Church says Pa.-gunman will face ‘God’s justice’
FOREST HILLS, Pa. - If prayers were said yesterday for the soul of the gunman who killed three women at a health club, they were not by the parishioners of a church he once attended: Tetelestai Church doesn’t pray for the dead.
“We pray for the living - the victims and the family of George Sodini,’’ said Chuck Matone, a senior deacon.
And Sodini? “God will hold him accountable. God has his justice.’’
Sodini’s name wasn’t mentioned during the service, held in the auditorium of Trinity Christian School.
But John Dorohovich, an associate pastor, referred to the LA Fitness club shooter’s long-seething rage indirectly, urging the faithful to reject “the bitterness and the gall and man’s frantic search for happiness.’’
Sodini shot and killed Elizabeth Gannon, Heidi Overmier, and Jody Billingsley and wounded nine others Tuesday night at the Bridgeville facility before killing himself.
Church records suggest that Sodini last attended services about five years ago. He signed an enrollment card in March 2004 but was removed from the congregation sometime later for harassing a woman, Matone said.
Sodini’s misery was apparent in his rambling, hate-filled blog, in which he complained of a nonexistent sex life, years of rejection by women, and social isolation. Among those he blamed for his perceived troubles were his family and Tetelestai’s longtime pastor, Alan “Rick’’ Knapp, whose teachings he interpreted as assurance that he would go to heaven even after committing murder. “This guy teaches [and convinced me] you can commit mass murder, then still go to heaven,’’ he wrote.
Knapp, who left town Saturday to care for his critically ill father in Florida, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Friday that “the message of the word I preach never reflected such a thing.’’
