In the aftermath of yet another tragic school shooting, there are many varied opinions about not only how it could happen, but how to prevent shootings in the future. There are those who demand more laws. They place blame with the politicians. There are those who demand better mental health screening, mental health care, and mental health insurance. They place blame on the health care industry. There are those who desire to arm the teachers and secure the schools. They place blame on the school districts. There are those who apparently have ESP, saying they “Knew this was coming.” “The whole community knew the shooter would do something like this.” They place blame on the FBI for not heeding their reports. There are even those who blame things like violent movies, violent video games and violent television. They place the blame on Hollywood.
We all want to blame someone or something. It is hard to understand such evil could exist and so we try to understand by placing blame. If only.....it begins. If only we had fewer guns. If only we had stricter laws. If only. If only. If only.
What people fail to see is what is truly to blame. Because to evaluate the truth would be too “politically incorrect.” To stare into the matter too long, looking at the truth makes us far too uncomfortable. Instead, we look for the easy quick fix and blame.
With the 1973 Supreme Court decision of Roe v Wade, our country, our society, our community began to change. For over four decades, abortion has ended the respect Americans once held for human life. This loss of respect has had a profound impact. It has led us down a path of all sorts of debauchery and has given rise to violent crime. If ending human life is acceptable before birth, why isn't it acceptable afterwards? Mothers and fathers are willing to kill their offspring and as a society we have labeled it “socially acceptable.”
The Declaration of Independence states “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Our society claims it is a women’s right because it is her body and no one can tell her what to do. This sounds much like the slavery argument from the 1850’s. A slave owner declared he owned the slave and could treat him any way he deemed necessary. Slavery is wrong. So is abortion.
In his book, Black Belt Patriotism, Chuck Norris states, “Whenever a culture devalues life, children are the ones who grow up without hope or aspiration. Whenever a culture drives out religion from the public sphere, children are the ones forced to grow up in a society immersed in perverse values: a world where gangster rappers are heroes, where greed and gluttony are good, where immorality thrives, or it is tolerated, or even encouraged.”
With the stamp of approval for abortion on demand, American society says, “You only have value if I say you have value.” We have decided human life no longer has intrinsic worth. We have removed the right to life from our very own Declaration of Independence. Why? Because life is endowed by our Creator. To admit this fact in our society means we have to admit there is a Creator. A God that defines life, truth, right and wrong. And well, that is not politically correct. To admit a higher power defines these things means that our behavior, whether stealing a pencil from work or a gold brick from a bank might be wrong. That means our behavior, whether accepting incorrect change or cheating on our taxes might be wrong. That means telling a lie or pulling a trigger might be wrong. And heaven forbid we would want Someone telling us we are wrong. Pun intended.
The God who created us already knows our ability to quickly sink in the cesspool of sin. Romans 3:10 tells us: As it is written and forever remains written, “There is none righteous [none that meets God’s standard], not even one. And in Romans 3:23 it says: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
But here is what makes all the difference. Romans 5:8 tells us: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Did you get that? In our sin, God loved us. In fact, what Jesus teaches in John 3 sums things up pretty well.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
We have no one to blame but ourselves. We are a society that loves the dark and will not come into the light for fear our deeds will be exposed. We have bowed down to the idol of convenience and the idol of money. We have steadily and freely replaced the God of the Universe with self. Now, what are you going to do?
