Daughter of Christian music star killed by car

Source: Associated Press



By JOE EDWARDS, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 16 minutes ago

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The 5-year-old daughter of Grammy-winning Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman was struck and killed Wednesday by a sport utility vehicle driven by her brother, authorities said.
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The girl, Maria, was hit in the driveway of the family's home Wednesday afternoon by a Toyota Land Cruiser driven by her teenage brother, said Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

The brother, whose name and exact age weren't available, apparently did not see the girl, McPherson said. No charges are expected.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080522/ap_on_en_mu/chapman_daughter

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Be nice now.....SCC If I remember supported Kerry in 04.

I have met SCC on a couple of occasions and my wife works closely with him at her job.

Duke

What a sad story.

Older sibling's action caused the death of a younger one. That's all I'll say. It was accidental, but God did it cause wounds in that family. I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

I wish that family peace, but they have forty miles of bad road ahead, no question. Rest in peace, Maria.

This is a horror beyond horrors. To have one child killed accidentally by the other is too much to comprehend.

SCC & I go to the same dentist. My heart goes out to the entire family.

If not my greatest fear. I have two children, one is severly developmentally delayed and the other is "bi-polar", and the bi-polar child has hurt their little sybling in the past- left scars even. I know they both love each other deeply but the scars that would be left on the older one would probably be irrepairable if they were to ever fatally cause injury to the younger child.

My thoughts and emotions go out to the family at this time.

May you find peace, eventually.

My prayers to SCC and his family during this dark time.

It's some measure of comfort that they know this isn't goodbye. I hope they have people who will support them through this ordeal.

Duke

Just want to see His face

You'ld think The Shepherd would do a better job with His flock.

Maybe not.

Maybe got better things to do.

So sad for the family...

Has it gotten to the point where not being "nice" to people who've just had this happen isn't what we'd expect on DU? Because the Chapman family goes to...church?

This is a family where the son has just run over and killed the daughter. Friggin' Christofascist Kool-Aid-swilling Borg Collective jackbooters. They probably deserve it, right?

Oh, wait, Chapman might have voted for Kerry. So he gets a temporary pass while they scrape up his kid from the driveway.

:eyes:

This anti-Christian stuff has become so integrated into the mindset here that a spiteful response is taken as a given by the O.P. The intolerance that implies sucks the breath from my chest.

Hence, my "wait for it" post.

:shrug:

Duke

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

I happen to be a feminist christian. There are many of us around, but this place is positively toxic against christians of any kind, really.

The difference being Xtains are those who selectively (mis)quote the bible and especially the Old Testament to promote their particular hates. The people who hide their bigotry, racism, sexism and hate behind a shield of religion while doing the very things that Jesus spoke against. Unfortunately, there's a lot of collateral damage in that war.

Sad stories, both the OP and those that have trouble distinguishing Xtians and Christians.

And their denials are angry all out of proportion to the suggestion.

The past 10 years have been especially damaging to those who live their faith. At one time anyone acknowledging their Christianity got no reaction from me. Now, I brace myself for RW hate & bigotry because that is what is what has made the news.

The OP's comment probably saved us from some of those responses. :(

being anti-christofascist. I would hope you could tell the difference.

but there are a lot of unreasonable people in the world, and on DU, when it comes to such matters.

You'd have to work pretty hard to avoid the general anti-Christian bias, and outright anti-Christian ugliness, in almost every thread on DU where someone's Christianity is mentioned in the original post.

I say that as a nonreligious person, too.

Bottom line is that slamming people you don't know because of the demographic, political, or religious group they belong to is bigotry, by definition.

big·ot (bĭg'ə n.
One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.
- The American Heritage Dictionary

Bigot: one who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

That's inviting bad behavior, deliberately in my mind. The assumption being that us "mean ol' atheists" are gonna come along and xtian bash. Are there mean people on this board? Yes but any message board..But this person practically invitated a believer-atheist flame fest with that bait.
There is just as much anti-atheist bigotry around. Seems to get forgotten alot.

I've lost track of threads of people mocking those who have been shot at church, hit by lightning, spoken about faith after their home was destroyed in a storm, etc. DU has a nasty streak a mile long, and the OP (and anyone who's been here any good length of time) knows it.

if the fish aren't biting, you don't get to have Filet o' Fish for dinner.

Duke

You knew it would happen.

No parent should ever have to bury a child. And I feel for the brother who has to live with that guilt. The child that died they had adopted.

What a shame!

This is really sad. And I can't help thinking that if it were someone on the left, the headline would have read "...killed by teenaged brother."

"Killed by car" points to an accident.

Depends on the neighborhood, but that wouldn't alarm me necessarily.

a 5 year old girl getting killed is horrible any way you look at it.

And get rid of the friggin SUV!

It really is a shame what that implies about the attitude toward Christians on the left.

I'm a Christian, and a majority of Independents AND Dems are as well. I just don't get why people feel compelled to attack people for their beliefs. You would think that the "protectors of civil liberties" would be more respectful about stuff like that.

Listen, I know that the evangelicals are, in large part, responsible for *Co getting "elected" twice. However, that sect is a bit of an embarassment to most of the rest of us. Don't paint us all with the same brush. I'm pro-Jesus, pro-choice, and pro-science. There are a huge number of people just like me. Most of us aren't koolaid drinking bible thumpers, and I'd dare say many of us have a reasoned and rational mind.

_______

It's terrible about these kids. I can't even imagine what that teenager is going through.

even if the kid's parents were the most rw evangelical nutjobs on the planet I would still feel pain on their behalf as everyone here feels

besides the OP asking us to "be nice"?

No one is painting anyone with any brushes here.

Please take your persecution complex to R & T,
where it can be examined in detail.

implied? hinted at? its obvious that christians do get some grief here and tolerance used to be the hallmark of DU.


and no I'm not christian just progressive

Could have just let it go and see if anyone was going to make a nasty remark, but no. Gotta get that little dig in. I didn't see any rudeness in my cursory review yet. My heart goes out to that family, I don't know if I personally could get past such a tragedy.

One thing lib'rul Xians seem to share with their Fundamentalist brethren: a complete inability to tell the difference between "disagreement" and "bigotry," or the difference between "discussion" and "persecution."

DU Xian, in any given thread: "Isn't my lib'rul God really cool?"
DU Atheist: "Excuse me, but I must respectfully point out that many of us on this board don't believe in any gods."
DU Xian: "W-A-A-H! You're a Fundamentalist Atheist and anti-Xian bigot!"

For those of you who are new here, you might want to look thru the archives.

You'll find fun stuff, like the time the ostensibly liberal Raw Story ran a front-page article calling for the Democratic Party to purge all its atheists.

I'm sure it wasn't deleted for well-wishes.

So sad for all of them.

for heavens' sake.

There are agonies you simply do not wish on your worst enemy, at least not if you are a human being. Losing a child is one of them. Losing a child in a way that makes anyone in the family feel responsible makes it double.

If you're going to withhold your sympathy for someone in that situation based on their religion or how they voted or some other stupid thing, you're just not human. I don't care who the person is.

...but little children are a whole different story.

this truly is a tragedy.

:cry: Tragic.

Julie

one child accidentally kills the other child....what the older child must be feeling...what the parents must be feeling


You'd have to set aside some of your grief just to protect the older child from the depth of their grief and guilt...because this carries the potential to lose two kids.

The level of devastation...

I wish them all healing

That boy will never be the same again.

n/t

I really can't imagine the horrible, complicated grief they are feeling right now.

:(

may peace be with this family at this time.

:cry:

one where you say payback is a bitch...although I don't know what this could possibly be payback for. That's just an out and out insane take on this situation.
The second post criticizes the headline, which is a waste of a post and contributes nothing.

Do you have anything to add that doesn't paint us in either a despicable or pedantic light?

what a tragic accident.:cry:

feel the love ans peace at this terrible time. To lose a child is bad enough, to lose a child through the actions of another child is absolutely horrible.

I hope that you feel the love and care people are sending. It shouldn't matter whether you were Christian, Mormon, Freeper, Republic, Democrat, black or white. We all feel the pain when losing a child.

I, for one when I speak with my higher power, will be asking for you to feel the presence of your God and for the love and compassion to show your older child.

I enjoy coming to DU because it usually is non-judgmental. I have gone through judgment all my life because I am not a perfect person. I have difficulties walking (I do walk just with a slower gait), due to Muscular Dystrophy, my speech sometimes slurs and it is worse now a days because of TMJ, I have difficulties chewing because of the muscle issues. I have always been judged and teased because of this.

We need to remember that we are all part of the human race, please have respect for the Chapman family in their time of need. Would you do it if it was one of our own having to deal with the same ordeal?

Something to think about....just saying.

Steven peace be with you and your family. :grouphug:

Crafty :cry:

The 5-year-old daughter of Grammy-winning Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman was struck and killed Wednesday by a sport utility vehicle driven by her brother

SUV's have huge blind spots, more than big enough to hide a small child. This is nowhere near the first time.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/03/earlyshow/main633815.shtml

SUVs are big vehicles. And they have big blind spots as well.

At least 91 children were killed last year by vehicles, many of them SUVs, that backed over the young victims. That's according to a troubling report from the advocate group Kids and Cars....

"My wife and I had returned home one evening," Dr. Gulbransen said. "It was a Saturday evening and we'd gone in the house. Our two children were asleep with the baby-sitter. My wife was inside. I stepped back outside temporarily to move the car - it was an SUV- from the street back into the driveway.

"My children were inside. The door was closed. While I was doing that, my 2-year-old son woke up and inadvertently got out of the house. As I was backing up the vehicle from the street into the driveway, I ran right over him. I did not see him. I did use rearview mirrors. I remember vividly, I looked out the rear window, backed in and felt that bump and looked out and saw that I'd run over him. And he died of massive head injuries."

:cry:

How many of the 91?

David

family members accidentally hitting and killing young children in their driveways-usually while backing up (more often than not in large vehicles). I remember one story of a mother killing her toddler, and another of an uncle killing his young nephew. Both were so stricken with grief and remorse that they never were able to function normally after the incidents. I hope this family gets a lot of counseling. Large vehicles need rear view cameras to avoid these horrors in the future.

Some cars also have a bad blind spot directly behind it. Thats how it is with my trans am cause of the rear wing and being forced to sit down real low. As for my truck, I have great visibility everywhere except directly behind the bed.

Anybody who rejoices in the death of any child should get tomb-stoned. I don't drive an S.U.V., but I do drive a VW Van Syncro. They are very tall with a huge blind spot in the back. I only back my van in to the driveway that way I can see everything and everyone in the area going in, and I have no blind spots going out. Backing over one of the neighbors kids would be one of my worst nightmares.

and the poor brother must feel hopeless. my heart really goes out to him.

my heart goes out to the family, especially the teenage brother who accidently killed his little sister. that is so tragic. :(

anyway, i think you are wrong about him supporting kerry in 2004. i did a google search and came up with this from the 2004 campaigns:

Musicians of all ages and genres are getting involved in campaign activities and fundraising. The most visible support for the Bush campaign appears to be from the country and contemporary Christian communities via such acts as Travis Tritt, Charlie Daniels, Third Day and Steven Curtis Chapman.

from this link:

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/25709/newsDate/28-Jun-2004/story.htm

when the music is cookie cutter country or bland christian pop, odds are that the singer is a repuke.

i just listened online to the guy's big hit, "cinderella". it's a touching, heartfelt song....sort of his "cat's in a cradle". he's got a nice voice but his stuff is over produced and basically soulless, the kind of stuff most evangelical christians get into. the less riveting and soulful the music, the better.

luckily, i pulled myself out of the nap i was fading into and clicked on this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=D2sfelvHAlU

it's amazing those horrible, drug addicted, godless, liberal rockers are more in touch with their soul than the bible thumpers.

My daughter was hit by a car when she was 5. She was okay, but I was still traumatized by it.
I can't imagine their grief.

I can't imagine what it feels like to lose a child. And I pray I never do. My heart goes out to this family.

"Hey, a dead kid! How can I make this about meeee? I know, I'll preemptively talk about how persecuted I am as a Christian! Maybe I can transfer some of the sympathy to meeee!"

This child's death is a tragedy which everyone - religious and non-religious, liberals and conservatives - can empathise with equally. Why attempt to turn it into a fight? Don't we have more than enough of those?

:sarcasm:

:hi:

I can't tell you how many times in the morning I've backed my car out of the garage, heading for work, without thinking about whether anyone's behind me.

This could happen to anyone. I'm terribly sorry to hear about this, and while I realize your relationship to this singer is just professional, I hope you let them know how the online progressive community feels for them.

The article says that other family members were there--which is terrible for them, but it must have been a comfort to the little girl (who died at the hospital, so I assume she was able to at least sense that her family was there with her), and I hope it was a comfort to her brother to not have to deal with being alone with his injured and dying sister.

No other consolation in this story that I can see. How absolutely heartbreaking. :cry: That poor boy. Maria's suffering is over and his is barely beginning. The family seems like loving and good people; I hope they get through this intact.

I fully anticipate this sort of twisted bullshit logic to come from the mindless faithful in response to this tragedy.

J

I found this on another Internet forum. Honest to Christ, if someone even dared to tell me this load of unmitigated horseshit to "console" me on the loss of my child...

<<<I was not familiar with the music of Stephen Curtis Chapman, but listening to the lyrics of Cinderella, I was moved by the prophetic theme, one which I'm sure Stephen did not have in mind when he wrote the song. Daddy was looking forward wistfully and joyfully to the day when he would dance at Maria's wedding, and give her hand to her Prince Charming. He did not know -- could not know -- that long before she was old enough to choose a spouse, she would be called to be a dancing partner of the Divine Son of the King of Heaven, the Prince of Peace.<<<

Call it a lack of faith, call it more of a belief in the random, inexplicable happenings of existence -- but I cannot fathom how ANYONE would take comfort in remarks such as these.

It would be terrifying for those without the mental constitution to have to deal with the prospect that "bad things happen to good people." God willing it so is an easy pass for an inconsistency in the expected outcome from their dogma that devout = prosperous.

J

Especially killed (accidentally) by a family member.

This whole story reeks of sorrow.