Heidi Johnson didn\u2019t volunteer to fight in America\u2019s culture wars, she got caught in the crossfire in the Columbine High School library.<\/p>\n\n
A crowd of preachers, political activists, rock musicians and boisterous teens became extremely quiet last week when the willowy 16-year-old spoke at a rally on Capitol Hill in Washington. She is one of several survivors who has spoken at religious rallies and conventions and faced waves of media interviews. Still, she seemed poignantly out of place in the marble-and-gilt environs of a U.S. Senate caucus room.<\/p>\n\n
She spoke quickly, keeping her voice under tight control as she moved through the minefield of her memories. April 20 was a normal day. She went to the library at lunch, as usual. She heard explosions. The shots drew closer. Then the gunners were right there, killing the kids who were under the library tables. The story hasn\u2019t changed. It was real.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI saw things that no one should every have to see. My innocence was lost,\u201d said Johnson, at a rally urging students to back a Nov. 17 effort to spread the Ten Commandments in public schools, using T-shirts, book covers and signs.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhen kids are killing kids, it\u2019s time to go back to the basics,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n
People keep asking Johnson and other survivors the same questions. But there are so many questions she can\u2019t answer \u2014 including many of her own. She still isn\u2019t sure exactly what happened. It was hard to hear, in the cacophony of gunfire and taunts and screams and sobs. Johnson said she has \u201cblanked some of it out\u201d of her mind.<\/p>\n\n
Many ask about the exchange between Cassie Bernall and her killer. Witnesses have said that a gunman asked, \u201cDo you believe in God?\u201d Bernall said, \u201cYes, I believe in God.\u201d The killer laughed and said, \u201cWhy?\u201d, then killed her. But some people claim he asked, \u201cDo you believe in Jesus Christ?\u201d, and blame the media for covering this up. Even more elaborate stories are circulating at rallies and on the Internet.<\/p>\n\n
Johnson said she doesn\u2019t remember, but said other witnesses have told her they heard: \u201cDo you believe in God?\u201d No one knows why Eric Harris \u2014 who Johnson said was doing most of the talking \u2014 asked the question.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt really doesn\u2019t matter. It wasn\u2019t really him talking,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cWhen I saw his face and looked in his eyes, he just wasn\u2019t there. There was no one there. \u2026 I believe he asked that because he was possessed. That question came from somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
In the weeks after the massacre, some commentators \u2014 secular and religious \u2014 have talked openly about evil and even the demonic. Some have quoted Pope John Paul II, who believes the principalities and powers of this age have created a \u201cculture of death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The killers, ultimately, were responsible for their actions, argued veteran speechwriter Peggy Noonan, in the Wall Street Journal. But they were symbolic figures. Children are like fish swimming in toxic images, ideas and values, she said. Some of the fish get sick.<\/p>\n\n
Using news reports, Noonan drew a small pool of ink from this sea, containing: \u201c\u2026was found strangled and is believed to have been sexually molested. \u2026took the stand to say the killer was smiling the day the show aired. \u2026said the procedure is, in fact, legal infanticide. \u2026court battle over who owns the frozen sperm. \u2026contains songs that call for dominating and even imprisoning women. \u2026died of lethal injection. \u2026had threatened to kill her babies. \u2026\u201d And so forth and so on.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhat walked into Columbine High School,\u201d said Noonan, \u201cwas the culture of death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Another Columbine student \u2014 one of the dead \u2014 made a similar point at last week\u2019s rally. A speaker read a letter from the mother of Rachel Scott, who was one of Columbine\u2019s most outspoken young Christians. The letter contained an entry from her daughter\u2019s journal, written days before her death.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m dying,\u201d wrote Scott, describing the despair felt by many young people. \u201cQuickly my soul leaves, slowly my body withers. It isn\u2019t suicide. I consider it homicide. The world you have created has led to my death.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heidi Johnson didn\u2019t volunteer to fight in America\u2019s culture wars, she got caught in the crossfire in the Columbine High School library. A crowd of preachers, political activists, rock musicians and boisterous teens became extremely quiet last week when the willowy 16-year-old spoke at a rally on Capitol Hill in Washington. She is one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n