Why 32 Are Dead

Yesterday was one of the worst days I have had in a very long time. I watched the news as the reported death toll climbed and wondered why so many people were senselessly dying. I also thought of others across the nation who were killed at the end of a gun or the point of a knife that were not reported- those killed in a back alley somewhere for a few bucks from their wallet. Statistically, every two weeks more people in Washington DC alone are murdered than were murdered at Virginia Tech yesterday.

Murder, unfortunately, will always be a part of human society. It will absolutely never go away, and anyone who says it can is a fool. Because I know this, I was not surprised to hear that once again someone had shot up a bunch of people. What made me really mad is that the people had to sit there cowering in a corner waiting to be shot- because they couldn't do a thing about it. Virginia Tech in a so-called "weapons-free zone." At least until a murderer brings a weapon onto campus.

I fought with my anger all day yesterday focusing on the Virginia lawmakers, who just recently shot down a law that would have required Virginia Tech to allow both students and faculty the God-given right to self-defense by allowing them to carry a gun. In fact, the effort to shoot down this law was hugely supported by Virginia Tech itself. Even a single student or faculty member armed with a gun of their own could have prevented dozens of deaths, just as in DC dozens of deaths could be prevented by allowing the general population to carry weapons.

But today, my spirits were lifted when I saw that apparently I am not alone in my opinions. Polls that I have seen today claim that, on average, about 75% of the nation thinks that had guns been allowed on the campus the death toll would have been greatly reduced, if the gunman had even decided to do it at all (I think he still would have in this case) as opposed to the other 25% or so who believed that further restrictions on guns is the answer.

As my focus began to move away from politicians and stupid laws, I began to realize that I missed something, something that I am ashamed to have missed. The single reason that the death toll was so high, and the reason that it remains high in DC, New York, LA, and across the nation, the reason our government feels it is necessary to disarm the people in direct violation of our Constitution, is that we as a nation are continually turning our backs on God. We remove Him from school, from government, and we worship politically correctness in His place. And these are the results: gunmen in our schools, and thousands of defenseless students for them to prey on until our politically-correct police finally show up to stop it. Three murders every day in DC, and people who believe dialing 911 is actually going to help.

This could have been prevented. This should have been prevented. But without a basis for morality we pass feel-good laws that make us feel safe knowing full well that people are going to die as a result. This nation needs to wake up. We need God, we need morality in our society, and our government needs to realize that it is put in place by God to serve the people, not to remove their ability to defend themselves from murderers.

Religious Thoughts on Minuteman Experiences

This weekend I attended the opening ceremonies for the Minutemen month-long April operations. I was very pleased to be able to say the opening prayer, which can be found in the political section of my blog.

One thing that I noticed (once again) was that the dedication of the Minutemen goes so far beyond protesting and letter-writing. Many Minutemen have run for office across the nation, and we even had a fly-by of two Minuteman airplanes, dubbed "The Minuteman Air Force." One of the planes even had "MM AZ" painted across the bottom of the wings. These people, who donate their lives, money and equipment to the cause, are backed and supported by the rest of the Minuteman leadership and volunteers with action, not just words. It was an amazing thing to see.

I then got to thinking about the state of things in the religious arena. The latest attack on Christians comes in the form of a "Hate-Crimes" bill that would make it a federal felony to speak out against homosexual lifestyles. This would mean that a pastor who is preaching The Bible to his congregation could get fines and jail time, as well as lose many of his personal rights.

Why is the church not motivated enough to organize a specific attempt to get good freedom-loving Christian men and women into power? Why are we allowing our hands to be tied by "political correctness" instead of battling it with everything we have? Why is the church so absent in politics?

Don't get me wrong, I don't think anyone, Christians included, should violate the Constitution to force people to do what we would want them to do. I believe in free-will, I believe in freedom, and I believe that this country should be religiously free. The freedom that was put in place by the Founding Fathers was based on the Bible, and I believe that a violation of that freedom is sinful. But we stand by silently while those freedoms are raped just because "Christians shouldn't be involved in politics," or because ignorant people believe that "Separation of Church and State" means that personal religious convictions don't have a place in government (unless those convictions are liberal), or we are simply too cowardly to stand up to political correctness.

The church, as a whole, absolutely needs to wake up and see the direction the world is heading. We live in a unique country where we as Christians can actually be in power, yet we just are not willing to even try. What could be more sinful for the church? The church has the funding, the people, the infrastructure, and the backing by the people of this country to be a tool for God and for freedom, but we just simply don't do it. We even have Christians in office, yet there is very little organizational support from the church. "We should be ashamed" just doesn't cut it. In fact, I would go as far as saying that whatever happens to this country is OUR FAULT because we have ignored this opportunity. It's time to change that. Because if we don't change it now, the Bible is soon going to be a "Hate Crime" in and of itself.