Yesterday, an 18 year-old man went into an elementary school in Texas and murdered at least 21 people. The entire country was horrified and prayed for the victim’s families. People began to ask: “How could this happen? What would motivate someone to go into an elementary school and murder innocent children? What kind of horrible evil are we dealing with here?”
Our politicians spent the day talking about what to do about the school shootings problem. Their solutions: ban guns, censor the internet, arm more people, hire more security guards, monitor more people. Some of these solutions are good ideas (definitely not the first two), but they do not address the root of the problem. The problem is the values that our society embraces and the environment that it creates. Our society has rejected God. That is the problem. Instead of embracing scripture and Christian values, our society has embraced nihilism, modernity, liberalism, feminism, and a lack of respect for life.
Much of our society has embraced nihilism. Nihilism is the belief that life is meaningless and there is no point in following religious or moral principles. Most people today live a nihilist life – a life without God, without meaning. Can nihilists really condemn the school shooter? They don’t believe in morals or God. They might not like what the shooter did, but they cannot condemn him. They have no ground to stand on to do so. That is the problem with our society. Much of non-Christian America is nihilist. If we teach kids that life is meaningless and there is no point in doing good then why are we surprised when evil happens? If children are not exposed to any Christian values in school, church, or at home, then many of them will go astray and do evil things. That is just common sense.
Our society has also embraced modernity which has nearly destroyed traditionalism and has caused people to forget the wisdom of the past. Because most of non-Christian America believes life has no meaning, they do not care about the things of the past. They do not care about things such as Scripture or even more secular wisdom such as that of the Founding Fathers. Imagine if the school shooters had a different childhood. Imagine if they had a childhood in which they went to church and were taught the wisdom of the Bible. Imagine if they had parents who loved them. Imagine if they held to traditions and tried to live a traditional life. Imagine if our society rejected modernity and embraced traditionalism.
In recent years, the liberal agenda has been relentlessly pushed on Americans by powerful institutions. In a way, liberalism is related to nihilism. If you believe that life has no meaning, then anything goes. Any behavior becomes acceptable to liberals. Now most liberals (except perhaps for the school shooter yesterday) would say that shooting people is wrong. But on what grounds do they base this condemnation? They cannot condemn the shooter if they do not believe in the absolute truth and superiority of a set of morals. They can only say that the shooting has a net negative effect on the majority of people and is therefore undesirable. They basically believe in utilitarianism (belief that whatever benefits the majority of people is good) rather than a clearly defined set of morals. But why even hold to utilitarianism if life is meaningless? Though I believe that liberalism is closely related to nihilism, I do not believe that liberals hold to no set of morals. Most liberals seem to hold to morals such as: homosexuality and transgenderism being good, abortion “rights,” and diversity being good. But what is this set of morals based on? There is no God and no clearly defined doctrines in their world view. There is no reason to follow the morals of liberals if life is meaningless.
Feminism is closely related to liberalism and is also responsible for the decline of society. Our society tells women that they should focus on going to college, getting a high-paying job, and having sex before marriage rather than focusing on getting married, having kids, and showing love to children. How would the lives of school shooters be different if they had been shown love by their mothers? Clearly they did not receive love from their mothers in their lives. Why not? Because their mothers were probably working and were not at home very much. Why is that? Because society has told them that getting a job is important and our economy is structured in such a way that women often have to get a job so that their family can eat. This is clearly a problem. Family life in America is under attack in many ways such as through the lgbtq movement, pornography, the normalization of fornication, and the normalization of divorce. If more people had a positive family environment, there would be less school shootings.
Our society seems to have no respect for life anymore. We watch movies in which there is an abundance of violence and death. We joke about people dying in war or in unusual situations. We have normalized the murder of babies by ripping them out of mother’s wombs. And then we wonder why there are school shootings and are shocked when they happen. Our society no longer regards children as important and sacred. Many people view children as mistakes and hindrances to a happy life and a good career. How much different would society look if we valued life and children and viewed them as sacred gifts from God?
The solution to school shootings is not to ban guns, it’s not to censor the internet, it’s not even to arm more people or hire more security guards at schools. The solution is to wholeheartedly reject nihilism, modernity, liberalism, feminism, and a lack of respect for life and instead to promote Christian values, the Christian worldview, traditionalism, and a respect for life. We need to fundamentally reshape society and create an environment in which families and churches can flourish and change the world forever.
Jesus is Coming Soon! 