December 23, 2012
Today I want to encourage all of us to invest the time and
prayer necessary to develop an informed opinion about the kind of violence that
took place at Sandy Hook Elementary school.
This is a moral issue despite the fact that many will try to politicize it. And to start the conversation off, I’ll share
some of my personal reflections today.
Let’s start by grounding this is Sacred Scripture. Gen 3: 4-6;
But the serpent said to the woman,
‘you will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God,* knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be
desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some
to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.
Mark 7:18-22.
He said to them, ‘Then do you also
fail to understand? Do you not see that
whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not
the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a
person that defiles. For it is from
within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft,
murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander,
pride, folly.
I share these two passages as an illustration that our
ancestor’s in faith were much more honest with themselves than we are about how
evil enters the human experience. Today
we know that acts like the shooting last week are done by people who are
mentally ill, not possessed by demons.
But we don’t take that seriously enough to do the things necessary to
make ourselves safer.
On the news this last week I heard two different psychologists
brought in to comment by two different news networks who gave two different
options about the Sandy Hook shooter. We
have to realize that the real investigation is a long way from concluded and
his mental state is still a question mark.
However it is important for us to understand the issues of the
violently mentally ill. One kind of ill
person who commits mass murder are those who are emotional unstable. This is the person who builds up a lot of
emotional pressure and lacks the ability to regulate themselves (e.g., calm
themselves) and often overreacts to events.
They eventually snap acting out in an irrational rampage and will
whatever weapon is at hand. They will
run people down with a car, stab them with a kitchen knife or shoot them with a
gun; whatever is handy. They are
irrational.
Another type of killer is like the guy who shot Gabrielle
Gifford's and the others in front of the supermarket Tucson. These people are termed psychotics, and are
genuinely out of touch with reality.
They act out some kind a fantasy scenario and choose a weapon that fits
the fantasy; e.g., they may believe that they are wielding King Author’s
sword.
A third type, which is the most common, are often called by
psychologist: Zealots. These individuals
convince themselves that their act of mass murder is part of a righteous fight
for a noble cause or an act of just vengeance.
Examples in our recent history include the Terrorists who attacked us on
9/11, the guy who use a homemade tuck bomb to attack the federal building in
Oklahoma City and the people in the Tokyo City subway with homemade poison
gas. This type of ill person is
perfectly rational, planning a preparing carefully for their attack. They will choose and even make the weapon
they want: Bombs, airplanes, whatever.
Recent examples of vengeance seekers are the Columbine High
School shooters and the shooter at the New Life Church in Colorado
Springs. This type also plans and
prepares very carefully before committing their acts of murder.
Thank God it after 9/11 we as a nation realize that we needed
to address the terrorist issue head on and empowered our law enforcement to
seek out and apprehend terrorists before they can execute their plots. I believe we need to do the same thing about
the dangerously mentally ill.
When I was a youngster growing up, the police had the authority
to pick up and hold someone who exhibited obvious signs of mental illness or
propensity for violence. They were held
for psychiatric evaluation and treatment was mandated by the courts when
warranted. I believe it was during the
1980s when that part of the mental health service in our country was defunded
and to this day its capacity is woefully inadequate to address the need. But something else has also changed. I don't know if it's a new law or
reinterpretation of older laws but police no longer have the authority to
detain someone who's demonstrating obvious signs of mental illness. Law enforcement has to wait for them to actually
commit an act of violence or make a criminal threat. And even then it can be an uphill court
battle to mandate psychiatric evaluation and treatment.
Personally I think this is ridiculous. As a people we need to accept the truth about
mental health issues our country. We
need to stop pretending that individuals who are borderline mentally ill
present no threat; because some of them genuinely do. We need to fix the laws that inhibit our
police from doing the right thing to protect us and we need to suck it up and
pay for the kind of mental health services that can make our land a safer
place.
These are my personal reflections and personal opinions about
this moral issue facing us as a Country.
My call to you today as Christians is: take time to think these things
through for yourself, pray about them for yourself and do some reading for
yourself. Form your own prayerful
opinions about what needs to be done in our country. And, make your opinion known to our national
leaders. As Christians we do not sit
back when others are suffering; we render aid as we can, we seek prayerful
solutions and we take appropriate action.
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