Who's to Blame?

Most Americans are justifiably horrified by the recent mass shootings and know something must be done to stop this terrible trend.  In order to stop something, we look for a cause.  Since we are a varied society, we come up with varying ideas as to how to solve the problem.  The difficulty is that there seem to be multiple factors, and different voices among us are, therefore, calling for different actions.

Some blame it on the availability of guns, while others believe that being able to carry a weapon is actually a deterrent.  I know of people who “conceal carry” to church.  Personally, I believe in Second Amendment rights, but I don’t think that should include anyone being able to purchase an automatic weapon that can eject large volumes of ammunition in rapid succession.  We need to limit large volume magazines and the types of rifles that are typically used in mass shootings.  We need a change in our gun laws without taking away the individual’s right to own a gun for hunting and personal protection.

Some blame mental health issues.  It is true that many people who need mental health care have difficulty accessing it.  Parents, who are aware that their child is struggling with mental health issues, may find themselves struggling to find adequate care for their child.  For decades now, there has been a move to deinstitutionalize people with mental health problems.  They have been integrated into society, instead of being placed in confined situations.  Some of these people cannot function adequately in society.  Some are homeless.  Some are as isolated IN society, as they once were isolated FROM society.  Our mental health system needs to be improved.

Others point to violent video games and other media.  Young people don’t draw as defined a line between reality and fantasy as adults do.  Sure, my generation saw violence in cartoons, but they were clearly goofy cartoon characters.  The Road Runner and Wily Coyote did not look like the people we lived with and among.  Now, graphics in the media are extremely realistic.  Television and movies are filled with violence.  But seeing a bloodied corpse on the screen is not as upsetting as seeing one lying at one’s feet.  We become immune to the gore which should be making us sick.  There should be additional limitations on what can be shown through the media.

The media and 24/7 news are also part of the problem.  A shooter knows he will gain instant recognition.  For some sick minds, that is a reward.  A famous anchor will go to the site of his carnage, and although he/she will say they are focusing on the victims, the shooter knows he, although he may be dead, will have power over this situation.  His picture will be shown.  His manifesto will be read.  Sadly, there will be those who follow his lead.  I have no idea how we put this genie back in the bottle!

Being incited to violence by the rhetoric of our politicians is currently a favorite whipping boy.  In the two most recent mass shootings, one shooter had expressed white nationalist, ultra-right views.  But, the other called himself a Democrat and a leftist.  Both parties need to become more circumspect in what they say and recognize that what to them are just words, may become actions to those who listen to them.  Neither side is guiltless.

Now let’s get to the REAL problem.  Our nation has lost its collective soul!

Our youth do not feel valued.  They know we can abort them.  Too many experience abuse and neglect. Well-meaning parents are afraid to discipline, lest child protective service comes to their door.  Children are ignored by parents who are both working to maintain a certain lifestyle, and who are glued to their smart phones when they are home.  Children are not given jobs in the home that make them feel like they are contributing to the family.  Parents leave the teaching of values to the school system, which can no longer incorporate anything “religious” into the school day.  Parents divorce and the kids are pawns in the battles between them. Single mothers struggle to play both parental roles.  Families no longer eat dinner together and talk about their day.  Gender identity issues are no longer considered mental health problems.  Anything goes.

The book of Judges in the Bible describes the chaos and evil of a society when “everyone did as he saw fit.”  We are in that situation.  We are told to be tolerant of other viewpoints, but we have carried that to an extreme in which we believe it is acceptable for everyone to come up with his/her own moral code.

Hey, folks!  This isn’t going to work!

I know that there are those who believe that if we all work together and if we educate young people to be tolerant of others and deal properly with their own feelings, this problem will diminish or even disappear when coupled with some appropriate changes in laws. Having been both a nurse and a teacher, I have observed that hard work and education do NOT solve a problem which comes from the heart and soul.  Nor can morality be legislated.

We are in a terrible downward spiral.  It won’t matter much whether 2020 brings a Democrat into power or whether Trump gets four more years.  We are looking at the fall of America, unless we rediscover our soul.  We once had collective values.  When I was growing up, even those who did not attend church, who were not “religious,” followed the Judeo-Christian ethic.  That ethic would be tolerant of other religious views or no religious views, but it would not incorporate them.  To be biblical, there is a difference between “caring for the aliens among us” and “bowing down to Baal.”

In Ezra 9, Ezra acknowledges the sin of his people.  Extracting the portions of his prayer that seem relevant today:

O, my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens…..But now, O our God, what can we say after this?  For we have disregarded the commands you gave through your servants the prophets. …What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins have deserved….O Lord, you are righteous!...Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.”

We cannot tolerate everything in our society.  We are decayed on the inside, and it is reaching the surface and exploding outward in hatred and violence.

Our nation needs a spiritual reawakening.  We need to plead for forgiveness and turn from the evil we have been embracing.

God’s love demands His mercy, but His righteousness demands His judgment. 

Someday the Lion will roar, and that day may soon be upon us.