A Columbine killer pointed his gun at Cassie Bernall and asked her the life-or-death question:
"Do you believe in God?"
She paused. The gun was still there. "Yes, I believe in God," she said.
That was the last thing this 17-year-old Christian would ever say.
A short while after the massacre at Columbine, Cassie's parents appeared on Oprah to discuss their daughter's unbelievable courage. At one point, Oprah poised the question, "Do you wish she has said 'No'?" The mother had mixed feelings. There had been an account by another girl at the school who had begged a shooter for her life and he ended up letting her live. So on one hand, Cassie's mother wishes she had begged, for the chance that she too but might have been spared. But on the other hand, Mrs. Bernall admits that there is probably "no more honorable way to die" than to profess your faith in God. I come from a Christian family so I was curious to ask my mom what she would have wanted me to do if I were in Cassie's situation. She told me she would have wanted me to do what Cassie did, profess my faith in God, rather than deny Him for the chance at not being shot. I told her that wasn't an answer most mothers would give but she told me, "I would see you again in Heaven."
Now lets look at the possibility if Cassie had answered the question differently. Cassie could have ignored the question altogether, and begged for her life. My guess is the shooter would continue to press her for an answer, and if she didn't give one, he would shoot her. I am guessing that the killer who had questioned Cassie was Eric. My reasoning for this is that Dylan wrote about God a lot in his journal, and constantly restated that he did believe in God. However, as time went on and his social-outcast life kept turning for the worst, he got angrier and angrier at God, who he thought was being completely unfair to him. So if he had asked Cassie the question, I don't think he would have shot her for answering "yes," because he believed in God too. So it must have been Eric. Now lets imagine if Cassie had answered "no" to the question. The shooter might have been pleased with this answer and let her live. If he had let her live, Cassie would live with regret for the rest of her life that she had denied her Lord and might even wish she had said yes. There is also the good possibility that even if Cassie had said "no," the shooter still would have killed her. Cassie believed in a literal Heaven, so it probably ran through her head at that moment that if she said no, and the killer still shot her, God might punish her by not sending her to Heaven. So if we were somehow able to communicate with Cassie now, I'm sure she would not regret answering "yes" to the killer's fatal question.
If we were to agree on the idea that Cassie's killer was in fact Eric, not Dylan, then we need to ask the question of why he didn't believe in God? Eric's family used to belong to a Evangelical church, but they weren't very involved and ceased their attendance about five years before the massacre. So Eric had at least somewhat grown up around the idea of an existing god. But another phenomenon to look at is the fact that Eric saw himself as superior to pretty much everybody around him. He bragged about this on his online Blog site and his personal journal. He wondered why everybody around him was so stupid, and he loved the idea of natural selection. So there is a good chance that Eric didn't believe in God simply because he couldn't accept the fact that there was somebody superior to himself. Maybe he wanted Cassie to say she didn't believe in God because he wanted her to praise him or something. Maybe that's what he did to the girl who had to beg for her life (this is assuming it was also Eric dealing with that girl).
All in all, even if you aren't a Christian, we can all agree that Cassie had an honorable death because she stood up for what she believed in. No matter what it may be that you put your complete faith in, you should stand up for it, even in the most extraordinary circumstances.
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