Reconciler
Jeanne Bishop has helped thousands of clients make amends for their crimes. Now she’s helping the man who killed her sister make amends for his.
On April 7, 1990, David Biro broke into the affluent suburban Chicago home of Nancy and Richard Langert armed with a glass cutter and a revolver. When the Langerts returned home that night, Biro, then 16, was waiting. He rejected the couple’s attempts to negotiate, which likely included money; police discovered $500 in cash abandoned at the scene. Biro shot Richard in the head and Nancy, who was pregnant, three times. He left her bleeding in the couple’s basement.
“It was Palm Sunday,” remembers Jeanne Bishop, Nancy’s sister. Bishop was at choir rehearsal at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. “The secretary came and said, ‘You have a phone call.’
“I said, ‘Can you take a message?’
“She said, ‘No, you need to come with me.’ ”
Bishop immediately thought of her elderly father. But it was his voice she heard over the phone: “Nancy and Richard have been killed.”
An image of a truck crushing the couple’s compact car on the expressway flashed through Bishop’s mind.
“What do you mean, killed?” she said.
“Somebody killed them.”
A week later, Bishop learned the details of her younger sister’s last moments. Nancy had remained alive for roughly 10 minutes after Biro shot her in the elbow, back, and abdomen. Before she died, she crawled over to her husband’s body and used her own blood to draw a heart and the letter U.
No Division
Six months after the murders, the police arrested Biro. An honors student at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, Biro had once been admitted to a psychiatric hospital for trying to poison his family. He had bragged to his …
Reconciler
Jeanne Bishop has helped thousands of clients make amends for their crimes. Now she’s helping the man who killed her sister make amends for his.
On April 7, 1990, David Biro broke into the affluent suburban Chicago home of Nancy and Richard Langert armed with a glass cutter and a revolver. When the Langerts returned home that night, Biro, then 16, was waiting. He rejected the couple’s attempts to negotiate, which likely included money; police discovered $500 in cash abandoned at the scene. Biro shot Richard in the head and Nancy, who was pregnant, three times. He left her bleeding in the couple’s basement.
“It was Palm Sunday,” remembers Jeanne Bishop, Nancy’s sister. Bishop was at choir rehearsal at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. “The secretary came and said, ‘You have a phone call.’
“I said, ‘Can you take a message?’
“She said, ‘No, you need to come with me.’ ”
Bishop immediately thought of her elderly father. But it was his voice she heard over the phone: “Nancy and Richard have been killed.”
An image of a truck crushing the couple’s compact car on the expressway flashed through Bishop’s mind.
“What do you mean, killed?” she said.
“Somebody killed them.”
A week later, Bishop learned the details of her younger sister’s last moments. Nancy had remained alive for roughly 10 minutes after Biro shot her in the elbow, back, and abdomen. Before she died, she crawled over to her husband’s body and used her own blood to draw a heart and the letter U.
No Division
Six months after the murders, the police arrested Biro. An honors student at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, Biro had once been admitted to a psychiatric hospital for trying to poison his family. He had bragged to his …
Church Clubs Expelled from University of Arizona Religious Council
Update: Faith Christian Church has resigned from ECFA.
Update (Apr. 8): Faith Christian Church, a controversial Arizona church accused by former members of being a cult, has resigned from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). The resignation was voluntary, according to the ECFA website.
Previously reported:
The religious council of the University of Arizona unanimously voted to ban three clubs affiliated with Faith Christian Church, a ministry that some former members have described as a cult.
“The number, seriousness, and pattern of red flags raised compel URC members to no longer believe that Faith Christian Church and its affiliates operate at the highest level of integrity, transparency, safety for students, and respect for students, standards required for URC membership,” said the University Religious Council. “This has come to light via numerous letters and testimonies recently sent to URC members which have brought to a head historic and current concerns related to the campus activities of Faith Christian Church and its affiliates.”
Faith Christian’s 3 campus ministries—Wildcats for Christ, Native Nations in Christ, and Providence Clubs—are among the university’s approximately 15 evangelical clubs.
The Faith Christian clubs remain official clubs at the University of Arizona, but since they are no longer part of the URC, their revoked status will be listed inside an orientation directory for students, along with a list of warning signs for “religious practices gone awry,” URC treasurer Michelle Blumenberg told the Arizona Daily Star. She also told the newspaper that Faith Christian and its clubs will be the only groups on that list.
In a 5,000 word report from the Daily Star published …
Church Clubs Expelled from University of Arizona Religious Council
Update: Faith Christian Church has resigned from ECFA.
Update (Apr. 8): Faith Christian Church, a controversial Arizona church accused by former members of being a cult, has resigned from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). The resignation was voluntary, according to the ECFA website.
Previously reported:
The religious council of the University of Arizona unanimously voted to ban three clubs affiliated with Faith Christian Church, a ministry that some former members have described as a cult.
“The number, seriousness, and pattern of red flags raised compel URC members to no longer believe that Faith Christian Church and its affiliates operate at the highest level of integrity, transparency, safety for students, and respect for students, standards required for URC membership,” said the University Religious Council. “This has come to light via numerous letters and testimonies recently sent to URC members which have brought to a head historic and current concerns related to the campus activities of Faith Christian Church and its affiliates.”
Faith Christian’s 3 campus ministries—Wildcats for Christ, Native Nations in Christ, and Providence Clubs—are among the university’s approximately 15 evangelical clubs.
The Faith Christian clubs remain official clubs at the University of Arizona, but since they are no longer part of the URC, their revoked status will be listed inside an orientation directory for students, along with a list of warning signs for “religious practices gone awry,” URC treasurer Michelle Blumenberg told the Arizona Daily Star. She also told the newspaper that Faith Christian and its clubs will be the only groups on that list.
In a 5,000 word report from the Daily Star published …
Terrorists Target Christians at Kenyan College; Nearly 150 Dead
Al-Shabaab takes hostages, wounds 65 more in latest attack.
Christians were the primary targets of a terrorist attack on a Kenyan university that has left as many as 150 people dead.
A spokesperson for Al-Shabaab confirmed that the Somali militants had deliberately gone after Christians.
“There are many dead bodies of Christians inside the building. We are also holding many Christians alive,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, told Reuters.
Another Al-Shabaab spokesperson told the AFP that militants had “released the Muslims” but that they were holding others hostage.
“Our people are still there, they are fighting, and their mission is to kill those who are against the Shabaab,” said Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said.
Eyewitnesses told CNN that gunmen arrived at Garissa University College early Thursday morning and took hostages from a morning prayer service.
Both World Watch Monitor and Morning Star News also covered the attack.
Taking hostages is a new strategy for Al-Shabaab, reported The Economist, noting that previous attacks by the group (including the 2013 Westgate mall massacre) have “focused solely on the business of killing” and that the group’s “new tactic has raised fears as to what the gunmen’s intent may be.”
Christian Solidarity Worldwide noted:
Al Shabaab attacks in Kenya have increased since October 2011, when Kenya’s army joined international efforts to stabilise Somalia following the cross-border abductions of foreign tourists by the group. It formally aligned itself with al Qaeda in 2012, although reports of foreign fighters amongst its ranks predated this announcement. There have been three attacks in the last two years in which the group has separated hostages according to religious identity …
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