No event so tragic that jackasses can't make it worse

By now, I'm sure you are well aware of the murder that happened last week on the Greyhound bus. In the past two days I have come across two stories in relation to that vent which, well, depress me. The first is about the group PETA (read the story here or here). The gist of the story is that PETA wants to run an ad in the Portage paper that essentially compared the bus murder to the killing of animals. This story mostly irritates me. I understand that they disagree with eating animals, and I even support the theory that animals should be treated humanely. This group, though, goes entirely too far all the time. They really appear to value animal life above human life, and I do not agree with that. This story shows a complete lack of class and compassion for the victim or his family, and a general disregard for the situation in general. It is almost as though they were glad this happened.
The second is about a 'church' that is going to protest the victims funeral. You can read the story here or here. This is a story that both frustrates and depresses me. It is about a Baptist church down in Kansas that is claiming that the victim was "a rebel against God...taught to be a rebel by his parents" and that his parents "brought this wrath upon his head". They are claiming that the death, along with many other deaths and bad events (soldiers dying in Iraq, for example) are signs of God's wrath on the U.S. and Canada for turning their back on God.
This depresses me for two reasons. First, it turns God from a compassionate being that bleeds for people, that loves them unconditionally, into a wrathful, angry, Zeussian god. I find it interesting that in the New Testament, Jesus almost only gets angry at those who are supposedly already on his side (the Pharisees, the Sadducees, Peter), but when he is dealing with those who have 'turned their back on God and his teaching', he almost always showed compassion and love. He talked with the woman at the well. He called Zacchaeus out of the tree. He made Matthew an apostle when he was a tax collector, which was about the furthest a Jew could get from his heritage at the time. Even in the Old Testament he was always giving grace when He could. He saved Ninevah. He gave Sodom and Gomorrah a chance. Yes, God can be wrathful, but when He is, there is no doubt, and He does not use random murder as an agent of his wrath, I am fairly certain.
The second reason this depresses me is because there are too many people who will see this story and just assume that this is a fairly standard sentiment for 'the Church'. These people who are using God as their excuse for hate are painting the rest of us with a broad brush. I do not believe this was God's judgement on this young man, and I have prayed that his family would find peace in this mess somehow. But now there will be people who would hear that I go to church and in their mind they will associate that with this group and just assume that I am a bigotted, racist hatemonger. Yes, some who would call themselves Christian do fall into the category, but that is thankfully a tiny minority. They are just the ones who get the press.
This incident is a tragic event, and it does not need these people to make it worse, yet that is what is happening. I pray that somehow God would make his presence felt in this event.