May 5, 1999
Klebolds called 'loneliest people'
___By Virginia Culver
___Religion News Service
___LITTLETON, Colo. (RNS) --Tom and Sue Klebold "have got to be the loneliest people on the planet," says the minister who officiated at their youngest son's funeral April 27.
___"They thought they had been good parents," Don Marxhausen added. "Tom Klebold told me he thought he had a good finished product."
___Their son, Dylan Klebold, 17, would have graduated from Columbine High School this spring and was planning to attend the University of Arizona in the fall.
___Instead, on April 20, he and friend Eric Harris, 18, allegedly killed 12 students and one teacher and injured almost two dozen classmates in the worst school shooting in U.S. history. Harris and Klebold then killed themselves.
___The Klebolds "are like people who have been run over by a truck, and then the truck backed up over them," Marxhausen said. "They lost their son, but their son was also a killer."
___Marxhausen, pastor of St. Philip Lutheran Church in Littleton, was pastor to the family for about eight months five or six years ago, he said.
___After the shootings, Marx-hausen made it known "through the grapevine" that he would aid the family if they wished.
___Word came back that they were interested, and he officiated at the private service.
___Fifteen people attended, including Tom and Sue Klebold; their older son, Byron; some relatives and friends; and Judy Marxhausen, Don's wife. Marxhausen also asked another Lutheran minister and his wife and a police officer to attend.
___With so few people in attendance and such "awkwardness and tension" hanging in the air, Marxhausen said he suggested that everyone "use some time just to talk about Dylan."
___"There was an outpouring of love from one of the couples who said their son used to play with Dylan when the boys were little," the minister said.
___While friends of Dylan Klebold and Harris said the two wore swastikas, shouted "Heil Hitler!" during bowling class and chose the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birthday for their rampage, Tom Klebold "said he didn't know where the Nazi stuff or the violence came from," Marxhausen said.
___The family kept only a BB gun in the house and used it just to scare away the woodpeckers, Marxhausen said.
___Though Sue Klebold was raised Jewish, the family observed religious rituals of both Judaism and Christianity. "They did Christmas and they did Passover seders," said Marxhausen.
___In his eulogy for Dylan, Marxhausen stressed God's love and healing power.
___"God, who knows about suffering and pain and loss, wants to reach out to you," he said. "God, who raises up and lifts up after the journey through the valley, will do so in time and in surprising ways.
___"Some people will run from you. There will be others who will come to you," he said. "There is God's mercy and there is the mercy of others. True enough, there will be those who do not know grace and will want to give only judgment. But God will reach out to you through those who know his grace.
___"I have no idea how you are going to heal. God still wants to reach out to you and will always reach out to you in some way," he said.Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!