Turning martyrs into saints is something that Catholics, not Protestants, are known for. But in the world of evangelical Web sites, where pious adolescents meet like Christians in the catacombs, Cassie is the subject of countless prayers, personal testimonials and songs like “You Went Home at Lunchtime.” As the budding hagiography has it, Cassie’s death was part of God’s plan to bring forth witnesses out of the Columbine killings who would then win others to Christ. That certainly was the message of Franklin Graham (Billy’s son and successor), who used the public memorial service in Littleton last April to call the mourners–including Jews–to conversion. That’s the message on Cassie T shirts. And that’s the message that will continue in a series of teen rallies in 28 states this summer planned by Revival Generation, a new evangelistic organization created in response to the Littleton shootings.
Cassie’s family isn’t speaking to the media about the the outpouring of interest in their daughter. But the title of a book by her mother, Misty, to be published by religious imprint Plough suggests that they too are interested in transforming her death from tragedy to triumph: “She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall” will be out in September. For the religious, this should not be entirely surprising. Christians have long found consolation in believing that their brethren, even their children, have died defending the faith. Throughout Christian history, martyrdom has been seen as God’s greatest gift of grace, and that belief has made the stories of the martyrs Christian classics.
To die a victim of simple adolescent outrage isn’t martyrdom in any religious sense. But Cassie’s case appears to fit the classic Christian mold. The male student who killed her was part of a group which had ardently embraced atheism. That made them resident aliens in a neighborhood thick with evangelical churches and evening youth groups like Warriors for Christ. The killers hated Jews, athletes and blacks as well. But of the dozen students they killed, four were members of a Bible-study society that meets daily for prayer. Inside the school, some evangelical kids were known to be concerned about their “unsaved” classmates, and many of the believers were easily distinguishable by the Bibles they carried to school. In short, evangelical kids formed one of the high-school cliques that the killers were out to punish.
Still, there would be no Christian martyrs at Columbine if Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold hadn’t asked for proclamations of belief–and in this, Cassie wasn’t alone. Here, in a late 20th-century American high-school library, two deeply troubled adolescent killers replayed the role of early Christianity’s Roman persecutors: they demanded a confession of faith. Rachel Scott, 17, another victim who died outside the school, did as well, according to her pastor. So, reportedly, did two survivors: Kacey Ruegsegger, 17, who was shot in the face and shoulder, and Valerie Schnurr, who was shot in the leg. In the early Christian church, the survivors would have been hailed as confessors–believers who were prepared to suffer martyrdom but were spared.
To some critics, casting Cassie as a martyr is an opportunistic reach for conversions. Lutheran pastor Don Maxhousen thinks it is “escapist theology” to claim that “she’s happy, she’s with God now” and wonders who will be there to help her parents over holidays when there’s no Cassie there to share Thanksgiving or celebrate Christmas. “As a Lutheran, I would be helping a family focus on getting through a long and dark period in their life.” Others would prefer to see attention focused on different agendas, like banning the sale of guns, posting the Ten Commandments or permitting organized prayer in public schools. “People desperately want a national conversation on this, and that is what I am going to do in the campaign,” says Gary Bauer, a conservative Christian candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.
Still, how long–and how well–Cassie and her fellow Christian victims will be remembered is hard to guess. T shirts have a much shorter hang time than stained-glass windows. Moreover, Americans generally prefer secular saints like Abraham Lincoln and Dr. King, who died for social causes. “We’ve never had a teenage Christian martyr, especially in this country,” says Josh Weideman, 17, who’ll be running this summer’s rallies. It’d be nice to think that she will be the last.
