslo, but thought that "religion is a crutch for weak people". Breivik also wrote in his "Manifesto" that he didn't believe Christians should have a personal relationship with the Divine, but should espouse "Christian atheism". He also seemed to admire a form of Catholicism that has never existed in reality - rather, it appears, he was obsessed with a bizarre Mediaevalism. He also seemed to think that Protestantism had now achieved its goals in converting the Catholic Church to such a great extent that Lutherans should become Catholics - as long, that is, as the pope becomes a "non-suicidal" military campaigner!
Breivik's so-called support of Christianity must be viewed, then, in the context of his Freemasonry and paganism - both of which alienate him from the Church. In his "Manifesto" he refers to himself as "100% Christian", yet also glories in his pagan Viking heritage - especially in his name, Behring, which, as he points out, "is a pre-Christian Germanic name." Conflicted doesn't even begin to describe such lunacy.
Anders Breivik's political ideas also seem to contradict each other in the extreme. He is a fan of Churchill and hates the Nazis, but killed little children for the sake of his deranged ideals whilst espousing many of those Aryan pagan fantasies that fuelled the Nazi movement. He also seems to enjoy the liberal secularism of western Europe, which provides a certain stability, but also calls for armed revolution against so-called "cultural-Marxism". Whilst holding onto the abhorrent views of Nietzsche, his "Manifesto" is obsessed with highlighting the equally intolerant views held by militant Islam. His "Manifesto" claims to support all the highest achievements of European civilisation, whilst forgetting its most important ideal: the sacred nature of all human life.
Anders Breivik's murder of innocent children and young people has scarred his own nation and was an act of extreme cowardice and evil. Needless to say, he should receive the maximum punishment available, and his mad and sickening ideas must not be given any credence. It was, in that sense, very good that his court appearance yesterday was held in camera. It is a shame, though, that his "Manifesto" is now so openly available - it will, of course, feed other sick minds. Having said that, one good has come from the publication of his ideas - namely the fact that people can now see that this man is completely unstable. His views are, at best, incoherent and stem mainly from a troubled past and possibly from some deep flaw within his own psyche.
It appears that Breivik acted alone, and that his fantasy about belonging to some super order of knights belongs to his own distorted mind's imagination. It is also clear that all mainstream politicians and Christian Churches in Norway have condemned his actions in the strongest possible terms. There is no ambiguity from the universal Church when it comes to the fact that self-proclaimed murdering "cultural revolutionaries" or "saviours" have no place within Christianity. They belong to the asylum or the prison cell, at best.
These things, of course, are of no consolation to the people affected by Anders Breivik's horrific attacks. Those left to mourn will now have to spend the rest of their lives carrying a cross that none of us would ever want to receive. As we have witnessed in recent days, all the churches of Norway have been open during the aftermath of this tragedy, so that all may pray and find some solace within their walls. All we can do, then, is send our own messages of support to the people of Norway, whilst assuring them of our prayers for the dead and the bereaved. We can also, now that we know what he has written, and for the sake of his victims, choose to ignore the ravings and writings of the madman, Anders Behring Breivik.
[Image: Anders Breivik in his Freemason's apron and regalia; this image is now widely available and is in the public domain]
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