Jason Fairbanks family murder/suicide in Scottsdale (Tempe: crime rates, movies)

[Elna Rae]

Can't imagine what the extended family is going through right now. My heart goes out to you and if any of you choose to read the following I must warn you: It doesn't reflect well on Jason. But my goal is to honor his wife and those precious children and help others who may be contemplating suicide... or worse.

This family lived very, very close to me. Saw them walking some mornings with their children but never personally met them. The community is left with lots of questions that do matter so that we can minister to others who may be a proverbial powder keg ready to go off. Obviously most of us don't know exactly what was in his mind before he carried out this premeditated, cowardly act but there are certainly underlying conclusions that one can draw.

1. No sanctity of life. We live in a culture where people justify murdering unborn babies so it stands to reason that for these people who view life as a haphazard conglomeration of cells rather than image bearers of a creator, there are no universal authoritative "rules" to govern how we should treat one another... much less believe in eternal consequences/rewards after our earthly demise. In essence; they believe we live, we die and that's that. How utterly meaningless and hopeless. And a lie.

2. The belief that Jason Fairbanks was a "good guy". From what I've read he gave outward appearances of caring for others including his family but let's be honest: His last series of decisions completely obliterated any "good" he may have done during his lifetime and ultimately defined who he really was. (To some degree we're all in the same boat and need an "intervention" on our behalf. "No one is good. No, not one.")

3. Again, from what I have read it appears that Jason Fairbanks' security may have been in his occupation, financial success, and reputation. When one's value system is solely defined by those qualities what happens when these traits are gone? I believe murder/suicide is an extreme conclusion but if someone doesn't have hope and a reason for living beyond their synthetic value system why would they desire to continue living? Suicide makes perfect sense. As far as choosing to murder his family, the possibility exists that may have been motivated by thoughts of his wife and children moving on and eventually calling another man "husband" and "dad" after his suicide. No matter what his motivation was for murder he truly was a perfect example of someone who neither understood nor accepted that we were created for a purpose and the only reason that life has any ultimate meaning is in light of our sovereign creator.

[AZgarden]

Obviously he felt there was NO way out. A cornered animal with no escape. His business website looked very good, like it was making money, judging from the comments. So there must have been extenuating circumstances, of which we know nothing. Drugs? Gambling? Porno? Who knows.

Terrible tragedy with unknown reasons.

[Potential_Landlord]

Murder rate and violent crime rates are waaay down compared to any earlier time in the US and probably even before the Revolutionary War. Heck, in Europe some cities have fairly reliable murder statistics going back to the 1300s and showing new all time LOWs in the murder rate. Obviously, the murder rate is much higher in the US, so there must be something wrong here compared to the secular European countries like Germany, France, the UK etc. If anything, higher religious attendance is correlated to a higher murder rate. In other words, religion is NOT the answer. Keep it secular, people if you want to save lives.

[thinkalot]

[mod snip] orphaned

We have more high profile killings (result of 24 hour news?) and the murder rate has had a slight rise lately but we are nowhere near the murder rate of the 80's and 90's. Property crime is at a 40 year low.

Music and movies? Are you serious? The murder rate and it dropping over the decades disprove that part.
80 years ago they tried to blame Paul Whiteman for suicides because of his music or are you talking about even farther in the past.

An atheist values life more than anyone. He knows this is it. A person of faith knows this is just the beginning. So who would be more likely to kill?

Check out the murder rate back when we had prayer in schools. It didn't help. Quite high actually.

By the way I am a believer and a Republican.

[TempeAZnative]

[mod snip] orphaned

Murder, abortion, violence is not a modern problem. Humans have done horrible things to each other since the dawn of time. Before and of the modern fairytales called religion were created. You can outlaw everything and we'll still murder each other. You can get rid of all forms of entertainment and music we'll still kill each other. Just the way it is and you'll never be able to justify it with your violent book that has caused millions of people to be killed for not believing.

[cjseliga]

Originally Posted by AZgarden

His business website looked very good, like it was making money, judging from the comments. So there must have been extenuating circumstances, of which we know nothing. Drugs? Gambling? Porno? Who knows.

Maybe living above their means, going into debt is pretty easy to do, spending more than you make, it's not rocket science.

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by TempeAZnative

Murder, abortion, violence is not a modern problem. Humans have done horrible things to each other since the dawn of time. Before and of the modern fairytales called religion were created. You can outlaw everything and we'll still murder each other. You can get rid of all forms of entertainment and music we'll still kill each other. Just the way it is and you'll never be able to justify it with your violent book that has caused millions of people to be killed for not believing.

Someone needs to update the liberal handbook then because according to them this is a new phenomenon caused by guns.

I run into many more people these days that are all about themselves and don't have any care for those around them or how their actions affect society. The decrease in violent crime is due to many different things but arguing that society becoming numb to violence and death is a good thing is ridiculous.

Most violent crimes in the past were committed by criminals who were killing for a reason to benefit themselves (robbery, rape, drugs, etc.). Now we have criminals that want to kill MANY other people knowing that it is also the end of their own life. Life means nothing and they are killing just to kill.

[asufan]

[mod snip] orphaned
Keep religion out of it. I don't believe in God, I'm pro choice but I'm not hurting my kids. Religious nuts are the ones causing most of the deaths in these mass killings, whether they believe in "your god" or not. All religions are silly.

[yukon]

Hey mods, shouldn't this be on the political board?

[DetroitN8V]

Originally Posted by yukon

Hey mods, shouldn't this be on the political board?

It happened in Scottsdale.