Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with Christ,
It has happened again! Another horrifying school shooting, this time killing 17 and wounding another 15. There is talk in the aftermath about guns and mental health, but only a few scattered voices are addressing the real causes of our problems.
This latest incident, sadly one more in a growing history of such incidents in the United States, has brought tears to the eyes of many. Hardened journalists and law enforcement personnel struggled with their emotions while relating details of what happened. Parents are understandably grieving and angry that there is no end to the violence. One can only imagine the ordeal they endured, waiting many agonizing minutes until assured of their child’s safety. Others waited in vain, hoping for the best, only to experience a parent’s worst nightmare.
Dear friends, why do such things happen and when will they end? What are the causes? What we are seeing in the United States, but elsewhere as well, is a breakdown of society. Guns may be used more in the United States, but bombs, knives, cars and trucks are used elsewhere. Some is domestic terror, while some is ethnically or religiously oriented violence, but the result is the same—bodies broken and torn apart, grieving families and friends, and handwringing over how to end the carnage.
There are real answers to our problems. The answers are simple, but not easy. Politicians argue over guns and talk about mental illness. Missing is understanding of the causes of mental illness. There are multiple causes for mental illness, but much of what we see today is the result of decades-long rejection of God and His laws. We are reaping what we sowed, and continue to sow.
I was standing in line at the counter of a convenience store the day after the shootings, and several people were talking with the attendant about guns. I spoke up and said that unless we solve the problems of family and morality, we will not see an end to this kind of violence. One of the ladies responded, “Thank you! I’m a school teacher and know exactly what you are saying. I see it in my classroom every day.” School teachers are on the front line. They see the effect of broken homes on society, and families are breaking down on a massive scale.
Too many children are born to single mothers, and as mentioned on a recently recorded Tomorrow’s World telecast, “Studies have found that children born to single mothers are vastly more likely to be poor, have behavioral and psychological problems, drop out of high school, and themselves go on to have out-of-wedlock children” (Slate, “…And Baby Makes Two,” March 20, 2008).
Further, too many children are born outside of a committed marriage between a man and a woman. As reported in the same article, “For 10 years, the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study at Princeton University has followed the families of 5,000 children, three-quarters born to unwed parents. According to the research, most of these parents, both women and men, said they wanted to get married—and to each other. But they somehow feel this mutual decision is beyond their power to make. And by not making it, the forces of inertia start pulling them apart. Five years after their children’s births, only 16 percent of the couples had married, and 60 percent had split.”
All this begs other questions. Do we even understand the purpose for marriage? Do we understand the proper roles of men and women in marriage, as defined by the Author of marriage? Do we know HOW to rear children? And do we understand the powerful influence of the hedonistic and violent entertainment industry, including music, movies, television, electronic games, books, etc.?
The fact is that these issues are not and will not be solved by our politicians and leaders! Thus, carnage will continue and will increase. We are a society in free fall! It is not politicians only. It is ALL of us!
Meanwhile, Canada is set to make recreational marijuana legal, following the example of several states south of its border. How ironic! We promote a substance known to be a gateway drug to stronger narcotics, when it is known that all these recreational drugs, including marijuana, contribute to serious mental health problems!
The problem behind all other societal ills is our rejection of our Creator and His laws. This has left us with a purposeless world. It is everyone for himself, each making his or her own rules, creating his or her own temporal meaning for life. It is a self-loving world with no understanding of why we are here. Unless God exists, there is no lasting purpose to life. “Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!”
Those tragic victims in this latest carnage, including far more than those killed and injured, are no more evil than the rest of society. Aaron Feis, the assistant football coach and school security guard, reportedly died shielding students he loved with his own body. He deserves our honor and respect, and our prayers for the wife and small daughter that he left behind. Jesus told His disciples on the night in which He was betrayed, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). That is what coach Feis did, and that is what our Creator did for us.
Dear Brethren and Co-workers, you have chosen of your own free will to lay down your lives for strangers that you have never met. You help us proclaim to the world the true nature of our problems, and the ultimate solution—the return of Jesus Christ. God instructed Ezekiel to go to the house of Israel, to a rebellious and stiff-necked people with a warning: repent and turn to God, or disaster will follow. He adds, “But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted” (Ezekiel 3:7). Neither will the world listen to us, but a few will.
God is not playing games. He warns us in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…. Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” God holds us responsible if we do not sound the warning. What is ahead is far more tragic than what happened on 9-11, or in South Florida, or anything up to this date. God instructs us, “Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Surely we did not know this,’ does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?” (Proverbs 24:11-12).
You are laying down your lives through your heartfelt prayers and faithful tithes and offerings to do this Work. It is not in the exact same way as Aaron Feis, but it is giving a part of your time and resources, a part of your very life for others. You can be sure God sees and will honor you for it, both in this life and in the life to come!
Sincerely, in Christ’s service,
Gerald E. Weston