Dealing with a School Tragedy
Stop the Violence!
The Need: Bring Back God!
Did you know that it has now been 50 years since prayer was banned in the public schools in America? It was June 25, 1962. I don't believe that it has been merely a coincidence that the amount of crime has also increased. Aggravated assault, robbery, murder, forcible rape, property crime, and theft have all dramatically risen over the past half century. The latest tragedy being the senseless murders in Newton, Connecticut. The sad thing is that those poor young people who were killed were just as much victims of the society that we've created, as they were the gunman who took their lives.
When will we wake up? When God gets taken out of the public square it is indeed a tragedy. It has been the Judeo-Christian value system that has lead us to be one of the greatest and most powerful nations in the history of this planet. It has given us a moral compass that has guided us for almost two and a half centuries. Today, the compass is broken and we are wandering in a wilderness of moral relativism.
Fifty years ago the greatest worry a child had when going to school was to get sent to the principle's office for chewing gum in the hallways, or being picked up by the truant officer. Now we as parents have to worry whether our children will be gunned down on the way to class, or while playing in the playground.
I. No Purpose or Value
What do we now teach our children? We teach them that they evolved and were not created. We inform them that they were not the loving creation of an Almighty God and that they aren't created in His image. Rather we tell them that they were a cosmic accident and that there is no real purpose to this life, or of human life for that matter. Indeed, this whole universe just happened. Is it any wonder that teen suicide is a growing problem? Today 1 in 6 high school students has seriously considered suicide and 1 in 12 has attempted it.
We have taken away our children's uniqueness and their purpose. We've rid them of the God who loves them, and has a wonderful plan for each and every one. And we've left them with nothing but a God-shaped void, while we bid them to act in a civilized, loving and purposeful manner.
II. No Standards
Americans, at one time, had the Bible as a standard to tell us what was right and what was wrong. It was the basis for many of our laws and it was known well by most of the leaders of our country. Now a large percentage of people in this nation don't even know what the Bible says on any topic. Indeed 60 percent of Americans cannot even name 5 of the 10 commandments.
The question is, what standards do we have to replace the ones that were discarded? We throw the Bible out, and now everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes. Relativism is the order of the day. And when there are no public standards, there is chaos.
C.S. Lewis said it best when he talked of this same phenomenon years ago. He stated:
"We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and then bid the geldings to be fruitful."
Truthfully, we have created a monster, and it is killing our society.
Conclusion
If our children are to have any hope for a brighter future, we need to bring God back into our culture. We cannot allow the powers that be to use the "separation of church and state" to mean a "separation of church from state." Our Founding Fathers never intended such a thing to happen to this nation and we cannot stand idly by as our religious freedoms continue to erode.
Some psychologist recently said that the school tragedy that happened in Connecticut was not really a national tragedy. I beg to differ. Newton, Connecticut is the result of a nation that has lost its way. We have forgotten our God and His standards. We've shunned the very principles that have made this nation unique among the nations of the world. We've sown the wind, and are now reaping the whirlwind. May God have mercy on us and bring us the revival that we sorely need!