BY MARK HORNE
Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace! 2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. 3 We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows. 4 We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought. 5 Our pursuers are at our necks; we are weary; we are given no rest…. 7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities. ~ Lamentations 5:1-5,7
This weekend we witnessed again another mass shooting in our country. This senseless act – and let’s call it what it is, evil – is yet another reminder of our fallen world and the depravity of our hearts. Of course, there is a lot of blame placed on everyone and everything other than the perpetrators. Culpability is placed on the inanimate object itself, the gun. Fault is placed on the NRA. Responsibility is given to the president. And with the advent of the Social Justice movement, all these events occurred because of white people.
Before I go any further, I want to state a few positions I hold. First, I am a gun owner. I love to hunt and fish. I would be considered what many would call a white, redneck, country-boy, hick. The outdoors is what I love because of where and how I was raised, and the experiences God provided in my life for my enjoyment. I am a staunch advocate for Second Amendment rights. I one hundred percent believe every American citizen has the right to gun-ownership for enjoyment, self-protection (even conceal and carry), and bearing arms against our government if it so poses a dictator-like threat to its citizens. However, I do believe we need more stringent laws in place for background checks and those who can obtain a gun. You may think I am talking out of both sides of my mouth, but that isn’t the case. I do believe every American has the right to bear arms, but there are people who shouldn’t have the privilege of gun-ownership. If a background check can throw up a red flag on a person for their evil bent towards harming others, or murdering innocents because they are deranged, or in a religious cult that promotes murder, or has any hate toward a specific group of people for any reason, then the privilege of obtaining certain guns (maybe any gun) is not for them. And I am willing to wait an extra three or four weeks to buy my gun if it keeps an unstable person from obtaining one.
The second position I want to convey is the issue of President Trump’s liability for these senseless acts. Those who think it is solely his fault are irrational. President trump is not my favorite president in history. Although, I am thankful of his leadership in many areas. He has done a lot I agree with in the areas of judicial appointments, economics, EPA standards, job-creation, tax initiatives, abortion laws, military initiatives, and outreach to minority communities (despite what the media portrays about these political issues). However, I do not like his rhetoric. He is very crass and crude and not very presidential. I believe he intentionally incites division and chaos. Maybe this is a Tom Peters thing of his. And his foreign policy leaves something to be desired. Nevertheless, no matter what my opinion or your opinion of Trump is, one cannot logically say these violent acts occur because of President Trump, or Sen. McConnell, or anyone else in public office. Even President Obama had mass shootings during his presidency.
The third position I would like to address before I go any further is the issue of race. The race card is thrown down like an ace of diamonds by a world champion poker player making a full house by everyone these days. And the problem is they are right, and they are wrong. One must realize there is only one race of people, the human race. The Bible teaches that we are all descended from one set of parents in history named Adam and Eve (Genesis 2, Romans 5:11-13). From them other ethnicities occurred through time and adaptation. Certain groups who migrated to certain areas of the world developed certain levels of melanin to give their people group different shades of color (Genesis 11:1-9). The Bible even describes this as “every tongue, tribe, and nation” (Philippians 2:9-11, Revelation 5:8-11); never is the word “race” used. Now, these proponents who play the race card do have it right in that hatred and devious acts are committed within certain ethnicities towards others. However, this is nothing new. From the times of the Patriarchs, Egyptian Dynasties, Chinese Dynasties, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Greek & Roman rule, Spain, France, England, Protestant Reformation, or Enlightenment; name any period in history and one will find hatred and fighting between two groups of people who are different from each other. Terrible atrocities were committed by one ethnic group upon another in every historical era, and we witness it today. (A wonderful podcast on this issue is Just Thinking hosted by Darrell B. Harrison and Virgil Walker). I own the fact that there are “white supremacists” and “white terrorists” and wicked people and organizations like the Klu Klux Klan. I do not, in any way, defend a white terrorist for killing any one no matter how mentally unstable they may be. Yet, I also recognize that there are other “racist” people and organizations as well; such as Jihadists, ANTIFA, and Nazis.
This brings me to the point of this blog post. I am truly heartbroken and saddened by the cold-blooded murder of so many people. My heart sincerely aches for the families of these victims. If I could go back and change the timeline for them, I would; because the tragedy of the situation doesn’t rest upon the guns, the President, or ethnicity. The tragedy rests upon the human heart in all its sinfulness. Eddie Glaude Jr., who is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University, answered a question from Nicole Wallace on MSNBC about race and President Trump this way, “It’s easy for us to place it all on Donald Trump’s shoulders… This is us. And if we’re going to get past this we can’t blame it on him. He’s a manifestation of the ugliness that’s in us.” Did you read that? He is a manifestation of the ugliness that’s in us [emphasis mine].
All of us, every single one of us, bear the iniquities of our fathers. Each one of us through our family line must struggle with the sin of our wicked hearts. Each one of us need to understand our family line stops with Adam and Eve. We can go back to our family’s, or tribe’s, or clan’s place of origin on the world map; but that doesn’t get to the root of the heart of hatred. The root of hatred, murder, White Nationalists, Black Nationalists, anti-Semitism, Islamic Terrorism, gang violence, and drug cartels is only one thing – sin. There will always be hate in this world until Jesus Christ returns. There will always be murder, whether by gun, knife, or stoning. We can deter radicals with both sensible gun laws, without infringing on Second Amendment rights, and citizens bearing conceal and carry firearms on their person for protection. Yet, should this be the preeminent method of the spiritual war in which we are?
I think one of the major areas the church must fight the fight is teaching the value of family. Mark Melker on the Patheos blog stated that of the twenty-seven recent mass shootings, the one thing twenty-six of them had in common was fatherlessness. Drs. Warren Farrell and John Gray pointed out in their book, The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It, that boys are growing up with less-involved fathers and are more likely to drop out of school, drink, do drugs, become delinquent, and end up in prison. One of the Twitter accounts I follow, the Father Effect, deals with this very issue. Dr. Anthony Bradley pounds this drum all the time because of its significance. Church, we must reach our boys before they become young men teaching them and modeling for them what it means to be a husband and father. Broken families contribute to broken hearts and lives. Not only is it the epitome of selfishness, it is not Christ-honoring (Matthew 19:1-12) and it leads to a degenerate society.
Ultimately, I desire more. My heart prays for more. And the “more” it desires and prays for is these hard-hearted haters to come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. We can place all the laws and restrictions upon our society we can muster. We can place hedges and fences around our yards, places of worship, and country’s borders as fast as we can. Yet, there is no one or no thing that can reach inside a hate-filled person’s heart and change his/her hatred toward another except Jesus. The only way to abolish hate is to preach Christ and Him crucified. The Church must take up the reigns of her Bridegroom and fight this spiritual battle. We cannot continue to sit on our haunches and expect the government to rectify this alone. God has given us the government to protect us from wrongdoing (Romans 13:1-7). However, Jesus has called us to be salt and light to the world (Matthew 5:13-16). We need another Great Awakening in this country. We need the Holy Spirit to move again in hearts and lives. One of my favorite evangelists, Leonard Ravenhill, in his book Why Revival Tarries states this, “The Gospel is not an old, old story, freshly told. It is a fire in the Spirit, fed by the flame of Immortal Love; and woe unto us, if, through our negligence to stir up the Gift of God which is within us, that fire burns low.” Let us not allow our fires to burn low on the matters of hatred and racism. Let us fight it tooth and nail with the greatest of graces God has given us, love (1 Corinthians 13).
Andrews PCA 