What has changed?
I’m sure by now all of you have heard about the latest shooting, at the hospital in Chicago. At last count four people had died, and I am not sure how many were injured. They said it was a domestic dispute that had gone awry, and one of the people involved had a gun on their person. That is when things seem to have escalated from the parking lot into the hospital itself, where havoc was wreaked, as lead began flying.
Why has the world become such a violent place? What has changed in these modern times that pours out as a disregard of human life? Many people will use this shooting to get on the bandwagon calling for a ban on guns, stiffer gun laws, and even the abolishment of your second amendment rights. The funny part about that is Chicago has one of the strictest policies concerning gun ownership and carrying weapons, in the United States. So how did this shooting, along with all the other random shootings happen? Again, I ask you, why have things changed so drastically?
Did you know that the ownership and possession of guns in this country are at an all-time low, per capita, as they have ever been in this country’s history? 40 or 50 years ago it was commonplace to see unlocked pickup trucks in the high school parking lot with gun racks in the back window, holding loaded weapons. This was because many students went hunting before school, or intended to go when school was over. Schools even maintained a sportsman club’s, were gun safety was always in the forefront of every meeting. Even with easy accessibility of these weapons, you never heard of school shootings. So why now? What has changed in this society, where there are so many regulations on any kind of weaponry?
You have heard the old adage; guns don’t kill people: people kill people! Of course that statement is true in regards that a gun cannot physically get up and walk and fire itself. We have asked the question what has changed, the answer to that is quite simple, we are steadily moving farther and farther away from any type of civilized behavior. 90% of the video games on the market today, are games that teach and program children how to kill without remorse. There is no regard for human life, a prime example of this would be the number of abortions performed every year. If you want the real answer, the one that is not politically correct, is that in 1962, when the federal government stepped in to start regulating prayer in schools, things began turning south then. In the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, it was common practice for public schools to open with an oral prayer or Bible reading. The fact of the matter is the farther away we move from God, the deeper into depravity this nation goes. It is not about to change, regardless if you take the guns away or not. A criminal or any mentally depraved person will never give up any kind of weapon, only your law-abiding citizens will do so, leaving themselves undefended. What is the answer, you ask? If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. II Chronicles 7:1. That’s it in a nutshell, the most politically incorrect statement ever made, but the only true answer to our troubled times.
As parents it is our job to teach our children that all life is precious. That regardless of race, religion, or color, we are all made in the image of God. The best way to keep our children tenderhearted toward life, is to raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. As the Bible says: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
We as authors, are sometimes guilty of glossing over how inhumane the world has become. In 1973, when Roe versus Wade passed, we should have raised a unified protest against this attack on humanity. Whenever people put convenience over conscience, we are going in the wrong direction.
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
II Timothy 3:1-5
For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:
Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.
One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
Titus 1:10-12
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Romans 1:28-31
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.
Psalms 111:10
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Psalms 119:105