The tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Newtown, Connecticut, got me, like everyone else, to reflect about this
incredible tragedy. And, like so many of us, I was riveted to the
television news programs to learn more about it. Among so many other
things, it really tragic that it comes during the happy holiday Christmas
season for Christians and during the Channukah season for Jews. The
senselessness of these killings is certainly beyond our ability to fathom - a
very young man shooting his mother in the face killing her and, then, killing
the toddlers and their teachers at the school.
Like so many previous senseless shootings, the media
and politicians goes into their predictable tirade about guns and the need for
more gun control. Interestingly, the Governor of Connecticut admitted
that his state has one of the strictest gun control laws in the country.
An interesting statistic is that over 16 million background checks for gun
purchases occurred last year of which only 0.47% resulted in rejections.
In this case the guns were registered - to the mother of the shooter. So,
after so many similar shootings over the years, more gun control laws
definitely do not appear to be the answer. But, this is not about the
pros and cons of more gun control legislation.
Parenthetically, it is interesting to consider that these
same gun control advocates who are offended by the killings of these innocent
are, at the same time, open advocates for abortions and assisting the
suicide for the elderly.
But, let me get back down to the point of this missive - no
one, I mean no one, in the media coverage from the investigators to the friends
and family to the politicians ever mentioned sin and the devil! There
were some mentions of mental derangement of the shooter in this case and of the
shooters in other cases. This is, most likely, a reasonable explanation
for these shooters. But, where does the stimulus for their actions to
kill come from? The devil? No one mentions it despite our
Judeo-Christian backgrounds? Why not? In other earlier times, it
would have not at all unusual to think that the person who did such a thing was
possessed by the devil. But, in our contemporary 21st Century, ridicule
will flow to those who suggest the role of the devil and of sin.
I, certainly, do not know the answer in this instance, but
pose the idea that, yes, the shooter was mentally ill. But, what caused
him to act upon that illness and kill people? Even more so, what caused
him to kill these harmless little children especially this otherwise happy time
of year? Is it so totally out of our 21st Century modernistic and
cosmopolitan thinking to consider that the impetus and the stimulus to move
this mentally ill man to such horrible actions was the devil? Why do we
not want to recognize the face of evil and the devil anymore? Because we
do not want to be viewed as being old-fashioned, primitive,
unsophisticated? But, we still go to our churches and proclaim our
faiths. And, our faiths recognize not only God but, also, a God who
speaks to us about avoiding the devil, his evil, and sin.
Every year during the Easter Mass we, Catholics, renew our
Baptismal promises which cover the following: that we renounce Satan who is the
author and prince of sin, his works, all his empty show, sin so as to live in
the freedom of God, and renounce the lure of sin so that sin may have no
mastery over us. So, why do we not view this evil from the devil as the
impetus to these shooters keeping our Baptismal vows in mind? Even the
media and the politicians call murderers, terrorists, child abusers, and like
evil. But, where does that evil come from? Satan, our Baptismal
vows would assert so why is that not mentioned in the public debate?
There was a public memorial for these victims which show our belief and faith
in God and the rendering of our prayers to him. There was a mention of
free will by a rabbi. But, where was the discussion of evil and the
devil?
Where is the discussion about the rejection of prayer at public
governmental functions, the declining morals of our society, the declining
attendance at religious services and the increasing ridicule of the faithful of
all religions? This, I posit is where the discussion for solutions in the
public debate should be rather than in the tedious repetitions of gun control,
more security at schools, and the identification and treatment of the mentally
ill.
Let me know what you think.
Let the light of our Lord shine upon you!
REM (Ray Makowski) Co-Founder, Director and
Secretary-Treasurer
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