* Prayer was removed from schools, so
students are educated without acknowledging their Creator.
* The Bible was removed from schools, so
students are educated without learning the principles of right and wrong
revealed by their Creator.
* Instead, schools teach evolution and
Humanism, so kids grow up believing they evolved from animals that in turn came
from swamp slime by a series of accidents. They conclude that life is all an
accident having no meaning, there is no absolute standard of right and wrong,
no eternal consequences for their conduct, and they are accountable to no one
higher than themselves.
* Television, movies, and music grind out
entertainment filled with violence. Computer games and the Internet train young
people to practice shooting and killing others in a virtual world, then we
wonder why young people shoot others in the real world.
* Encouraged by the Women’s Liberation
movement and our welfare system, couples live together without marriage. Then,
no-fault divorce laws allow homes to break up, so children no longer have a father
and mother who love them enough to keep the home together and train the
children to know right from wrong and respect authority.
* Marriage is no longer viewed as a lifetime
commitment between one man and one woman. When anybody regardless of gender can
call themselves married, young people see marriage as a selfish relationship
for self-gratification. So, they do not learn the responsibility and
self-sacrifice of a lifetime commitment to love and care for another
individual.
* Pornography on the Internet and electronic
media bombard people with sexual stimulation, leading young men to view women
as simply objects to be used selfishly and then discarded, when they ought to
be respected and protected.
* Abortion and euthanasia lead people to
believe that human life can be cast aside for our convenience, so young people
grow up with little or no respect for human life.
* Some "religions" actually teach
young people that mass murder of other people is not only justified in the name
of God but will actually lead to eternal life.
* And other churches and preachers often fail
to defend man’s responsibility to submit to their Creator, so young people grow
up without learning their responsibility to obey God, live morally decent
lives, and sacrifice for the good of God and other people.
* And many in the fields of psychology and
medicine convince people they are not responsible for their conduct. If they
mistreat others, they are simply sick and it is not their fault. So they are
prescribed pills with no moral guidance and no accountability.
* And politicians use so-called separation of
church and state to drive God and His word out of public life, in complete
disregard for all that the Bible teaches and all that our founding fathers ever
intended. And those who get punished are those who would speak up for God and
His word.
So, whether consciously or not, many young
people lose all respect for God, for themselves, and for other people. If there
is no God, if life is the result of a meaningless series of accidents, if there
are no eternal consequences for our lives, if there is no absolute standard of
right and wrong, if babies can be murdered before they are born, if own parents
do not love their children enough to keep the family together and train
children to live a decent life, and if violence is nothing more than a form of
entertainment, why should they not practice violence?
In other words, our society has encouraged
people to selfishly please themselves, to realize no responsibility to truly
love and care for others, to enjoy and be trained in violence, and above all to
disregard Biblical principles of right and wrong revealed by their Creator. And
then the people who promoted these views have the brazenness to act like they
are horrified and confused about why we have mass murder!
This society has lost its way because they
have lost the true God.
Romans 1:18-32 – For the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness ... because, although they knew God, they
did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their
thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they
became fools ... And even as they did not like to retain God in their
knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are
not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality,
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit,
evil-mindedness; they are ... haters of God, violent, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things ... who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that
those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but
also approve of those who practice them.
We have sown to the wind and now we reap the
whirlwind – Hosea 8:7.
The question for you and me is this: Will we
accept and follow the way of the world, or will we refuse to conform to this
world and be transformed by the renewing of our minds that we may prove what is
that good and acceptable will of God – Romans 12:2. Will you recognize your
Creator, accept responsibility to obey His word, and give your life to His
service?
[Note: After preparing the above material, I
found the following documentation regarding those who have been guilty of mass
shootings:
"Nearly every shooting ... in
Wikipedia’s [2013] list of U.S. school attacks involved a young man whose
parents divorced or never married in the first place."
An article in The Federalist in 2015 reported
the following:
* Of young males in CNN's ‘27 Deadliest Mass
Shootings in U.S. History,’ only one was raised by his biological father.
* There’s a direct correlation between
fatherless children and teen violence.
* Fatherless children are more than twice as
likely to commit suicide.
* Seventy-one percent of high school dropouts
came from a fatherless background.
* According to the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, "Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater
risk of drug and alcohol abuse."
* Two of the strongest correlations with gun
homicides are growing up in a fatherless household and dropping out of school,
which itself is directly related to lack of an active or present father.
– Friday Church News Notes, March 23, 2018,
www.wayoflife.org
Another article reported:
* "Psychologist Dr. Peter Langman, a
pre-eminent expert on school shooters, found that most came from incredibly
broken homes of not just divorce and separation, but also infidelity, substance
abuse, criminal behavior, domestic violence, and child abuse."
* "...criminologists Michael Gottfredson
and Travis Hirschi, ... found the absence of fathers to be one of the ‘most
powerful predictors of crimes.’ [Brad Wilcox] explained that fathers are role
models for their sons who maintain authority and discipline, thereby helping
them develop self-control and empathy toward others, key character traits
lacking in violent youth."
* "Many of the school shooters struggled
with a sense of ‘damaged masculinity’ and sought to become ‘ultramasculine.’
Langman says that at the end of this spectrum is ‘getting a gun to suddenly
have power.’
– Emilie Kao, The Daily Signal, 3/13/2018]
(C) Copyright
2018, David E. Pratte
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