Sermon in the Wake of the Newtown Ct. Shooting

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.