Who can adequately wrap their mind around the shooting event in Oregon yesterday? It shakes you to your very core to think that a twenty-year old could be so unhinged as to gun down college students. To further complicate this incomprehensible act, it is somehow linked to the victims’ beliefs. The gunman asked the victims, “Are you a Christian?” and their responses determined the outcome. It clearly indicates that his mind was focused and determined. Insane? Not insane? Disillusioned? Terrorist?
If I were in that Oregon school building and were confronted by a lunatic wielding a gun, what would I do? I am pretty sure I would be looking for a quick exit just as most people who are honest. In my imagination I wonder what would happen if a group suddenly rushed the shooter all at once, screaming at him and throwing something to distract him, and then take him down. Some would get hurt but he couldn’t shoot everyone. Well, too much NCIS.
As the world awaits more details about the shooter and his motives, I replay some other similar shootings in my mind—Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Washington Navy Yard, and Fort Hood. What does it take for a shooter to kill unarmed people who are simply going about their daily business? Deep hatred and mental dehumanization of the victims are no doubt at the core. We ask ourselves how this can happen in a country that has so much to offer. Belief, whether religious or not, is such a powerful stronghold. It compels us to act one way or another. The shooter’s mind was powerfully held by a twisted belief that coerced his actions.
As Christians, we are persuaded to a worldview through words of Jesus. It motivates us to a particular moral and ethical behavior supported by Scripture. We seek continual transformation by the Word of God to become transformed into the image of Christ. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). We readily see why raising morally strong children is so critical; that they may not fall prey to wickedness and evil deeds.
As we think about the students who survived the shooting and the families of the victims, pray for their strength in the coming days and for the Holy Spirit to bring comfort and peace to their souls. Pray also for the shooter’s family, whose lives will never be the same, that they may find peace and God if they do not know Him. And finally, pray for peace and moral strength for our nation’s youth.
Copyright 2015 by Eva Benevento. All rights reserved.
