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Rev. James Sims: “The shooting of 20 children, 6 adults was Satanic”

By Chinta Strausberg

The shooting spree allegedly by Adam Lanza, 20, who mowed down 20 children and 6 adults at a Newtown, Connecticut school was called “Satanic” by Rev. James Sims, pastor of the Outreach Church in Harvey, Illinois.

“I think it’s satanic. Anyone could be sick enough to harm innocent people especially children I think we all have to admit that is not normal. I think the young man was mentally ill, and I think the enemy took advantage of that,” said Sims who believed Lanza was allegedly overcome by satanic forces.

“It is said that no one was able to detect the fact that he was capable of harming someone, but there had to be some hurt, had to be some very tough times in life that caused him to be that confused or that vulnerable for the enemy,” said Rev. Sims. “The enemy took advantage of that and as a result we all suffered.”

Because he is a father who also has a school, Rev. Sims said when he learned about the shooting “chills went all over me. To think that someone could walk in and do that. It tells me it was an act of an evil force. No one does that. That takes an evil force, and at some point we are going to believe this.

“We play all these games about evil spirits and invasions from other plants, but there is a spirit out there that does not like God’s creation and yesterday proved it. People can blame it on what ever he wants, but even our scripture teaches us an enemy has done this. He did it and he got away with it even to the point of the young man taking his own life. That is not normal.”

A father of four, Sims gave a warning. “I just pray that we all be more conscious of the fact that when we have children who are not well they need attention. Our country has spent so much money doing things that would take away from the mental health care that now we see it surfacing in areas where it shouldn’t be.

“We need mental health” facilities and to be conscious of the family structure especially when there is a separation or divorce. When that occurs, Sims said, “Sometimes that sends a kid into shock resulting in a child becoming angry at one of the parents because they think they caused the other not to be there.

“I’m a victim of a divorce and there were times when I got angry at my mom because I longed for my dad for certain things. I loved my mom with a passion, but because she couldn’t be my dad, I found myself getting angry. There is a lot going on there. The church has a role” in these situations.

That is why Rev. Sims teaches the children “Godly principles including how to respect and honor your mother and father and also admonishing single parents letting them know it was not designed for them to do the whole thing as far as raising, teaching, mentoring and loving. You need both. It took two to conceive and you need two to finish the job.

“I spend my life trying to help young potential parents to know that. This is not a game. This is serious business,” Sims said of having children and being married.

Told that the mother of Lanza, who began his shooting spree by first shooting his mother several times in the head as she slept in a home they shared, taught her son how to shoot often taking them to the shooting range, Rev. Sims said, “I’m sure she thought she was doing a good thing. She tried to substitute in areas that would make up of the father not being there.”

He was referring to the 2009 divorce of Nancy and Peter Lanza, the parents of Adam Lanza.  Referring to the mother taking her son to the shooting range, Sims said, “Normally, mothers don’t teach sons to do things like that unless she’s trying to appease and in some cases substitute.

“My mother never wanted me to learn how to teach must less teach or take me” to the shooting range. “Guns are something we’ll have to take a look at as far as the kind of weapons that the young man could get his hands on. That shouldn’t have been. Does doe she need with that kind of weapon in her house?

“I am not against people protecting themselves, but you don’t need an assault weapon. You don’t need a military rifle in your house; so she was preparing for some kind of disaster,” Rev. Sims said. “You can’t tell me that I need an assault rifle in my house to protect my home. I don’t need that.”

Sims isn’t opposed to people having a firearm to protect themselves “for an invasion or break-in, but to have that kind of equipment? Who would sell that kind of ammunition to anybody man or woman”?

“The bullets, the ammunition is something we have to limit in this country. If you have three or four shots, that’s enough to protect your home. Why sell somebody that many rounds of ammunition? There are a lot of things we can look at. Our government and our law enforcement are the best in the world. Don’t tell me that we are so naïve that somebody went and bought 100 rounds of anything. For what? You are not going to kill that many wild game especially with that kind of a weapon.

“I think we major and minor in this country, and we need to be more serious about what we are allowing to be sold. You can very easily control guns if we just make sure that a person has a good record and the weapon they buy would be a single shot they could use for protection. We should limit the amount of ammunition they could get.”

Asked if limiting the number of guns a person could buy, Sims said buyers should be “limited to the kind of guns.” Reminded that straw buyers purchase sometimes hundreds of guns then sell them on the streets to gangbangers, Sims said the limitation should be to the supplier. “They shouldn’t be allowed to do that.

“If you’re going to make that type of weapon, sell it to the military. You don’t need it in the community where you have residents who don’t carry guns and children who could be harmed. We need to wake up and admit some stuff. You don’t need an assault weapons,” said Sims who said local residents don’t need these types of weapons.

Sims said his son is a police officer and he doesn’t need an assault weapon. “We over look too much, and now we must start looking at what ever. People get angry, things happen, the enemy takes over their mind and people snap, but from the standpoint of the church the enemy takes over his mind…the evil force, Satan actually takes over the mind.”

Saying his mother had nine boys and seven girls and one boy was born with polio. “God didn’t do it. The enemy did it. The enemy can infect a fetus. He lived to be 30-years old and he passed. The rest of us are fairly healthy and alive. The enemy doesn’t like that we are all in church, that we’re parents, or we’re working people. None of us has been arrested. It’s a lot of the parents working together.”

While his parents divorce, Sims said his father always came around. “As a teenager, I was always respectful of my father. I didn’t want to do everything my mother said, but I knew my dad was coming.

“We have a lot of problems in this country that we need to address. We need to start with the weapons. They should not be available. We as adults must bear the responsibility because we are the ones who put these dangerous materials out there for these kids to get a hold to. I don’t care if the parent did buy the weapon. If I bought a weapon, then I’m responsible for it, but I don’t need an assault weapon in my house,” said Sims.

 “It’s time for America to say we have made the wrong kinds of guns to easily to acquire,” Rev. Sims said.

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