The eCrozier

The Prince of Peace must be weeping for what we do to one another.

This month two deranged individuals murdered 14 souls in San Bernardino, California. They rationalized this heinous act as a fair and just response to a perceived attack on their culture and religion. Three years ago this month, another disturbed individual whose mental health and delusions were his rationale, murdered 26 souls, mostly children, in Newtown, Connecticut.

After San Bernardino, the cry from our elected officials was swift and clear: “The government must take action. We have to pass legislation to address this terrorist act. It must never happen again.” So legislation was quickly passed and more is planned. It seems the government has an important role in keeping us safe and our elected officials will “stop at nothing” to ensure our safety.

After Newtown, the cry from our elected officials was: “Let’s pray for the victims and their families. The government can’t take any action. We can’t pass any legislation to address these murderous acts so let’s hope they never happen again.” It seems the government has no role at all in our safety if it means conflicting with a particular interpretation of the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution. Our elected officials will “stop at everything” to avoid even considering what might be wrong with this interpretation.

The Prince of Peace must be weeping.

While the motivations behind both murderous acts were different, the acts themselves were surprisingly similar. And in both cases, the citizens who inflicted the carnage were able to legally obtain military-style weapons to do their evil. So, in both instances, the significant difference was how our elected officials responded.

When God became human at Christmas, God did not become a different kind of human from the rest of us. God entered our diseased, sinful, finite reality and became flesh to redeem us. God in a very vulnerable way said to all humanity: “Here’s my baby boy. He’s yours, too. Let’s see what happens.” And we know what happened. Over 30 years later we crucified God’s baby boy. Lethal violence is at the heart of the Christian narrative and God is trying to tell us something painful about ourselves through it.

Our violent, sinful nature should tell us something about ourselves that’s hard for us to hear. Left to our own devices, more often than we care to admit, we will choose violence and inflicting death as our first response to whatever appears to wrong us. But that should also help us shape how we order our public life. Knowing the violent sinners we are all, we must take steps to limit access to these murderous weapons. If not, such incidences will continue even more frequently.

The Prince of Peace is weeping: “Father, forgive them.” Are we listening to Jesus?

+Scott