Christian Web News - The man who murdered the Rev. Fred Winters First Baptist Church in Maryville, Illinois has been identified.
On Monday, a man was charged with gunning down a pastor in a Baptist church then stabbing himself and two worshippers who tried to tackle him. Terry J. Sedlacek, 27, of Troy, was charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and aggravated battery, said Stephanee Smith, spokeswoman for prosecutor William Mudge.
Shortly after 8 a.m. on Sunday. the gunman strode into First Baptist Church, exchanged words with the Rev. Fred Winters., then fired a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol four times until it jammed.
Winters, 45, died of a single shot to the heart, the coroner said Monday. Authorities said they didn't know whether the married father of two knew Sedlacek. They did not comment on a possible motive or on the gunman's mental state.
"We're still not sure what the reasoning was," Illinois State Police Lt. Scott Compton said Monday.
Sedlacek once suffered bouts of erratic behavior his family said was due to Lyme disease. His attorney, Ron Slemer, told the Belleville News-Democrat that Sedlacek's mental and physical condition suffered after he contracted the disease several years ago.
But Dr. Eugene Shapiro, a Lyme disease expert at Yale University, said it would be unlikely that the tick-borne illness would make someone so violent.
"Lyme disease doesn't cause people to shoot people," Shapiro said.
Even as he remained hospitalized Monday in serious condition, Sedlacek was ordered held without bond. Authorities said after the shooting, he pulled out a knife and stabbed himself in the throat while being wrestled to the ground by two worshippers, who also were wounded.
Also in serious condition Monday was a 39-year-old congregant, Terry Bullard. The third victim, Keith Melton, was treated and released.
Sedlacek was featured last year in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article detailing his battle with Lyme disease. In the article, his mother said the disease left lesions on his brain and that doctors had diagnosed him as mentally ill before discovering the disease.
In the August 2008 article, Ruth Abernathy said her son was taking several medications and had difficulty speaking after contracting the tick-borne illness.
On Monday, a phone call to a number listed for Robert and Ruth Abernathy in Troy rang unanswered.
Slemer, Sedlacek's attorney, said the family is "very sorry" about Winters' death and that they spent Sunday evening with a pastor.
Untreated Lyme disease can spread to the bones, heart and nervous system. It can cause brain inflammation and in rare cases, problems with concentration and short-term memory, and sleep disturbances, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web site.
Other rare nervous-system symptoms include severe headaches and neck stiffness, which can be treated with antibiotics, Shapiro said.
There are also isolated reports of hallucinations and psychotic illness blamed on Lyme disease. But these are controversial and some experts, including Shapiro, believe affected people likely had pre-existing mental problems or were misdiagnosed and never had Lyme disease.
Several visitors stopped by the church Monday — one with tear-reddened eyes who dropped off a card. All declined to comment, as did a church receptionist.
Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent said that none of the 150 worshippers attending the Sunday service seemed to recognize Sedlacek, and investigators did not know details of Winters' conversation with him, but they planned to review an audio recording of the service.
Winters blocked the first of the gunman's four rounds with a Bible, sending a confetti-like spray of paper into the air in a horrifying scene worshippers initially thought was a skit, police said.
"We just sat there waiting for what comes next not realizing that he had wounded the pastor," said Linda Cunningham, whose husband is a minister of adult education at the church.
Winters had stood on an elevated platform to deliver his sermon about finding happiness in the workplace — titled "Come On, Get Happy" — and managed to run halfway down the sanctuary's side aisle before collapsing after the attack, Cunningham said.
First Baptist had an average attendance of 32 people when Winters became senior pastor in 1987; it now has about 1,200 members and according to the church's Web Site, had three services on Sunday.
Winters was former president of the Illinois Baptist State Association and an adjunct professor for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, according to the site.
He hosted Pizza with the Pastor dinners in his home, and the church organized bowling parties for fathers and daughters, karate classes and a golf league.
The church sits along a busy two-lane highway on the east side of Maryville, a fast-growing village of more than 7,000 about 20 miles northeast of St. Louis. A farm sits directly across from the church, but subdivisions of newer homes can been easily seen from every side.
"Things like this just don't happen in Maryville," Mayor Larry Gulledge said. "We've lost one the pillars of our community, one of our leaders."
Christian Web News - Jesus has a way of getting right to the point, doesn't He? There was certainly no mincing of words, He came right out and said, "why are you fearful?" and then went on to say, "O you of little faith." You don't have to read between the lines to see what He was saying, they had little faith.
Christian Web News - Galatians 3:13-14. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree''), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
