The world we live in is full of trials and tribulations. But there are some events that tower above the usual hardships of our lives. These tragic occurrences come in a lot of forms: natural disasters, accidents and the evil of mankind. These past weeks have been a reminder to all of us how things that seem incomprehensively awful happen way more often than they should. As a result, it may seem that we have been desensitized to how horrendous these tragedies really are.
Life in the age of social media has brought a lot of change (some good, but most bad) to our social interactions. However, one thing that has caught my eye in the past few weeks is the abundance of the phrase “thoughts and prayers” when our nation is faced with tragedy. To be blunt, your “thoughts” are useless in these instances and “prayers” can be powerful if we pray with conviction, but I fear our desensitization to tragedy has zapped our conviction. Instead, we should seek to act in response to these tragedies and reciprocate God’s love and grace through charity.
James 2:14-17 says, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” John the Evangelist also wrote this in 1 John 3:18: “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” It should be apparent that the Bible advocates not just that we don’t just try to soothe others with words, but rather we reach them with action. These are just 2 verses that spoke to me, but other verses to study would be James 4:17, James 1:22, 1 Timothy 6:18-19.
When a tornado outbreak struck 5 states in December 2021, including the town of Mayfield in my home state of Kentucky, 93 people were killed and thousands were left homeless. While there was the expected explosion of “thoughts and prayers” posts on social media, I was touched by the selfless outpouring of charity from the churches in and around KY. My college church and campus ministry donated thousands of dollars in relief aid to help the people of Mayfield. Most touching of all, my childhood pastor held a food and clothes drive before hauling all of that aid nearly 11 hours away to hand deliver supplies to the survivors. These are the “works by faith” and “love through deeds” that is sprinkled all throughout the New Testament. This is what Jesus likely envisioned when he said to “love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
When I originally started to write this post, it was a couple of weeks after that storm outbreak. I know for some people it’s hard to reconcile God’s sovereignty with natural disaster and I wanted to highlight some ways I’ve seen Christians use that to show love and spread the Gospel. However, as I’m sure everyone is aware, our nation has been struck with a string of manmade tragedies these last few weeks and something stirred in me as I once again read hundreds of “thoughts and prayers” posts across social media. While reconciling natural disasters is a challenge, understanding mass murders is somewhere way beyond that challenge.
In the past two weeks, we have seen 10 innocent people massacred in a grocery store because of the color of their skin and 15 children murdered along with 3 school employees. How can we even begin to think about how to react to such once-unimaginable acts of evil that are becoming a common occurrence in our country? More importantly, how do we respond as churches? Worryingly, no one seems to have the answers. But as we discussed earlier, the Bible calls us to action. Naturally, this leads us to one question: What actions should we be taking?
First, I think we need to see that there is a problem somewhere in the American social or political structure that allows for these acts of violence to happen with such frequency. As of May 24, there have been more children murdered in school than police officers in the line of duty. Furthermore, the severity of our nation’s problems are revealed when we compare data from other countries. This graphic from World Population Review compared reported school shootings from around the world and this is what they found:
That’s right, the US has seen 288 school shootings since the Columbine Massacre in 1999. CNN independently reported that nearly 87 school shootings happened per year from 2013 to 2021. I hope you found these statistics as shocking as I did because this is not normal outside of the US. However, I fear we as a country has become desensitized to how unnatural and horrific this is. Realizing this is the first step to taking action.
Second, we need to make this an issue the Church is serious about. Earlier this year, the Pro-Life movement scored a large victory when it was leaked that the Supreme Court was planning to overturn Roe v Wade after decades of pressure from largely-Christian Pro-Life groups. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, it’s hard to ignore the influence that Christians can have when they are (mostly) united in pursuit of one goal. We can inspire reform to prevent future violence if we approach it together.
This brings us to the dreaded debate when these tragedies occur: how do we prevent these things from happening again? I will be the first one to admit that I don’t know the answer. If you were expecting me to say background checks, gun bans, arming teachers, hiring armed school guards or mental health screenings, I hate to disappoint but I do not have the statistics nor law education to have an informed opinion. Not to mention, every adult has their mind made up on these issues before they even clicked on this article anyway and there is nothing I can say to persuade you otherwise. But the fact of the matter is, these debates have kept our lawmakers at an impasse for years on this issue. Congressmen and women are too afraid to pass laws because they are afraid to lose votes. They would rather innocent civilians be killed than make life-saving law changes that may leave them unemployed.
This is where we can have an impact as Christians. Like many of you, my grief has slowly became a righteous anger at the news of dead minorities and children. The thoughts of loved ones seeing their children off to school, not expecting that they would never come home has led me to write this article to light a fire. Let them know that their inaction is dangerous to the public and our youth. Pro-life activism doesn’t end after birth; it continues through the whole life until natural death. We may not have perfect answers, but that’s what legislators are paid to do: create solutions to our nation’s problems. Like the Pro-Life movement did with overturning Roe v Wade, we should all unite as one single-minded body and demand change at all levels of government. Vote based on candidate’s commitment to solving this problem. We should elect legislators who want to solve these issues now rather than kick the can down the road to revisit the issue after the next school shooting. If you don’t vote that way, then innocent blood will be on your hands as well.
Beyond the ballot, we can seek to donate to charities and organizations aimed at quelling public gun violence. Some of them are linked below for you to check out and research:
https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/
Protect Our Schools
https://www.protectingourstudents.org/
Finally, don’t underestimate the power of personal intervention. We often write off these perpetrators of mass violence as “mentally ill” or “evil” but psychological studies have proven that violence is a learned behavior, rather than something we are inherently born with. Child abuse and neglect are factors in the development of violent tendencies. Report suspected cases to the appropriate authorities and be a mentor them. Furthermore, report any suspicious activity to the authorities as well. In 2012, my mother, who was a school bus driver, found a sheet of paper that was left behind by a student. The title read “Kill List” and included the names of several students and school employees. She reported it to the school and the school to the authorities. For all I know, she may have prevented a school shooting by being attentive and cautious.
By this time next week, most of the country will have put these latest tragedies out of their minds. The news will go back to talking weather and sports, politicians will likely be arguing about the budget, and churches will have mentioned the shooting in the sermons to never be discussed again. But I have seen enough of these tragedies happen in this country. It will never stop until we demand change and stand firm in our desire to see it. To quote Dr Martin Luther King’s favorite verse during the Civil Rights Movement (Amos 5:24), “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” It is our role as Christians to seek this justice tirelessly.
Our country has stood idly by as these unjust and unrighteous acts of violence have been enacted on our most oppressed and vulnerable. My goal in writing this is not to earn praise, make a political rant, or bring attention to my blog. I just want to be able to stand before God and say that I fought to create a society where children can go to school, congregants can worship, and all of us can shop without the ever-looming threat of being murdered and never returning home. Will you join me in this?
Faith, Food and Pharmacy 