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Campus killer: "Here's a lesson in spirituality"
Robert Stewart Flores Jr., walked into the College of Nursing at the University of Arizona, where his fellow students were taking a multiple-choice midterm exam.

He walked up to Cheryl M. McGaffic, a volunteer chaplain at the University Medical Center and ethics teacher who taught students about the relationship between health and spirituality.

"Cheryl, are you prepared to use your spiritual resources now?" Flores asked. "'Here's a lesson in spirituality. Make peace with your maker." Then he killed her.

"It didn't register at first, then I just heard the gunshot go off and I could see her fall to the ground," student Diana Lugo told The Arizona Daily Star. "He did it in a kind of calm, gross, happy way. It was kind of like a joke to him."

Then Flores approached assistant professor Barbara S. Monroe and asked, "Do you remember what was the last thing you said to me?" Monroe said she didn't. "Are you ready to meet your maker?," he asked. When she choked out, "Yes," he shot her in the chest.

Flores then released the 50 or so students in the room and shot himself.

The students who witnessed the killings found out later that another professor had been killed: Robin E. Rogers, a very active member of Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church who led singing and the congregation's nursing ministry.

Rogers had asked her fellow worshipers to pray for protection from Flores just two days before the murders.

Surely Flores was driven by more than just spirituality, but it seems to be a thread to the three murders. Yesterday, reports the Star, mourners at the three women's memorial services struggled for healing and answers.

Beliefnet no longer financially bankrupt
Scaling back from 69 employees to five, depending mostly on reprints, massively cutting original material, and scrubbing their own toilets, multifaith website Beliefnet has pulled out of bankruptcy, reports USA Today. CEO Stephen Waldman says it's unclear "if it's a reincarnation, a resurrection, or just good fortune. But we do know we're alive and feeling very blessed!"

But all those cuts apparently came at a steep price. USA Today calls Beliefnet "the Net's most popular religion site," but then says it "drew 1 million visitors a month." Is it still drawing that many? And if so, why can't it make a profit? After all, ChristianityToday.com drew 1.2 million unique visitors this month, employs 18 — and it's in the black.

Halloween:

• Spellbound | Halloween fever is upon us again, and thanks to Buffy, Sabrina and Harry, witches and wizards are more popular with kids than ever. Is there any harm in it? (The Guardian, London)
  
  
• Halloween alternative delivers fire, brimstone | "Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames" is among a growing number of congregations trying to come up with alternatives to what they see as the subversive Halloween traditions of witches, ghosts, and goblins (The Bergen [N.J.] Record)
  
  
• Church's Hell House draws on Sept. 11 tragedy | Wife of youth pastor said the organizers don't want to upset people, and they decided not to portray any of the Islamic terrorists to avoid inflaming the local Muslim population (Waco [Tex.] Tribune-Herald)
  
  
• Film looks at Halloween alternative | A new documentary, "Hell House," looks at the phenomenon through one church, Trinity Assembly of God Church in Cedar Hill, outside Dallas, which has staged a Hell House for the past 12 Halloweens (Associated Press)
  
  
• Churches use pagan day to send message | Some Christians turn to haunted houses to spread word about damnation, salvation (The Detroit News)
  
  

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October (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46