Tuesday, January 21, 2014

A Baptist youth pastor murder/suicide

If Baptist pastors are not molesting children, then they are attempting to kill ex-girlfriends, or murdering their wife so they can take up with their gay lover, or killing people in shootouts at stoplights. The trend is crazy and it makes me wonder how much Baptist theology is behind all the mayhem.

The victim in the latest crime was Erik Peter Ungerman. The suspect/suicide victim is Jeremy Whitman, who fired into Ungerman’s car at a traffic signal, which killed him. Whitman drove off and eventually killed himself. I’d normal stop here… only one of them was a wantabe baptist youth pastor. No wait… both of them were… crap. Is this a lover’s murder suicide thing?

“Erik was an awesome man who I was in love with for nearly two years, and Jeremy Whitman was our Sunday school teacher from Lancaster Baptist Church,” said Ungerson’s former girlfriend Tiffany Martin. She said Ungerman worked at DirecTV as an installation technician.
Whitman, up until last year, was an employee at Lancaster Baptist Church, and he was also a youth pastor intern at the church many years ago, according to LBC Associate Pastor Tim Christoson.
Source: Victim, suspect ID’d in fatal car-to-car shooting

The motive, according to police, was “some dispute.”

Both men knew each other so a road rage motivated killing is out. That leaves a dispute over what… love gone wrong, affairs, drugs or money, it could be anything. What is troubling though is that two “good Christian men” would choose do resolve their conflict in such an un-Jesus-like way. This is not what we expect and platitudes do not bring us to why at least one of two men opted to settle a score with gun. 

Update 1/24/2014

A memorial fund has been established Erik Ungerman via Give Forward. 

The Blog Bible Madness posted on the outpouring of support for the shooter, Jeremy Whitman. It is an interesting read and captures my incredulity upon reading the same posts. 

Pastor Paul Chappell posted a glowing review of murderer Jeremy Whitman in his post, Remembering a Dear Friend, Jeremy Whitman. And yes, you can count on seeing this murder in heaven. Oh… and not a word about the victim, not a single word. 

Update 1/25/2014

New post documenting the evidence that support murder Jeremy Whitman as a pastor: Was the murderer Jeremy Whitman a pastor?

New post on possible links to corruption at Lancaster Baptist Church: I smell corruption at Lancaster Baptist Church

Update 1/26/2014

Pastor Pau Chappell posts: An Update on the Homegoing of Jeremy Whitman. No mention of the victim or his family. 

There were several unsubstantiated tips that Jeremy Whitman was struggling with his own sexuality.