One week ago today seventeen people, most of them teenagers, opened their eyes upon their final day. They went about their morning routines that led them into what promised to be a normal day of learning and teaching. Little did they know the premeditated violence and carnage awaiting them in the form of an assault weapon in the hands of a disturbed, angry white man.
Last night, with some of the students and teachers who lived through the horror in the gallery and others in route, their state legislature refused to even discuss a law to place restrictions on assault weapons, claiming procedural reasons. According to news sources they went on to approve a resolution declaring pornography a public health risk.
This tragic scenario of carnage-rage-inaction bathed in "thoughts and prayers" has become a mantra, a script of fear, anger, violence, and delusion which we all chant and play our parts.
Last Sunday in my sermon I addressed this bloody quagmire in which we live from a biblical perspective. I invite you to listen.
If you don't take time to hear the sermon, the final charge to the congregation included the following quote from Walter Brueggemann.
The crisis in the U.S. Church has almost nothing to do with being liberal or conservative; it has everything to do with giving up on the faith and discipline of our Christian baptism and settling for a common, generic U.S. identity that is part patriotism, part consumerism, part violence, and part affluence. ~ Walter Brueggemann
However, this is not only true for Christians but for all people of faith from all religions, or no religion, to reclaim our true identities and human dignity.
We are not here to kill each other!
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