EMNR Press Release Concerning The Tragedy in Milwaukee

The citizens of Milwaukee and the United States were stunned by the unprecedented shooting of 11 members of the Living Church of God during their regularly scheduled sabbath worship services on March 12, 2005, at the Sheraton Hotel in Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The gunman, Terry Ratzmann, was a member of the church facing unemployment and other stresses. Without speaking a word, he killed 7 people, including the pastor and his son, and wounded four others. Ratzmann emptied nearly two clips of a 9mm handgun, apparently shooting at random, and then committed suicide with the remaining bullet. 

The Living Church of God, founded by Roderick C. Meredith, is a nontrinitarian, sabbatarian sect based on the teachings of the late Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God. When the Worldwide Church of God adopted evangelical beliefs in the 1990s, Meredith left to form a church that would continue in Armstrong’s original teachings.

The story of the metamorphosis of the Worldwide Church of God from a nontrinitarian sect to an evangelical church is given by current Worldwide Church of God president Joseph Tkach, Jr., in his book Transformed by Truth (Multnomah, 1997), and by J. Michael Feazell, executive editor of The Plain Truth magazine, in The Liberation of the Worldwide Church of God (Zondervan, 2003).  A documentary of the changes brought to the church by the discovery of God’s grace can be found in the 74-minuted video Called to Be Free (Living Hope Ministries, 2004). The Worldwide Church of God now belongs to the National Association of Evangelicals and its president, Joseph Tkach, Jr., currently holds membership in EMNR.

Although the teachings and practices of the Living Church of God place them as one of the New Religions with which EMNR is concerned, we join with them in mourning this cruel and senseless tragedy. Evangelicals everywhere should be dismayed and grieved at this event, and we urge EMNR members and others to offer prayer, intercession, as well as sending flowers and other appropriate forms of emotional support to the victims of this tragedy.

For additional information contact:

Ronald Kelly
Director of Church Relations
Worldwide Church of God
626-304-6090
Ron.Kelly@wcg.org

Jim Valentine
Christian Apologetics Research and Information Service
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
2jimval@sbcglobal.net

• “In 1982, EMNR was formed to become “a consortium of Christians in North America, seeking to help people distinguish authentic from in-authentic Christianity and strengthen evangelical Christian ministries to new religionists and cultists.” [...more...]
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