I caught a bit of the news last night, tuning in just in time to see that there had been an in-school suicide in Canandaigua. It's no secret that school shootings -- homicide, suicide, or both -- have become common. Since the infamous Columbine tragedy, none have been quite so memorable. They all blur together in history, one after another.
When school officials were asked what they would do to handle the situation, their response was the same as that of so many others in similar situations: raise the security.
Raising the Security
American society seems to have developed a knee-jerk response to sin. If someone was irresponsible or committed a crime with a firearm, we must take away guns from all private owners. If teenagers have sex and wind up pregnant? Well, we should give girls birth control and abortions, to hide the evidence of their sin. If a stressed-out highschooler takes out his pent-up anger by massacring his school... we should counsel surviving students on how it wasn't their fault, and tighten security to make sure it doesn't happen again.
I wonder when we'll realize that treating the symptoms doesn't free us of the problem? "If guns are outlawed, then only the outlaws will have guns," I'm sure you've all heard. Helping teens cover up their actions, making the result more pleasant and livable, only teaches them that they can get away with it. And if the unstable student has decided to end his life or commit murder, he'll do so inside or outside the school.
By one man, sin entered the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. (Rom. 5:12)
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? (Jer. 17:9)
The movie Time Changer teaches a valuable lesson. When a relatively naive gentleman from the 1800s time-travels to our modern world, he is appalled to see the degradation of morals and ethics people are living by. He finally realizes why: When you teach morals without God, morals for the sake of morals, they are meaningless. In other words, when you tell someone "Don't do that!" but are without answer when they challenge "Why not?", your exhortation means nothing.
The heart is where sin originates. Sure, we can put on a good act. We can control our behavior, and in some cases, others can even control it for us. But if our heart attitude is sinful, then curbing our outward actions won't last. Mankind has a sin nature. We need an inner change -- a heart change.
Since will power obviously isn't enough, we can't make this change ourselves. Neither can the hurting, depraved people we see around us every day. Our hearts have been corrupted by sin, and the only one who has conquered sin is Jesus Christ. We have to put His morals, His purity, His loving commandments back in the hearts of our people. Only then will we see change.
