This is in the Washington Post:

What role does Christianity play in the murder of the openly gay mayoral candidate in Mississippi?

Host: Bradley Hirschfield

Last week, an openly gay mayoral candidate was beaten, set on fire and dumped near a river in Mississippi. The incident has sparked a public debate about whether or not Christians, by not supporting homosexuals, play a role in this type of anti-gay violence.

Brad Hirschfield said, "Does teaching that any group of people represent a "threat to society" or are sinful, as some Christians - and followers of other monotheistic faiths - do, create a potentially dangerous environment for those people so labeled? It certainly does... [More]

Well, obviously, the reason they ask that about Christians is because they can. You can't about Muslims.

It didn't take me more than about two seconds to realize that Christianity wasn't the issue here—pictured below is the alleged killer, arrested when he crashed the deceased's SUV into another car.

Slain Mississippi mayoral candidate was beaten and burned, family says

Coahoma County (Miss./Associated Press - In this Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013 photo released by the Coahoma County (Miss.) Sheriff’s Office, Lawrence Reed, 22, poses or a portrait. Reed, has been charged in the death of a mayoral candidate in the Mississippi Delta. The Coahoma County Sheriff’s Department says Reed of Shelby, Miss., was charged with murder in the death of Marco McMillian.


By Associated Press, March 4, 2013

Originally, seeing that black man had robbed, murdered, and burned a gay man in Mississippi, I made the assumption that his victim was white. That's based on experience.

But I was wrong: here's a picture of the deceased.

Family: Marco McMillian's murder a hate crime, March 4, 2013

The family of slain Clarksdale mayoral candidate Marco McMillian want authorities to investigate the gay, African-American’s death as a hate crime after learning the gruesome details about his final moments.

The Coahoma County Sheriff’s Department, however, isn’t exploring that option, said its spokesman Will Rooker. The department is leading the investigation with the help of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. MBI spokesman Warren Strain couldn’t be reached for comment Monday.

McMillian was beaten, dragged, and set afire before his body was found Wednesday near the Mississippi River, according to a statement the family issued late Sunday and which was confirmed Monday by family friend and Marco McMillian’s godfather, Carter Womack.

Womack also said the 33-year-old was found naked, bruised and swollen. The account was based on photographs the family saw, as well as two conversations it had with the coroner.[More]

Because of the brutal nature of the slaying, McMillian's family is saying “We feel that this was not a random act of violence..." They want it investigated as a hate crime.

I, on the other hand, suspect that it was a random act of violence. That's based on experience, too, and I could be wrong.

But it seems unlikely that Christianity's teachings about the wrongness of sodomy had anything to do with it.