This afternoon was another terrible day for watching the news. I saw an article on the web about Dylan Mockley, a six-year old boy who died in the arms of his favorite teacher during the massacre at Newtown, CT. It was offered as a small consolation to an otherwise horrible scene which left 29 children and teachers dead. I cried on-and-off for an hour after reading that story. It was little consolation.
In my last blog entry, I shared my anger over this mindless tragedy and the ease with which some people quickly blame God. My own thoughts on how we as a society have created a culture of death and then are surprised when someone actually takes our culture’s devaluing of life to its logical conclusion, is in my last entry. I also offered some ideas from the prophet Amos in the Old Testament in which God may be trying to get the attention of a nation through a series of calamites (see chapter four in the Book of Amos).
But, I am afraid I may have been slightly misunderstood. Some thought that I was directly blaming all citizens of the U.S. for this tragedy. Others asked whether this might be an argument that people might use to reject God. Another question was, “How do you assuage the fears of people who are faithful to God that their children might become ‘collateral damage’ as God disciplines a nation?” These are both legitimate misunderstandings and excellent questions. So, amidst the grief we are all feeling and our attempts to make some sense out of this horror, allow me to clarify.
1. I don’t believe that every citizen of this country is to blame for this mess. Adam Lanza is primarily to blame. He made choices and they were horrible and evil choices.
2. On a side note, I take offense at some of the reporting going on that directly or indirectly links Adam Lanza’s killing spree with being a boy with Asperger’s (a milder form of autism). As the parent of a child with autism (and having met hundreds of children with autism and Asperger’s), this is a reckless connection.
3. I do believe that we as a society must corporately face the fact that we have become a culture of death and, as such, this is a major ingredient in the soup that we are all in. We don’t value life if we would honestly look at what passes for gaming, what passes for entertainment, what we are willing to do with an inconvenient pregnancy, what we believe about the human soul, about our origins, etc…
a) If we really are more highly-developed animals in the evolutionary process of natural selection with its survival-of-the-fittest mentality, then there is really nothing to be shocked about. The weak were weeded out, end of story.
b) If we are simply a by-product of our DNA then we are all programmed to do something quite apart from any antiquated ideas of morality. Adam Lanza just did what his DNA told him to do. If these are our beliefs, then why get angry or blame God?
c) If we are soulless beings who will one day die and then cease to exist, then Nietzsche was right and we are all the walking dead on a clump of dirt floating mindlessly through a dark, lifeless vacuum…and nothing matters because we will all eventually cease to exist with no memory of anything good or joyful or beautiful.
There are no morals in a godless society!! Morality and godlessness are mutually exclusive because it is ultimately illogical to be moral if nothing ultimately matters. As Mike Huckabee said during a television interview recently,
“You cannot expect a civil society inside a moral vacuum.”
Nor can we let ourselves, collectively, off-the-hook when our culture generates such an obsession over death. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman has written extensively on how the military trains its soldiers to mentally override our resistance to kill through simulation. Grossman then points out how the simulation in our modern video games is exactly the same stuff. Below is a link to one of Grossman’s articles.
http://www.killology.org/art_teach_virus.htm
So, yes, we as a society DO have to accept some responsibility for what is happening in our country even if individually, many of us lead very non-violent and decent lives. And mind you, none of this madness in our culture is advocated by God, yet He seems to be a magnet for blame.
4) So, what about the person who takes this argument and runs with it in order to reject God? HonestIy, I have no control over that. Chances are likely that anything we might offer would be used to reject God. The question is not what someone will do with an argument, but whether the argument is true and cogent. People do all kinds of things with truth. The prophets in the Old Testament said truthful, pointed things and they were a very unpopular bunch. Jesus said some very controversial, truthful things and shrunk a movement of thousands down to 12 and then down to nothing and then got Himself crucified.
5) The question for Amos chapter four is simply this: Is the biblical text offering us a principle for understanding tragedy on a national scale? And then, is this text applicable to our current situation?
6) How can I assuage the fears of the faithful who are fearful that God’s judgment will sweep away their children? Well, I think that this is too simple a way to look at God’s judgment for starters. God’s judgment is often the removal of His restraint on a society bent on rebellion against Him. Sometimes (often times) God’s judgment is little more than Him turning us over to our own ways and the natural consequences of our decisions (see Romans 1:18-32). We bring many of these calamities on our own heads and that is God’s judgment too.
7) Inasmuch, how can I assuage fears? I am afraid I cannot. Do we really think that evil discriminates between the elderly and the child? Or the guilty and the innocent? No- and that is what makes evil so EVIL!! That is why God hates evil. That is why we are called to holiness and to resisting evil and to transforming a world under siege!! But, I cannot promise anyone that if they go to church and read their Bible and pray that some person hyped up on the drugs we are legalizing and the violence that we are mass-producing won’t have a psychotic break and perpetrate some unspeakable evil. Read Lamentations!! Read the story of King Josiah in 2 Kings 22-23. Here was the most godly king to ever sit on the throne of Judah, yet because of the abject rebellion of the nation, Josiah was killed by Pharaoh Neco and the nation of Israel - men, women and children - were dragged off to Babylon in exile (see 2 Kings 23:25-29).
8) God is faithful, mind you. I am strongly convinced that so many more of these incidents should be happening save for the restraining work of God in society - something the Reformers called “common grace”. I do believe that prayer is a difference-maker. But, it is no guarantee. I believe that a godly lifestyle and a path guided by God’s wisdom will certainly sidestep the unnecessary troubles of this world.
9) I believe that the hope of a world restored and renewed at the return of Christ is our true comfort and it stands in stark contrast to the nightmare we have created.
My sole consolation in this grievous moment in time is that God’s mercy will see these children into the new heavens and new earth, and by the grace of Christ they will be held again by their loved ones and never experience these nightmares again. Here is my comfort and I hope yours as well:
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let those who hear say, “Come!” Let those who are thirsty come; and let all who wish take the free gift of the water of life. (Revelation 22:13-17)
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