The Oregon School Shootings

There has been a lot said and written over the last few days about the latest school shooting in Oregon. Much of that discussion has focused on things like gun control and mental health, which is certainly appropriate. But in my opinion that focus fails to really get to the heart of the issue. I'd like to briefly address two of those root problems.

Much of the discussion that I've seen seems to be reluctant to acknowledge that we live in a world where evil exists. But that evil is not just limited to the limited handful of people who engage in such despicable acts. Each and every one of us has a heart problem that God described like this to the prophet Jeremiah:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?(Jeremiah 17:9 ESV)

Certainly there are individuals who suffer from mental illness, and I'm not suggesting that we don't need to do more to identify and treat these people. But at the same time, we need to acknowledge that we all suffer from spiritual illness that is due to our deceitful and desperately sick hearts. And since that is a spiritual problem, it requires a spiritual solution.

The Bible clearly identifies the only solution to our heart problem - faith in Jesus. But, unfortunately as a culture, we've rejected that remedy. Collectively, we've stuck a finger in God's face and told Him we'll do things our way rather than His. We've removed Jesus from our homes and our schools and our courtrooms. And we think that by blithely adding "God bless America" to the end of a speech, that is going to somehow make up for thumbing our noses at God. Given our unashamed disregard for God, the only real surprise is that we don't see many more of these kinds of events. I'm reminded of this warning of God to His people:

Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them.’”(2 Chronicles 7:22 ESV)

The other issue that gives rise to these kinds of events is a blatant disregard for human life in our culture. As a culture, we not only fail to value the lives of our most vulnerable - the unborn and the aged - but we actually have large numbers of people who argue that it is a good thing to use our tax dollars to support an organization that kills and dismembers unborn children so that their body parts can be sold for a profit. That same disregard for human life carries over to television, movies, and especially video games, where large portions of our society have been desensitized to the taking of human life. So why should we be surprised when we produce people, mostly young men, who have absolutely no regard for human life and who therefore commit these horrific acts?

No laws or programs are going to solve this problem. The only long term solution is to return to God as a country. Earlier I quoted from 2 Chronicles 7. In that same chapter, we find the only remedy to these problems:

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.(2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV)

Are you being part of the solution by praying to God for His mercy and by asking Him to turn our country from our wicked ways?