For 36 minutes on Friday, March 15, terror struck New Zealand as Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a white supremacist, killed 50 innocent people in the country’s deadliest mass shooting since 1943.
Tarrant attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, during their busiest time of the day. Tarrant, 28, was charged with murder the day after the shooting, while two others associated with the crime were taken into custody.
The tragedy sparked debate and action on gun legislation as a gun control bill will likely become law within the next few weeks.
“This will mean that within four weeks of the Christchurch terrorist attack, New Zealand will have passed legislation banning all military-style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles,” deputy Prime Minister Wilson Peters said last week.
Bible professor and head of the missions department at Oklahoma Christian University Robert Carpenter said his initial reaction to the shooting was shock, as many people, including himself, view New Zealand as an “oasis” to terrorism.
“It is very disturbing that the person who did the shooting was connecting it back to white nationalist terrorism,” Carpenter said. “I’ve seen things since then about how much connection there is internationally among nationalists.”
According to Carpenter, there are multiple Oklahoma Christian graduates and people connected with the Memorial Road Church of Christ living in New Zealand.
“It’s unusual; all of a sudden we have people either directly or indirectly connected to Oklahoma Christian or at Memorial Road in New Zealand,” Carpenter said. “Bobby Kern also takes a group there every summer.”
Carpenter teaches a world religions class at Oklahoma Christian and recently took his students to visit the An-Nasar mosque in Oklahoma City, a trip which Carpenter has made since 2006.
After observing the worship, students have the opportunity to ask the Imam any question about Islam. Typically, the Imam will also invite students to take a tour of the mosque, which often holds over 1,000 people on a Friday night.
“Our students have the chance to ask questions of the Imam,” Carpenter said. “He’s very skilled and knowledgeable. He’s an adjunct professor at Oklahoma City University; he also teaches world religions as I do. He always tells people that no questions are out of bounds, ‘You want to ask me about terrorism, then ask me about terrorism.’”
After the shooting, Carpenter sent the Imam at An-Nassar an encouraging text, to which the Imam sent a “warm response.”
Despite the recent shooting, Oklahoma Christian alumna and Freshman Experience advisor Madeline Roseke will move to New Zealand on April 15 to work with the Helpers in Missions (HIM) program, an extension of the Memorial Road Church of Christ about 225 miles away from the mosques in Christchurch.
“Just like it is anywhere in the world any time you hear about any violence that affects citizens, and especially innocent people, it initially jerks your heart,” Roseke said. “But especially if someone comes into a place where it should be peaceful, a place to connect with God. To have someone come in and take away that innocence, just like it was at the mosque shooting, that is just heartbreaking on a whole different level.”
Still, Roseke said she finds excitement in the opportunity to love in a different place with a different culture.
“New Zealand has super great and friendly people full of the desire to create community and love on one another,” Roseke said. “With this specific incident, regardless of their religious beliefs, respect for others’ religions as well as loving people no matter their differences is going to be something that I’m really going to take in going to New Zealand. A lot of what I believe Christ calls us to do is just to build on relationships and build on loving people.”
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