Nine people are dead. Nine! Some pathetic, psychotic nutbar decided that he didn’t like something so he started shooting people. The reason doesn’t really matter. What matters is that nine people are dead.
So of course, the Gun-Control Lobby – including President Obama – are calling for tougher gun control laws. To quote the President, “…we are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these mass shootings every few months.” This is true. The other countries that have mass shootings like this are vacation spots like Syria, Iraq and Libya. Meanwhile, nine people are dead.
At the same time, the Pro-Gun groups are saying that if we didn’t have Gun Free Zones and all the restrictions on gun ownership and carry permits then someone else with a gun could have shot the shooter before the shooter shot the victims. So we don’t need more Gun Control, we need more guns. And the nine people are still dead.
At the time I’m writing this there are unconfirmed reports that the nutbar was asking people what religion they were. Non-Christians got shot in the leg, Christians got shot in the head. Conservative Christians, in a country founded upon Freedom of Religion, get upset when people of other faiths use the Constitution to secure equality and religious freedom for their faith. Someone singling out Christians for a hate crime is terrible, unfathomable, unpardonable…and proof that Christianity is under attack. I wonder if any of those so-called Christians bothered to pray for the victims or their families. You remember the victims? The nine people who are dead?
Everyone is so caught up in pushing their own agenda these days that we’re turning into a nation of Us vs. Them. We’re losing the willingness to listen…REALLY listen…to other opinions and give them due consideration. We’re losing our soul. We’re losing what makes us great because we’re so busy tearing the other guy down that we can’t be bothered to build ALL OF US up.
Ecclesiastes 3 tells us
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Now is not the time to talk about Gun Control or Religious Hate (two words that should never be in the same sentence). Right now is the time to weep. Right now is the time to mourn. Right now is the time to embrace, the time to keep silence, the time to heal and most especially, the time to love. And maybe…just maybe…if we do that then there will be time to listen and time to talk and time to understand and time to come together as a people…as a great nation…and find acceptance of our differences and find solutions to our problems. But right now is not that time.
May God Bless the families of those that died. May he heal their hearts and comfort their souls. And may He guide us all to a better tomorrow…together.
