hat was clearly a tragedy is now being exploited by religious groups seeking to transform a 17-year old victim of last month's Columbine High School shootings into a modern-day "martyr" for her Christian faith. Religious web sites, news stories, sermons, television programs and other media all praise Cassie Bernall for her affirmation of religious belief in a tale which is rapidly becoming an American legend.

   Bernall was known for carrying a Bible to school regularly, and sporting the popular "What Would Jesus Do?" bracelet worn by a religious youngsters. She was reportedly reading Shakespeare in the library of Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado on Tuesday, April when two other students -- identified as Eric Harris, 18 and Dylan Klebold, 17 -- burst in with guns. In all, 12 students and one teacher died in the murder spree, but Bernall's story stands out because of the circumstances. According to news reports, one of the gunmen asked for "those who believe in God" to stand up, and then pointing his weapon at Bernall. He asked, "Do you believe in Jesus?" Bernall responded, "Yes, I love Jesus." The gunman then asked her "Why? and pulled the trigger.

    The account, widely reported in the press, could be apocryphal. Or, the events may have actually occurred, although witness accounts -- especially recalled from the midst of violent, life-threatening calamity -- tend to be skewed, inaccurate and misleading. What is clear, though, is that many Americans believe the circumstances surrounding the death of Ms. Bernall to be as claimed, and are in the process of construct a mythos that the 17-year old high school student "died for her faith." One youngster interviewed by a local television station near Littleton told reporters that she was taking Bernall's name for her confirmation, and that Cassie is "a martyr because she stood up for God and she died that way."

    The sentiment has been echoed in sermons, tracts and on web sites dedicated to Bernall, or the memories of the other victims at Columbine. "Her life was centered around Our Lord Jesus. It was (because of) her strong faith in God and His promise of eternal life that she made her stand," declared a pastor who preached one of the memorial services for the dead students. Some of the dedications may embellish what happened in the final moments of Bernall's life; one news report circulated by Associated Press said that the girl "closed her eyes and clasped her hands in prayer" as the gunshot was leveled at her.

    The aura surrounding Cassie Bernall is enhanced by other factors, as well. In a statement, the Bernall family noted, "Her life was rightly centered around our Lord Jesus. It was for her strong faith in God and His promise of eternal life that she made her stand." But the "martyr" status of Bernall is magnified by the fact that she was once a "rebellious" youngster who converted to Christian evangelism.

    "Like most teen-age girls," reported Associated Press, "Ms. Bernall fretted about boys, her weight and being popular. A few years ago, the blue-eyed blonde fell in with the wrong crowd. She dabbled in witchcraft and was fascinated with suicide." Her parents reportedly then placed her in what CNN described as a "strict program"at West Bowles Community Church, an Evangelical Presbyterian group. The youngster was described as rebellious and unruly. "Under protest, Ms. Bernall joined the church's youth group, where her anger gradually subsided. About two years ago, she returned from a retreat as a converted Christian..." From there, says the church's youth pastor, Dave McPherson, Bernall began a regimen of regular Bible reading and prayer.

    The Bernall story finds more credence as it is repeated and elaborated within America's religious subcultures, and the former Columbine student is embraced as a modern-day "martyr" in an increasingly secular and disorienting world. An official with the National Network of Youth Ministries noted, "Cassie is being seen as a hero." Other stories are being recounted as well, including one reported in the Boston Globe. It claims that on the night of her death, Bernall's brother found a poem that she had written two days prior to the shootings. It spoke of finding the only way "To really know Christ and to experience The mighty power that brought Him back to life again..."

    Charles Colson, former Watergate crook-turned-evangelical and head of Prison Fellowship Ministries, cited Bernall's death and her poem in an essay "Remembering the Brave in Heart."

    "It was a test all of us would hope to pass, but none of us really wants to take," wrote Colson, describing the events at Columbine. He noted that while media had centered on the possible motivation of the two student gunmen and their hostility toward racial minorities and athletes, "There was another group the pair hated every bit as much, if not more: Christians..." The praise for Bernall is repeated, even amplified with the claim that the "17-year old junior with long blond hair" wanted to have her locks "cut off and made into wigs for cancer patients who had lost their hair through chemotherapy." Whereas most media accounts so far place Ms. Bernall in the school library perusing Shakespeare when Harris and Klebold began their rampage, Colson -- without citing sources -- declares: "Cassie was in the school library reading her Bible..." He added: "Cassie's martyrdom was even more remarkable when you consider than just a few years ago she had dabbled in the occult, including witchcraft. She had embraced the same darkness and nihilism that drove her killers to such despicable acts..."

    The fallout from the shootings and specifically Bernall's reported act of religious heroism resulted in rising church attendance at West Bowles Community Church and elsewhere. ABC's "This Week" program of Sunday, May 2 noted "Colorado students flocking to churches and to prayer services..." News analyst Bill Kristol observed, "In churches across America today, ministers are priests are trying to make sense of this (the Littleton shootings)..."

"The Bernall story findsmore credence as it is repeated and elaborated within America's religious subcultures, and the former Columbine student is embraced as a modern day "martyr" in an increasingly secular and disorienting world."

    "Making sense" of the Columbine massacres has involved considerable rationalizing for most religious commentators who easily explain the motivation of Klebold and Harris -(placing the responsibility on everything from "sin" to the devil, video games, fascination with guns, the occult, violence, nazism), but are less clear regarding the fate of Cassie Bernall and the other victims. "Couldn't God have prevented this?," asks one web site established to memorialize the Columbine students. "Certainly God could have prevented the Columbine massacre, but he chose to ALLOW it, just as He chose to ALLOW His Son to be put to death on our behalf." Matthew 26 is quoted, where Jesus, upon his arrest reportedly utters "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" The crucial difference here, though, is that Ms. Bernall did not have recourse to such alleged alternatives.

    Cassie Bernall's place in the Littleton tragedy, though, is being firmly fixed in the popular imagination. Pastor McPherson believes that her death "will lead more people toward Christ." Web sites dedicated to the late student's memory display a range of reactions, from respectful acknowledgment of her heroism to those which show her countenance suspended in clouds with the legend "Believe In Jesus" written below.

"But nagging questions remain about all of this..."

    But nagging questions remain about all of this. A story appearing in the Los Angeles observed, "Whether Bernall was, in fact, killed specifically because of her faith will probably never be known for sure." Writer Larry Stammer notes that the initial survivors' accounts stated that one of the gunmen had asked a girl -- who was later identified as Bernall -- if she believed in God, and shot her after she replied "Yes."

    "Later accounts, reported in some media, had the killer responding 'there is no God' before pulling the trigger..." Stammer observes that the Bernall story is elaborated and distorted through repeated oral communication. Certainly the misstatements in Colson's account -- that Bernall was "reading her Bible" when the gunmen entered the library -- is, for some, more glamorous and inspirational than other reports that Ms. Bernall was likely studying for a literature test.

    Josh McDowell, who heads a nationwide ministry operating out of Dallas, Texas, says that he has seen a reaction from the Columbine shootings as he tours the country speaking to various groups. "I think the young Cassie's life is going to probably have a more phenomenal impact upon young people over the next 10 years than anything I've seen in the last 10 or 15 years," McDowell told the Los Angeles Times. Stammer notes the factors which may be contributing this, including the growing emphasis which some evangelical sects and outreaches are placing on "martyrdom," as well as an insatiable public appetitive for heroes of all sorts. Wade Roof, author of the 1993 book "A Generation of Seekers," notes the search for such heroic figures "is a pretty powerful human kind of thing."

    "For many young people this young woman (Bernall) emerges as a very strong figure."

    Randall Balmer, an evangelical writer and author of the praised PBS series "Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory" is more cautionary, and warns that out of the Bernall story, "there is a danger of sensationalizing this for propagandistic sorts of purposes." And Union Theological Seminary scholar Frederick W. Weidmann warns that religious leaders should be careful "not to whip people up into thinking one ought to seek out a martyr's death as the most authentic expression of Christianity."

    There could be other unintended consequences stemming from this pop-culture movement to canonize Cassie Bernall. Whatever legitimate meaning some Christians might derive from her faith, there is the danger of energized "prayer warriors" seeing Bernall's life and death as a fiat to become more aggressive in "winning souls for Christ," and being less tolerant of those who might disagree with their emotionally charged message of purity and salvation. Students, teachers, parents and others not signing on to this muscular evangelical agenda could be stereotyped, marginalized or targeted in their own way, thus re-enforcing an "us" versus "them" view of reality. In an age desperately in need of tolerance and understanding, the memory of a young woman who died so senselessly deserves better -- regardless of her own religious beliefs.

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