Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson created a meme over the weekend in response to the deadly Oregon shooting with multitudes of his followers sharing his #IAmAChristian hashtag on Twitter and Facebook.
Carson first posted on both social media sites a photo of himself holding a piece of paper with "I Am a Christian" written on it with an ichthus – the ancient fish drawing representing Christianity – underneath.
He urged others to take similar photos and send them to him.
Then he posted a photo with the hashtag written on it and urged people to use it for their profile picture.
Later, during a Facebook Q&A session, he decided to call things off because it seemed "inappropriate" in light of the killings.
"I would like to spend this night together remembering how important each life is – please join me in praying for the victims and their families. Please pray for the healing of our Great Nation," he wrote.
His original Facebook post had more than 1 million likes and 173,000 shares by Sunday night.
Carson's move appears to be related to the story told by several survivors that the gunman asked people if they were Christians before shooting. One witness said that those who answered yes were shot in the head, those who answered no or who didn't answer were shot in the legs.
Carson has come under fire since saying he doesn't believe a Muslim should be elected president. He later said he meant that a Muslim should vow to place the tenets of his faith beneath the Constitution and said he would feel the same way about a Christian who favors a theocracy.
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