When Religion Becomes a Reason To Hate

I read an article yesterday that made me absolutely livid. It was about the Shooting in Connecticut last Friday, but it wasn't about the shooter or his family, the school, the victims, or the survivors. It was about Westboro Baptist Church and their planned picketing of the funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting.

Now, there are a lot of things that make me sad and upset in this world, and the shooting last Friday is definitely one of them. I cannot possibly begin to understand what would possess a human being to shoot 6 and 7 year olds dead, for no reason, and right before Christmas no less. I don't get it, and it infuriates me and fills me with grief. Yet, I can still say, as I have written before, that that man needed God's love and forgiveness as much as anyone else, and I am as devastated over the fact that he took his own life as I am over the fact that he took the lives of 26 others.

When Osama bin Laden was killed I was not gleeful and joyful. I didn't celebrate his death, despite the fact that he was responsible for the deaths of thousands.

In the shooting in Aurora earlier this year, I wrote that the shooter needs forgiveness, and we need to pray for him, just as we need to pray for the victims' families.

All of these men are/were evil and committed unthinkable atrocities, and yet, I find the picketing of the funerals of these victims, these children, to be almost worse.

In response to WBC's announcement, the hacker group Anonymous launched a campaign against WBC with the intention of bringing them down and destroying them. They hacked one of their Twitter accounts, hacked their website, and posted personal information, including phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, and SSNs. They even successfully filed a death certificate for the "church's" spokesman, Shirley Phelps-Roper.

A Shooting, a Shock & True Happiness

Last night an absolutely tragic thing occurred. During a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises a man busted into a theater in Aurora, CO, threw in a smoke bomb, a opened fire on those present. 12 people were killed, 38 were injured, this includes a 9 year old and a 3 month old.

Upon hearing of this event, my initial response was shock and sadness, with a feeling of "What is wrong with people? What is wrong with our world?" I just cannot understand how in the world someone could ever do that. How do you willingly inflict such terror, fear, and pain into the lives of anyone, much less those who have done nothing to you and are simply enjoying a movie.

I am sure that there are countless explanations, reasons that will be given about what drove James Holmes to go on a shooting spree. Possibly he was just psychotic, possibly he was having issues with finances or his job, maybe it was family, friend or relationship problems, maybe he was depressed, who knows. Whatever it was though, it doesn't make sense and it is completely tragic.

Here's the thing though, my reaction, and that of many people, is shock and horror. Why are we shocked? Why does it seem so out of the ordinary? I have been asking "What is wrong with people?" for years and years. It is constant that there is something on the news that displays the absolute depravity of the human nature. It think that is the point. Humanity is depraved. We are not naturally good. There is a seed of unexplainable evil within us, that all too often, people water and nurture until it blooms in some tragic event like this shooting, but then why are we shocked by it? I think it is because, while we all are evil from birth, this is a disease, a parasite on our very being.

We were not created evil. We we created to be perfect, in perfect relationship with the perfect God, but we messed that up. We contracted a contagion that infected everyone, continues to infect everyone, and takes that perfectly beautiful creation and morphs it into something ugly, something hideous. It affects our minds and our hearts and puts utter discontentment and hopelessness into our lives. It takes a perfect fulfilled existence and transforms it into, what Solomon describes as "meaningless" a "chasing after the wind."

When we are constantly searching for some sort of meaning, purpose, fulfillment, happiness and everything in life is temporary, fleeting, empty, meaningless that leaves us in a place where it doesn't matter what we do or who we help/hurt. Why not give in and let that seed of evil bloom within us? It doesn't matter anyway. Sadly, so many people are at this point in their lives. If something is wrong in their life, if there is pain in their life, or really, if they just feel like it, they have no reason not to sabotage and destroy themselves, through any number of methods, or others.

This is where the Truth comes in. I believe that everyone wants to be happy, and spend their lives pursing whatever makes them happy. We all long for happiness, fulfillment, purpose, meaning, etc... The Truth is that, while there are plenty of things in life that we find happiness in, the only true source of happiness and contentment is found in The Truth (Christ). In Him, one can have happiness, peace, joy, purpose, contentment, fulfillment, all of those things people are longing for, and once we have Him, everything else in life that gives us happiness is a bonus. It's like the syrup, coconut, cherry on top of your ice cream.

All we need, all we long for is found in Christ, and in Him we receive the cure to the soul rotting contagion that afflicts humanity. In Him we are able to be at peace, even if the world is falling apart around us.

Therefore, when I see stories, like this shooting. I am filled with shock and sadness over the incident, but also over the fact that this man was so overcome by the blooming seed of evil in his life that he allowed it to destroy him, and others, when there is a cure waiting to heal him. It makes me all that more aware of the urgent need to spread this cure, to combat the contagion, and to offer hope to the world in the face of despair.

If you currently are living without Christ. Please, I urge you to search for your happiness in Him. If you have accepted Him, I urge you to live like it, live like you have discovered the most precious treasure of ultimate happiness, and spread that to those around you!

To end with a Batman tie-in. Christ is "A hero. Not the hero we deserved but the hero we needed."

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." -- Romans 5:8

"For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" -- Romans 5:10

"...Come and share your master’s happiness!'" -- Matthew 25:21

R.I.P. (For real this time)

So I realized today that my post yesterday may have been somewhat callous as it was entitled R.I.P. and was a joke about my car dying, when, in fact, there was a tragic school shooting in Ohio yesterday in which 3 kids, as of now, were killed.

So, I just wanted to take this time to offer my condolences to the families of those who were killed, and say that I am praying for them, for all of the students at the school, and for the student who comitted the shooting, as well as his family.

I may never understand why things like this happen, and it is so tragic when it does, but regardless of whetehr or not we understand the darkness in this world, I know that there is a light that pierces through the thickest darkness, that light is Jesus. He is hope, peace, comfort, and salvation when everything else is falling away.