Walking the Point

posted by Writer on Dec 3

Predictably, liberal pundits are blaming guns after a player from the Kansas City Chiefs shot and killed his girlfriend (and mother of his child) before driving to the team’s corporate office and turning the gun on himself in front of two team officials.

However, not much was said of the incident that occurred at Casper College in Wyoming last week where a man killed his father while he taught class. Before that, the man murdered his father’s girlfriend and later took his own life. Maybe its because he used a compound bow to kill his dad, and a knife to kill the lady and himself.

As William Linn reminds us, the violence we’re seeing at an alarming rate is because America kicked God out of our culture (and schools) long ago; “Let my neighbor once persuade himself that there is no God, and he will soon pick my pocket, and break not only my leg but my neck. If there be no God, there is no law, no future account; government then is the ordinance of man only, and we cannot be subject for conscience sake.” (1)

In his Farewell Address George Washington said; “Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.“(2)

What did Washington mean when he used the word religion or religious obligation? According to Webster it is; “the performance of all known duties to God and our fellow-men, in obedience to divine command, or from love to God and his law (James 1).” Webster also spoke of “man’s accountableness to God,” which means we all have to stand before Christ one day (Romans 14:10).

All violence can be traced back to our society’s lack of respect for life and the fact we are not teaching godly principles in our culture any longer. If life isn’t protected at conception, it won’t be on the street either – “What goes around, comes around.” We’ve been mocking God (Galatians 6:7-8), and as long as we do, we’ll continue seeing horrific events such as these until we get serious about “the right to life issue.”

In the meantime, we’re only fooling ourselves by believing things will get better.

*****

(1) Barton, David, “The Myth of Separation” p. 254; (2) George Washington’s Farewell Address, September 1796; (3) Webster, Noah, An American Dictionary of the English Language, p. 933 (1860)