Slain Student’s Act of Faith Inspires Nation’s Christians

Out of the violence that erupted two weeks ago in Littleton, Colo., evangelical Christians have rapidly fashioned a symbol.

Cassie Bernall, a 17-year-old born-again Christian was one of the 12 students killed at Columbine High School--reportedly after telling her killer that she believed in God. For many, particularly in Christian youth movements, she has become an exemplar of youthful courage, a teenage icon of faith. Some are calling her a modern day martyr.

For most Americans, Cassie’s name may be just another on a list of victims. But for countless thousands of devout Christians, her story--based on only sketchy facts--has taken on great meaning. It is being used in Sunday sermons, has been the focus of church youth groups and is the grist for Christian talk radio.

“I hope the world will recognize that she has been a martyr in the highest and noblest sense of that word,” said the Rev. Robert W. Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, who was invited to visit privately with Cassie’s parents on Saturday. “She knowingly stood up for her faith and was prepared to pay the price--which was her life.”

Whether Cassie was, in fact, killed specifically because of her faith will probably never be known for sure.

The initial account from one of the survivors of the Columbine High School massacre was simply that one of the gunmen had asked a girl, later identified as Cassie, if she believed in God and had shot her after she said “Yes.”

Later accounts, repeated in some press reports, had the killer responding “there is no God” before pulling the trigger.

The accounts now being widely repeated in Christian circles are even more elaborate.

At a recent meeting for Christian youth at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Forrest Rickard, a counselor, put it this way to a group of some 175 teenagers: “They started shooting up the place . . . Everybody’s on the ground and he yells out, ‘Anybody in here believe in God?’ Cassie Bernall stands up and says, ‘I do.’ And he blows her away. Shoots her.”

While the details of the story are unclear, its power is plain.

At Harvest, for example, Rickard’s account silenced the teenage crowd, which only moments before had been jumping to the beat of a Christian rock band.

Mary Beth Wilburn, a 13-year-old junior high school student with dark red hair and blue-green eyes, says the story “made me think if that were to happen to me . . . I would just pray that God would give me the strength to say, ‘Yes, I do believe in God,’ and hopefully share with that person,” she said.

“And if it meant death, then it meant death . . . It’s horrible she had to lose her life [but] I know she’s in heaven right now and that’s really great. I would hope to do the same.”

Josh McDowell of Josh McDowell Ministries of Dallas, the youth ministries arm of Campus Crusade for Christ, has seen the reaction spread among the teenagers he talks with.

“I think young Cassie’s life is going to probably have a more phenomenal impact upon young people over the next 10 years than anything I’ve seen in the last 10 or 15 years,” he said.

Several factors underlie the strong reaction to Cassie’s story.

It comes at a time, for example, when Christian churches, particularly evangelical ones, have been talking more about martyrdom--emphasizing the issue of Christians in other lands who are persecuted for their beliefs.

At home, the response to the story may also be in part an attempt by teenagers, confronted by inexplicable horror, to find a hero whose story can redeem the Littleton tragedy, says Wade Clark Roof, author of the 1993 best seller, “A Generation of Seekers.”

“That’s a pretty powerful humankind of thing,” Roof said. “For many young people this young woman emerges as a very strong figure. Maybe what it does is to redefine a kind of boundary, a limit where insanity must stop. To affirm belief is to say we can’t go any further with this craziness.”

Others say they see problems in elevating a 17-year-old American high school girl to the status of martyrdom.

“Certainly, there’s a danger of sensationalizing this for propagandistic sorts of purposes,” said Randall Balmer, an evangelical scholar and author best known for his 1993 PBS television series, “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory,” based on his book of the same title.

Martyrdom is usually thought of as a “voluntary death” by someone as an act of faith or fidelity, said Balmer. Certainly, Cassie didn’t want to die. She may have simply been answering a question when she was asked if she believed in God, he pointed out.

New Testament scholar Frederick W. Weidmann of Union Theological Seminary in New York cautioned that even as Cassie’s faith is celebrated, Christian leaders should be careful to “not whip people up into thinking one ought to seek out a martyr’s death as the most authentic expression of Christianity.”

Christian churches have long honored martyrs, he noted, but have also cautioned that people should not seek martyrdom. In the Gospel according to Matthew, for example, Jesus tells believers to flee to another town if they are being persecuted.

Despite the cautionary notes, however, Cassie’s answer was extraordinary by almost any measure, said Balmer. “There was something rather noble about this,” he said. It was inevitable, he said, that it would attract the attention of people of faith.

Clearly it has done that. Youth minister Ruben Castorena of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has fielded numerous calls from parish youth workers wanting to know the name of the girl whose story they have heard of.

In Athens, Ga., youth worker Barry Shettel with the Prince Avenue Baptist Church said high school students have begun pondering whether they would have the courage to stand up for their faith as Cassie did.

Greg Laurie, senior pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship, holds up Cassie as an example to his congregation.

“You want to look through your heroes today? Don’t look at basketball players or rock stars. Look at a young girl like that,” he told congregants at one recent meeting.

“That’s a hero in my book. A true hero. That [faith] is the only hope for people like her, the only hope for those kids. They need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ!”

Cassie became an active Christian two years ago after earlier turning away from religion and experimenting with the occult, according to her family. Her life story is a model for other young people, Laurie said.

“This has put many young people on a real search for what really matters in life now that they have seen that even a high school campus is not necessarily a safe place,” he said.

Added Roof: “Like all things, this too in time may pass. But I think she will be remembered for quite a while . . . I think her story will probably endure . . . longer than a random shooting would.”