What is wrong with the world?

[jriccitelli]

When 911 happened my first thought was well now people will realize there is a real enemy out there and Islam is 'not' our friend.
When George Bush thought we could win a political and street level battle I thought 'how can a Christian (?) not know this is a spiritual battle. you are not going to change their minds about each other, they are all Muslim, Christians are infidels.

When yesterday's tragedy happened (I was heartbroken) I thought of how prayer and Bibles are removed from classrooms.
You would think now people would consider this, but not from the secular (and media), instead it's gun control, not prayer.
Instead of taking everything and our freedoms away from us, maybe they could simply put the 10 Commandments back up on the wall (and allow Creation back into Science class). They make it impossible for us to build Church's here, because there is no tax money in it to pay for more police and metal detectors. Who are the real lunatics here?

[steve7150]

When yesterday's tragedy happened (I was heartbroken) I thought of how prayer and Bibles are removed from classrooms.
You would think now people would consider this, but not from the secular (and media), instead it's gun control, not prayer.
Instead of taking everything and our freedoms away from us, maybe they could simply put the 10 Commandments back up on the wall (and allow Creation back into Science class). They make it impossible for us to build Church's here, because there is no tax money in it to pay for more police and metal detectors. Who are the real lunatics here?









I have no insight into this horrible tragedy but there are many really wicked people around and also Satan really is the god of this world. I would also like to see the bible allowed (not forced) but offered to be taught in school and would like to see Jesus words on school walls, but Satan won't permit it because someone would be offended.
This may evolve into a gun control issue and limited gun availability would reduce these kinds of tragedies but it also is another encroachment by big daddy government on freedom. This might be the next big issue.

[SteveF]

When yesterday's tragedy happened (I was heartbroken) I thought of how prayer and Bibles are removed from classrooms.
You would think now people would consider this, but not from the secular (and media), instead it's gun control, not prayer
Instead of taking everything and our freedoms away from us, maybe they could simply put the 10 Commandments back up on the wall (and allow Creation back into Science class). They make it impossible for us to build Church's here, because there is no tax money in it to pay for more police and metal detectors. Who are the real lunatics here?.

Are you implying that the shooting would not have happened if they said the Lords Prayer etc... If so, how do you know this? How would you explain the Amish school room shooting? They had prayer in school and more.

I think we should be quick with compassion and very slow making judgments.

[Michelle]

When yesterday's tragedy happened (I was heartbroken)

I can read your anguish between the lines. I, too, was heartbroken and have wept several times. The pictures in my mind cycle between my own two children and my 24 first grade students. I couldn't bear to lose any of them.

When tragedies such as this most recent one in Connecticut happen, a natural tendency, I believe, is to grope for resolutions to insure that this sort of thing never happens again. Almost immediately, as you point out, the call for strict gun control was sounded. And then quickly came an opposing appeal for arming school personnel. (Hopefully this one will be thought through carefully. While most of the hundreds of teachers I know and have worked with would act heroically like the teachers of Sandy Hill, some of the most unstable people I know happen to also be school teachers.)

I have my doubts that restricting rights we possess by virtue of the Bill of Rights would create the calm we desperately crave. Besides the restriction of freedom, these propositions ignore the facts that 1) on the very same day 22 children and their teacher were attacked in China by a knife wielding assailant, and 2) the very worst case of school violence (in terms of lives lost) was caused by a bomb. (Read about it here.)

I've also seen calls for reform of mental health care. This might be more pertinent because until people have a changed heart, they are going to be prone to evil. I would prefer God change their hearts, but for secular society, this might be their best hope.

I thought of how prayer and Bibles are removed from classrooms.
You would think now people would consider this, but not from the secular (and media), instead it's gun control, not prayer.
Instead of taking everything and our freedoms away from us, maybe they could simply put the 10 Commandments back up on the wall (and allow Creation back into Science class). They make it impossible for us to build Church's here, because there is no tax money in it to pay for more police and metal detectors.

This thread is posted in the Ethics section, so I'm assuming your calls to "simply put the 10 Commandments back up on the wall (and allow Creation back into Science class.)" and to loosen zoning ordinances to allow for more church buildings (I'm inferring here, and not too sure I've got this part right), are what you see as the ethical response for a follower of Christ.

I'm a little at a loss to understand how having the 10 Commandments on the wall would curtail violence because you didn't elaborate. Obviously they wouldn't be some sort of protective talisman, nor would they be proof to God that we take Him seriously. The shooting in the Amish school would not have happened if that were true. Perhaps you mean that the teaching of biblical morality would prevent this sort of tragedy. I doubt that as well. When I went looking for a reference to that worst incident, I discovered that shootings at schools have a long history, stretching back to an incident in the 18th century and including several incidents in the 19th century, the era when supposedly America was God-fearing and lessons on bible-based morality were abundant in schools. The Bath School Disaster happened in 1927, 35 years before prayer was banished from public schools.

Of course I would love to see God glorified in schools across our nation. Of course I would love to lead my class in prayers for His blessing. I don't believe, however, that it is correct to believe that if we were successful in mandating these back into our classrooms, violence would disappear therein.

Who are the real lunatics here?

Well, you know, the murderers are. And it is nothing new. We are in the midst of the Advent season, so the story of Christ's birth is being reread in so many places. (Even schools, by the way, because the bible can be read, just not for religious reasons.) Part of the story of the coming of Emmanuel is the gruesome detail of the Massacre of the Innocents, an eerily familiar situation where a madman was responsible for the deaths of approximately twenty infant and toddler boys in Bethlehem.

This was written here one week ago:

Maybe you should know what I believe;
I know the same God who dashes (or allows) the innocent (supposedly) children does so because they are the children of sinners, thus like beasts 'they aint that special' (Oh well, not my opinion God is the Judge), all the verse about God wiping them out cutting them off, even the cattle and children, fits together, chaff, pottery, smoke, God does say repeatedly that we shall not regard man - as a species - more highly than he does (If he does that is His business, not ours), 'We' are to love all men but none of us are going to escape some form of judgment.

In contrast, Matthew, in response to the slaughter, quotes one of the most poignant verses of the prophets:

which is followed by a promise that the children will return and will be restored to those weeping.

We who follow Christ may feel led to advocate for gun control, or, conversely, arming of school personnel. We might press for mental health reform. We could work constantly to impose our scriptures back into classrooms as the majority in this country. But these are not the primary response we should be making. Instead we should proclaim the love of God, and the hope of the resurrection.
And we rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, we have been grieved by various trials. (1 Peter 1:6)

[kaufmannphillips]

Michelle wrote:
I'm a little at a loss to understand how having the 10 Commandments on the wall would curtail violence because you didn't elaborate. Obviously they wouldn't be some sort of protective talisman, nor would they be proof to God that we take Him seriously. The shooting in the Amish school would not have happened if that were true. Perhaps you mean that the teaching of biblical morality would prevent this sort of tragedy. I doubt that as well. When I went looking for a reference to that worst incident, I discovered that shootings at schools have a long history, stretching back to an incident in the 18th century and including several incidents in the 19th century, the era when supposedly America was God-fearing and lessons on bible-based morality were abundant in schools. The Bath School Disaster happened in 1927, 35 years before prayer was banished from public schools.

Thank you for this, Michelle. America has a violence problem; and minor civic pieties are a weak tonic for a culture that swims in violence.