Values vs. Inanimate Objects: How We Shouldn’t View the Newtown Tragedy

Do we really need one more voice out there about this?

Probably not, but I’m going to say it anyway. Because one thing I will not stand for is when the people of America make a three-dimensional issue a one-dimension issue.

You cannot say today’s culture is void of values and that’s why a massacre happened. People were killing each other long before the culture was where it’s at now.

You cannot blame the use of guns on it either. Adam Lanza didn’t have a gun. He stole the guns he used in this massacre. A criminal will find a way. I don’t believe we should make it easier, but by remove the right to bear arms from our constitution is a one-dimensional way of solving the problem.We have to take a long and serious look at our gun control laws. We have to. But that’s not the end of the story.

Because if we were to take away the right to bear arms in this country, it would not change the human heart.  

This is an issue of idols.

When I was a kid, my mom used to make me pull the weeds out in the flower beds around the house. When she taught me to do it, she made it clear that if I didn’t grab and pull up the roots too, the weeds would come back.  It’s the exact same thing with idols. By removing the things that tempt us in the first place we are only taking care of the surface issue, not the root.

I have a surface sin of criticizing others. I can stop doing it out loud, and I still keep doing it in my head. All that really does is make myself look better in front of others (by not voicing my judgments) and not hurting others’ feelings. These are all good things to aspire to, but it’s not making me less critical of others, it’s just allowing my critique to fester inside. It’s not changing my heart and attitude toward people – the people which need love and grace and someone to come alongside them to care for them in the midst of their brokenness. This is how I should deal with people – not critique them. But I cannot change my feelings towards them by simply stopping my criticism. I have to learn to love people in order to truly change from the inside out. (This also doesn’t mean I should keep on being critical – the answer is never to just “Go on being a terrible person because it doesn’t matter anyway.” That is definitely not what I am saying.)

To quote a very wise man, RC Sproul, “the problem of evil is the problem of us”. We are born evil and Christ is in the process of redeeming us. Without recognition that we are bad people who do bad things to other bad people, then we can’t figure out just how we could solve this tremendous issue facing our nation.  If we simply change the law, it will not change our hearts. We must start with the human heart. It is broken and in need of repair. Only the one who created it can repair it.

The question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” can only be answered this way. “That only happened once. And he volunteered for it.”

That man was Jesus. It’s because of his self-sacrificing love that I can be changed. We all can.