*Keep in mind these are the thoughts and beliefs of a junior in college, not a theologian*
What do we do about this?
How could we have prevented it?
These are the questions that have been asked since the moment that the shooter entered Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday.
I have heard a lot of good ideas and a lot of bad ideas. There are those that say that gun control should be increased because then the shooter never would have had the guns (in this case it may be correct, seeing as the shooter seems to have a mental disorder as described in
this article, take that for what you will). Others say that gun control should be lessened so that those with concealed permits may have the lawful right to carry in schools, thus protecting themselves and the students. Not that I desire to delve too deeply into this, but I will simply say that I am not against hunting but I am definitely against the availability of assault rifles to citizens, even with background checks. I believe WV Senator,
Joe Manchin sums that up pretty well. Now, I happen to be one who also believes that killing is wrong in any sense of the word, which means to me that concealed weapons are not the solution. I believe it is possible to prevent situations such as the shooting with no death required on either part. One of these solutions being what Marylin Manson said about the Columbine shooters, that he "would listen to them, which no one else did." Now this wouldn't work in every situation, of course, but many of those other situations can be addressed by John Howard Yoder's book,
What Would You Do? (Great book, great read, great discussion, great thoughts, great feels, etc) Death will happen in this world no matter how much we push for peace; but dang-it, we can try! And we are called to try (as Christians, that is). End of that subject.
Now, I've heard a lot of people say that the reason this happened is because we took God out of our schools. Shut up! This pains me so much. If you are naive enough to think that God isn't in schools just because public prayer isn't allowed then you don't know much about how God works (not that I know much either, I guess it would be better to say you don't know much about the beliefs of true Christianity...) and you shouldn't be throwing those words about carelessly. God isn't in legislature, God isn't in laws, God isn't in the
government, God doesn't stay within little boundaries that man has put on Him (He proved this with the healing of Naaman, and sending Elijah to the widow in Zarephath, and countless other ways). God is in each and everyone of us (Luke 17:21). He is in the people who run the government, He is in the people who enact the laws against them, He is in the atheist principle that cracks down when they see a student praying. He goes where He pleases and, as is accepted by most all God-fearing people, this means that He is everywhere.
Ok, that little rant done, I (almost) apologize if my words were too brash for anyone.
Now, in all honesty, I believe that God (and Christianity) will flourish in atmospheres where He is limited by man's vain conceit, by laws enacted against Him, and in environments where people try and push their reasoning over His. Examples from the past include the
Anabaptist's in Europe in the 1500's, the early church (you know, the one that Jesus started, was persecuted by the Roman Empire, yeah, that one), and now this school in Connecticut. God flourished within the likes of Vicki Soto, who hid her students in a closet and took the bullets herself, leaving all of her students unharmed. God flourished within the community and country that surrounded the families of those who lost loved ones. God flourished within Robbie Parker as he extended his love towards the shooter and the shooter's family. And I guess you could say that God flourished when Obama quoted the Scripture, and all these people calling for God to be brought back into schools. (
Here is a video of Mike Huckabee talking about this, I was sort of wary of it at first, but take it for what you will (sorry about all the links)) Leave God out of public schools, but put God back in our personal lives. Public education should probably be unbiased in any way, no matter what we think. There are private schools for our Christianity to be taught, if that is so desired. That isn't what the public school system was made for. Once Christianity is taught in the public schools, then every other religion needs to be taught as well.
But these people that state that the reason for the shooting was God not being allowed in school are off-base. Now, I am going to proceed with a short discussion on free-will and what I believe it is. I have seen many posts from those against the Christian faith who find this a very weak statement about why we believe that God "allowed" this to happen. Well, if this is our faith, then how is that weak? That is the way that it is, that is how God created us. It is something that we do not understand fully and debate about within Christianity and we (should) understand how these debates make those outside of Christianity think it is a fallacy. But this is what I believe, and I believe strongly in it. There isn't anything weak about it. But I digress incoherently.
So, this free will thing. My belief is as follows. I guess the best way to describe this is to use the word "destiny." In this sense it is sort of predestination, but it differs. I believe that God has a "destiny" that he has for each of us, yet it is up to us to decide whether we want to fulfill that "destiny" fully, partly, not at all, or fight that "destiny." In the case of atrocities such as this, it would be fighting.
Now back to the original thoughts. Just one more. I saw a quote that "Morgan Freeman" said, (I use quotations because I don't know if he really said it) he said that we shouldn't remember the shooter because that is what can encourage people to want to commit these atrocities in the future, for the recognition. He said, rather, that we should remember at least one name of the victims. Honour those victims, the families deserve that. Vicki Soto is the name that rings in my head, namely because of her selfless act. Another is Jack Pinto. It doesn't matter who you remember, just remember the victims.
That's about all I have. I really just wanted to write these down to organize them better. Feedback is appreciated. I expressed my opinions here, and that is that.
*Disclaimer: This link contains strong language*
Chris Rock on gun control. Not my exact thoughts, I just laughed. Because Chris Rock.
