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Who is to blame for the mass shootings?
Article copyright by Bob Rogers
A Colorado theater. A Connecticut elementary school. A Texas church. A concert in Las Vegas. A Florida high school. Such diverse places have this in common: they are locations of mass shootings.
When such horrific tragedies happen, we gasp, hug our children, lower our flags, pray, and ask, “Why?”
Soon a number of scapegoats will be brought forth to be sacrificed at the altar of our need to blame someone or something.
Some will blame a lack of gun control. They will say that if we had stricter gun control, the shooter could not have done this. Perhaps if assault rifles and machine guns were off the market, it could reduce the likelihood of such attacks. Those who defend Second Amendment rights disagree, saying criminals will always find illegal ways to get guns, and mass shootings have also happened in nations with strict gun laws.
Some will blame a lack of security. Perhaps improvements in security can be made, but the police and security guards cannot be everywhere.
Some will blame violence in the media, saying that it desensitizes the viewer and can lead to copy-cat actions. However, millions of other people watch TV and movies without having an urge to hurt anybody.
Others will blame the shooter’s upbringing and environment, as many of these shooters have a troubled past. Most people agree that more could be done to detect and treat mental illness, and report “red flags” such as violent threats on social media. But once again, we cannot know what is in the min and heart of every person.
In playing the “blame game,” we often fail to look at the greatest reason for the actions of each shooter and for each of us: the human heart.
Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV) says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jesus said that evil comes from within, out of the heart (Mark 7:21).
When the Gospel of John describes how Judas Iscariot got up from the Last Supper, left Jesus and the other disciples, and stepped outside to betray Christ, John adds this short sentence: “And it was night.” (John 13:30). John was speaking of the spiritual darkness of that moment, but it reminds me of the Colorado theater shooting in 2012 at the opening of the Batman movie, The Dark Knight. After that dark night of Jesus’s betrayal and death, a light arose, because this Jesus who died on the cross also arose from the dead to defeat evil and give us hope.
The greatest need that mankind has is not gun control, more police, controls over movies, or psychologists. Our greatest need is for a Savior who can change the heart. He alone can change our dark nights into bright mornings.
Four great truths from the creation account in Genesis
Copyright 2013 by Bob Rogers.
Some people get so caught up debating how to fit different scientific views to the creation account in Genesis chapter one, that they miss the great theological truths in this chapter:
1) God created! Only God can create, and He does simply by speaking the Word, “Let there be…” and creation comes out of nothing (compare Hebrews 11:3).
2) God’s creation is good! Repeatedly, God saw what he created and “saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). When He created mankind, He said it was “very good.”
3) God’s creation is under His Lordship. God is the one in control. He speaks, and it comes to be. God alone is to be worshiped, not “Mother Earth” or the sun or moon, which is why God deliberately did not name the sun and moon (Genesis 1:16). Compare Romans 1:25.
4) God’s creation is under mankind’s trusteeship. Man was told to subdue and rule creation (Genesis 1:28), but also to “watch over it” (2:15). We have a responsibility to be good managers, for we don’t own it; God owns it all (compare Psalm 24:1).
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Who is to blame for the theater shooting in Colorado?
Copyright 2012 by Bob Rogers
The Dark Knight Rises is the name of the much-anticipated third Batman movie in the wildly popular films produced by Christopher Nolan. But it was a dark night in a different sense in a theater in Aurora, Colorado, where gunman James Holmes took to the stage himself and shot 70 people, killing at least 12.
When such horrific tragedies happen, we gasp, we hug our children, we lower our flags, we pray, and we ask, “Why?”
Soon a number of scapegoats will be brought forth to be sacrificed at the altar of our need to blame someone or something.
Some will blame a lack of gun control. They will say that if we had stricter gun control, this man could not have obtained so many weapons. However, mass shootings have occurred in other nations that have strict gun control.
Some will blame a lack of security, since the gunman carried so much artillery into the theater. Perhaps improvements in security can be made but the police and security guards cannot be everywhere.
Some will blame violence in the movies, saying that it desensitizes the viewer and can lead to copy-cat actions. Some news reports today say that the shooter was dressed as the Joker, lending some credence to this theory. However, millions of other people have seen the Batman films without having an urge to hurt anybody.
Others will blame the man’s upbringing, environment, how he may have been treated at the school where he dropped out, and so on.
But in playing the “blame game,” we often fail to look at the greatest reason for the actions of James Holmes and for each of us: the human heart.
Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV) says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jesus said that evil comes from within, out of the heart (Mark 7:21).
When the Gospel of John describes how Judas Iscariot got up from the Last Supper, left Jesus and the other disciples, and stepped outside to betray Christ, John adds this short sentence: “And it was night.” (John 13:30). John was speaking of the spiritual darkness of that moment. But after that dark night, a light arose, because this Jesus who died on the cross also arose from the dead to defeat evil and give us hope.
The greatest need that mankind has is not gun control, more police, controls over movies, or psychologists. Our greatest need is for a Savior who can change the heart. He alone can change our dark nights into bright mornings.
Bob Rogers 