Jerry Newcombe, spokesman for the evangelical religious group Truth in Action Ministries, says Americans have lost their fear of hell and that’s why the mass shooting at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater happened.

One News Now: How do we make sense out of this kind of thing? Why do things like this happen? I can’t help but feel that to some extent, we’re reaping what we’ve been sowing as a society. We said to God, “Get out of the public arena.” Lawsuit after lawsuit, often by misguided “civil libertarians,” have chased away any fear of God in the land — at least in the hearts of millions. Read more

Oh, and he also said that only Christian victims of Friday’s shooting are going to heaven. Those who aren’t, Newcombe added, will be going to a “terrible place.”

The Huffington Post: Perhaps more disturbing were Newcombe’s comments on a segment on the American Family Association dedicated to understanding the shooting tragedy in Colorado. In taking about the deaths, Newcombe separated the afterlife fate of those who died as Christians and those who did not: If a Christian dies early, if a Christian dies young, it seems tragic, but really it is not tragic because they are going to a wonderful place … on the other hand, if a person doesn’t know Jesus Christ … if they knowingly rejected Jesus Christ, then, basically, they are going to a terrible place. Read more

It is worth noting that the Southern Poverty Law Center lists the American Family Association as a hate group.

— Posted by Tracy Bloom.