I said yesterday that I would be writing about what concerned me the most about this tragedy yesterday. Today is that day. Let’s be clear it’s a tragedy. My boss had to laugh some when a news station described it as an “unfortunate incident.” Getting locked out of your house is an unfortunate incident. 32 deaths in cold blood before someone murders himself is just evil.
What I’m not going to write about though is how the school or police should have handled things. I do not have any authority in that area. I do not know enough about the situation and there are already enough people doing that. I am a philosopher though and a theologian and I am going to write on that area.
Today, we know the identity of the shooter and we know a lot about him. I remember hearing on a news station today someone describing it and saying that you couldn’t fire that many shots at once. Something in you would stop you. It’s not human to keep doing that.
He was right. It isn’t human. This is what happens when people fall from being human and make themselves less than human, something we all sadly do everyday. The most truly human person to ever live was Jesus Christ and we all fall short of that. If you ever want to know if something is human, look to Jesus.
I believe this is largely a result of our falling away from God. Because we do not have the right view of ourselves, we do not know who we are anymore. Many people know I believe in four types of alienation in the fall. We are alienated from God, the world, each other, and ourselves. We no longer have true views of any of these.
Unfortunately, I can only see it getting worse. This has been called the worst massacre in our nation’s history. I don’t see things getting better. Eight years ago, we thought Columbine was the worst. I pray that we shape up in time before we have another such massacre that is even worse than this one.
One thing that will need to be done is to stop the idea of moral relativism. I was terrified yesterday as I thought about the evil I was seeing on the screen and remembered that I have talked with people who have said that there is nothing that is truly evil. It is all a matter of opinion. They may not like it and they may not approve of it, but they cannot say it is really evil.
Friends. If someone says that what happened on 4/16 was not evil, they don’t need an argument. I think they need a psychiatrist. I’m hesitant to say such though since probablysome psychiatrists would think the real problem was that they even had any feelings of right and wrong about it. We have become masters of the therapy of sin.
Yes friends. Some things are just evil as some things are just good and too often, we have sacrificed the idea of truth about good and evil at the altar of political correctness. Oh no! Let’s not offend anyone! Some people need to be offended. If you don’t think the actions done were evil, then I will be more than happy to offend you.
But let us speak of the positives as well though. There were many brave students and teachers who risked their lives, and in at least one case gave their lives, so that others could live. We need to honor these people. They don’t tend to want honor. They’re merely doing the right thing. They need to be honored anyway. We need to stand up and say “These are the kinds of people that we commend in our society.”
What we can learn from yesterday is that evil is real. There are patches of evil everywhere. No one was expecting this young student to go on a rampage. Well, it happened. The darkest evil of all can often be that which lurks in the hearts of men. Unfortunately, I believe our society is making it easier and easier for such evil to take place. A good society has been defined in one that easily enables you to be good. Does that match our society? I think we all know the answer.
My solution then? First off, we need to repent as a nation and turn back to God. We need the Christians to stand up. We’ve heard before about the homosexual movement coming out of the closet. As one speaker I know said, when they came out, it seems that they pushed the Christians in.
No. We have the truth. We need to stand up with that truth. We need to show the world that Christ did walk out of that tomb nearly 2,000 years ago and that that does make a difference. If this truth is so revolutionary and life-changing, we need to show it.
After all, rebuilding society and changing the world starts with you and me. It’s too often been made the next guy’s responsibility. Well, it isn’t. It’s ours, and we have a duty to be salt and light as followers of Christ.
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