Saturday, December 15, 2012
Do You Believe in Evil? Do You Believe in Prayer? Thoughts on the Newton School Shooting
In the US we are all thinking about the Newton School Shooting. I offer my thoughts about that event here.
4 comments:
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For a person adhering to the traditional monotheistic religions, evil is very real. It is called sin.
ReplyDeleteFor others, "evil" is a severely anti-social behavior, and a social construct, as is all morality.
In 1988, Laurie Dann, a woman with mental problems, entered a school in Winnetka (suburb of Chicago), and shot several children, one of whom died. It is reported that the shooter in Connecticut had mental problems. Psychotic people, of course, cannot engage in normal moral reasoning, and so cannot do "evil".
Predictably, this tragic incident is already being exploited and politicized by the gun-control crowd. Then again, Connecticut is and long has been a very liberal state. And so on...
The problem with gun-control is, I believe, the following- criminals do not care what the law says-they will get weapons no matter what the sentence may be, law-abiding people do. They are the defenseless in that case
ReplyDeleteThe US has had more violent crime than Europe since the 19th century, even when Europe had far more guns available. Then again, Europe still has gun crime now, even acts of mass murder, with strict levels of firearms control that could never even be considered for the US. In the US so-called "assault rifles" account for an insignificant amount of crime, maybe partly because they cost more than other firearms. Keep in mind too that suicide by gun deaths are listed as "gun deaths" by the CDC, so even pure US gun death stats need a close look. They are high, but the suicides make it even higher. Likewise a "child" is anyone under 18 and even 20 in some published stats.
ReplyDeleteThe UK still still has 2/3 more occupied home invasions than the US as well as lingering gun crime even though its an island and has strict gun control since the 1950's. Take into account the hundreds of millions of legal firearms already in the US along with the porous Mexican border, that can supply anything illegally in demand from freon gas to illicit drugs and one can see the futility of looking at "gun control" as a way out from such senseless violence. Its societal, let's face it.
MB
Yes, it does come back to hearts and minds. In the UK the situation seems to be that if a criminal wants a gun they can get one, but its very difficult for the rest of us. Its not that I'm wanting to have one by the way - for one thing, I am exactly the sort of person who would get it pointing the wrong way round, fail to learn how to drive the safety catch properly, etc. I want to put my trust in my Creator, the God of Abraham, be as safety conscious as I reasonably can be, and hope that "the everlasting arms" will catch and hold me if the worst comes to the worst - and that I will be woken from the sleep of death when the time comes.
DeleteBut violence of all kinds seems to be on the rise in the UK - which is not suprising given the times we live in.
I see this as another reminder of the vital importance of the Christian preaching work, which I am not out doing this morning. I hope to get back to it in January, hoping the new medication will have kicked in by then... God's word does have the power to change hearts.