School Shootings A Matter of the Heart

Post date: May 25, 2018 3:49:37 PM

Our nation is a nation that currently seems to be plagued by so many social problems, among them racial strife, an opioid crisis, and a multitude of school shootings. A news program I was recently watching stated that there had already been twenty school shootings around the country since the beginning of this year. People are wanting to know why.

Young people from Lackland, Florida, one of the sites of a recent school shooting, are blaming guns and the National Rifle Association. They are calling for more gun control laws as a solution to this crisis, but how many laws are enough? This solution is driven by emotion rather than logic and common sense.

First of all, students, or others who commit criminal acts of violence, have no regard for laws, and are determined to get hold of guns by any means (beg, borrow or steal). No gun law will prevent that.

Secondly, if the NRA is to blame for school shootings, and it has existed since 1871, why are school shootings a more recent phenomenon (last few decades)? Perhaps there's an answer that makes more sense.

Many people in Santa Fe, Texas, site of the most recent school shooting, are saying that the problem lies within the human heart. I totally agree with that idea. The Bible warns us all in Proverbs 4:23 to “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life.”

I believe the American family changed. Divorce skyrocketed, and our children, several generations, have paid a terrible price. Parents with drug and alcohol problems are not caring for their children. These parents are neglectful and/or abusive. Many Grandparents and others are having to stand in the gap.

We also have an enormous amount of ungodly, harmful, toxic material coming from television (especially in prime time), movies, internet, and video games. An enormous amount of it is violent and devalues human life. Add this to the broken American family and is it any wonder that our children, or others want to commit suicide and/or murder others?

Then some very foolishly want to blame an inanimate object, a gun, or the NRA, for school shootings. How preposterous! Is a fork to blame for someone's obesity? Yet some would have us believe that a gun is the problem.

Ours is a spiritual problem. Billy Graham has written that “No matter how advanced its progress, any generation that neglects its spiritual and moral life is going to disintegrate. This is the story of man, and this is our modern problem.”

Our spiritual problem is also an authority problem. Our authority in living life will either be God or ourselves. Too many people have chosen self. As Randy Stonehill has so aptly written in a song, “We are all like foolish puppets who desiring to be kings, now lie pitifully crippled after cutting our own strings.”

God has shown us the way, yet we choose to contemptuously ignore that. Our world view has become humanistic. We see ourselves and governments as the answer, but the more we try that solution, the more it fails. We need to get back to a God-honoring biblical world-view.

Young people are killing themselves and each other because they've lost hope and have been taught by certain elements of our society, whether by television, movies, government, internet or their own family members, that human life has no meaning or value.

Billy Graham once said, “Young people seek adventure and excitement; but youth wants more-- it wants something to believe in; it wants a cause to give itself to and a flag to follow. The only cause that is big enough is the cause of Jesus Christ; and its flag is the blood-stained body that was lifted on the cross of Calvary for the redemption of the world.” Our nation, including its families and young people, need to follow in the ways and wisdom and love of Jesus Christ. We need to take self and government off the throne and acknowledge God's proper place back on the throne.

Trying to stop school shootings by passing more gun laws is like pouring water into a broken cistern – it's a solution that doesn’t hold water. On the other hand, praying and acting to bring healing to hearts and families makes a lot of sense. Be a part of the solution. Consider volunteering in the schools or some pro-family organization. Our young people need to know somebody cares. It just might mean the difference between tragedy and triumph, and the salvation of our nation.