Another school shooting.
Today it happened again in Santa Fe, Texas. As of this writing, 10 dead, 10 wounded.
And we go on.
Since Columbine, there have been over 200 shootings at schools. Some have been big news, some were small news, some were barely reported. They should all have shaken us to the core. Now they just make us sad, if that, and only for a few minutes. Then we go back to blaming the government, the guns, the gun lobby, the anti-gun lobby, or this or that. Video games, rock music, or the lack of church in the lives of the children.
It goes on and on. And it seems, especially after the shooting in Florida, that only the children seem to be worked up. Perhaps it is because they are dying. Just as African Americans have to point out the injustice and the obviously and statistically skewed numbers that show they are arrested at an amazingly higher rate than whites, the children have had enough.
Of course, they can't vote. So their voice only goes so far and only troubles politicians for so long. The governors and Senators give their speeches, and then they fall back into the rhythm of the status quo. Nothing changes and soon...another shooting.
And the Christians don't know what to say. Is this the will of God? I cannot see how it is. In the eyes of Jesus, children were precious - despite cultural norms that kept them out of sight and out of mind. In the days of the early Methodist movement, John Wesley argued against child labor and for education for all. Children dying cannot be sanctioned by the church.
Of course, there are those more fundamental groups within the Christian faith who, as they argue, are against any program to save the planet. They feel that the planet is ours to use up. Why? Because we will get a new one at the end of time. So trash it up! I wonder if that thinking also applies to how they view school shootings: "Oh, it is bad, but it will all be made right in time." Tell that to the parents of the most recently murdered child.
Is this Christian philosophy? We don't want to save the planet because we are going to get a new one - is this their philosophy with human life?
It certainly is in opposition to the idea that God is love, that Jesus loves the little children, and that we are to proclaim the kingdom as a present reality.
What I do ponder is that the shootings seem to be symptomatic of something larger, perhaps something worse. Gun control is only one aspect of the issue, but an important one. Yet, there is more than that. Why have our children become so violent? Why has society become so full of animosity? Why does life not matter if it isn't your own?
We have seen that civility in politics is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Name calling is acceptable, lies are truth and truth is obfuscated. The only way that that kind of attitude can reach the top is if it has grown from the ground up. It's only acceptable so long as we let it be.
And that might be the point. School shootings and the culture that apparently fosters them will continue to be the status quo until we the people decide it's time for things to change. My hope would be that we would foster that change before then next shooting takes place.
We shall see.
