The headlines are horrific. Four family members gunned down by a relative on Thanksgiving Day; four police officers ambushed on Sunday morning at a coffee shop in the state of Washington.
The attacks ought to frighten or at least disturb us but we have become desensitized to violence. All the familiar questions are in play and the hot-button gun control issue will likely be on center-stage.
Anyone who seriously thinks that making new laws to eliminate, restrict or control firearms will somehow miraculously modify the human heart must be sniffing drainpipes or something. Paul of Tarsus makes it clear in his letter to the Romans that we humans will “invent ways of doing evil”.
On the other hand, anyone who honestly thinks that the easy access to firearms is not a contributing factor to the eruptions of violence birthed in humanity’s dark heart must be sniffing the other end of those drainpipes.
Wise pundits full of scholarly expertise can be found to passionately argue both points of view, yet in the public square, who addresses the primary spiritual aspect? Who speaks for morality?
Crime, brutality, hate and all the societal issues that talk-radio heroes dismiss, promote or solve in thirty-second sound bites are symptoms of what resides in the shadowy recesses of the human heart.
Only Jesus Christ can transform the human heart, so we who claim to follow Christ ought to be actively and aggressively pointing people to the cross; not to statistics to support our various opinions.
Statistics can be bent, shaped and formed to suit and strengthen each and every opinion, but truth cannot be bent or shaped. And truth is the human heart is sick and full of wicked depravity.
Christ and Christ alone is the answer. To be redeemed from the engulfing quagmire, our culture desperately needs Christ.
That is the eternal truth of God’s Word; absolute and final in authority. No loopholes, no exceptions and no hope for deciphering the complexities of the human condition without coming to terms with our spirituality by accepting our Creator’s grace and provision.
Has the truth been marginalized and have Christians participated in its marginalization?
When we enter the cultural fray do we quietly acquiesce and slip into safety mode to debate the great issues of our day using all the human sagacity available?
Sadly, more often than we’d admit, the answer to both those questions is a loud and unmistakable YES.
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