Do Bible Believing Churches Play a Role in School Shootings like Robb Elementary in Uvalde TX?

 

Who is Really to Blame for Uvalde, TX?

It has been a little more than a week since the tragic events at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX. Hard to imagine the mind of an individual who would walk into an elementary school and brutally murder 19 students as well as 2 teachers. All this after he attempted to kill his grandmother. As you would expect, this has been a huge topic on the news ever since. It has also been the top topic on social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. Everyone is trying to make sense of the senseless, but you know what? That can’t be done, you can’t make sense of a senseless act and any attempt to do so would be futile.

Another thing we have seen a lot of this week, is a search for where we place the blame. Many have pointed their fingers at an American society that puts very few limits on guns. Their feeling is that if we put tougher restrictions on gun ownership, these things will not happen. Others, on the opposite end of the spectrum, believe that had some of the schoolteachers been armed, it could have ended right there. There are some religious leaders who point a finger at a society that has systematically removed God from the schools, from the workplace, from anywhere that is considered a public place but is not a place of worship. And yes, there are many who place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the politicians. They believe that politicians no longer seem to have any desire to work together on any front, have led our country down the tubes. Nothing gets done because partisan politics in this country has died and drug this country down to the grave with it. The moral compass of our politicians on every side of the political spectrum has so decayed that the citizenship they have been charged with leading has followed their lead and thus the country, as a whole, has no moral compass. There are fingers pointing in other directions as well. It seems each side has passionate arguments, and to a certain degree there appear to be valid points for each consideration.

Like much of the rest of this country, I have struggled greatly with what took place on Tuesday, May 24th, 2022. I have also struggled with who to blame. As I stated earlier, I suppose that to a certain degree, each of the areas discussed above have some merit when it comes to blame. But could it be that the lion’s share of the blame lies somewhere else entirely? As I have thought about it over the past several days, and honestly, my thoughts have been heading in this direction for the past 10 years, all the way back to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT in Dec. 2012. My mind keeps going to the same area for who is ultimately to blame. Please understand that it really pains me to say this, but I believe that in many ways the church is to blame. That’s right, the church. By the church, I want to clarify exactly what I am talking about. I am not talking about any specific church, nor any specific denomination. That being said, I do want to be a little more specific. The church I am referring to is the evangelic church in America as a whole. That group of individuals, nationwide, that profess to be Bible believing Jesus followers. We have put our faith and trust in Jesus, rarely miss a Sunday and are even in the habit of serving in some capacity.

Perhaps as you read this you are thinking to yourself, “The church? How could the church be to blame?” Allow me to answer your question with a question. What are we, as Bible believing Jesus followers called by God to do that has the potential to make such an impact that it may even stop our own Uvalde, TX experience? To see this, let’s look at Luke 10:25-37. I’m pretty sure you will be very familiar with this story. It is The Parable of the Good Samaritan.

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

While the lawyer asked Jesus “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus’ answer was to give him a vivid picture of what a real neighbor looks like. After giving him that picture Jesus simply asked; “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”

So what does this parable have to do with Uvalde, TX? As I am in the habit of doing, let me follow that question with another question. A pretty telling question, and in my own case a pretty convicting question. Actually, the question has already been asked, it was asked by the lawyer who was addressing Jesus in Luke 10:25-37. And who is my (your) neighbor? Ask that same question of yourself this morning. Who are your neighbors? What do they do enjoy doing with their free time? What are they like? What are the chances they would knock on your door if they really needed someone to talk to? Ok, I get it; this wasn’t 1 question but several questions. The point is, if the majority of us were to answer this question honestly, we don’t really know the answers to most of those questions. When we arrive home from work, or shuttling the kids around, or from our errands or……. or from church. We push the button to open the garage and before we are out of the vehicle the garage door is on its way down. We relax on our back deck rather than a front porch. Sure, most of us may not have a front porch, but to be truthful, chances are even if we had a front porch we would still go to the back deck. We like our privacy. But there is a problem with this. God has not called us to be saved into seclusion. He has called us to be saved into the mission field. The “Jerusalem” Jesus is referring to in Acts 1:8 for us, is right where we live. Not just our neighborhoods, it where we work, where we go to school, the places we go for recreation. It’s where we live out our lives on a day-to-day basis.

Let’s go back to Uvalde, TX. What do you suppose are the chances that Salvador Ramos had people in his neighborhood that were Bible believing Christians? Let’s not limit this to just his neighborhood. Really, shouldn’t we include others he came in contact with on a regular basis? Now let’s go back to you and me, our “neighborhood”. Could there be a Salvador Ramos living near us? I would imagine that if each of us really put some thought into it, we could come up with someone who is similar in a lot of ways; quiet, a loner, sort of strange, maybe a little backward. We have seen them walk by our house a few times, usually we kind of turn the other way, or go back inside the house or garage, pretend to be busy doing something, anything, anything but smile and say “Hi” or “How’s it going?” They kind of scare us, perhaps rightly so. But is that how God has called us to react? Much of the time Jesus seemed more at home with the sinners than He did the religious. It also seemed the sinners gravitated towards Him, but not because He did what they did, not at all. It was because He accepted them, He loved them. He didn’t look down His nose at them, didn’t mumble under His breath about them or think to Himself, “What a loser!”

The Gospel of John tells the account of another Samaritan, this one a woman. In New Testament times, you can’t be much more of a loser that The Woman At The Well we read about in John 4. She was a half breed who had lost count of how many men she had slept with. She was filth through and through, but before Jesus was done with her, she was clothed in His righteousness. Shouldn’t that be our desire for the Salvador Ramos’s God brings us into contact with? I know, we may not be able to reach them no matter how hard we try, but shouldn’t we at least try? What a fool David was to go to battle against a giant who was covered in body armor, had a sword, shield and spear as well as an armor bearer with him, when David had nothing more than a sling and 5 stones…… But you know what? David knew that the God whom he served could direct his stone to the perfect spot. He didn’t approach Goliath in fear and trembling, he ran towards him like a man possessed. Guess what, he was a man possessed. The Bible tells us that David was a man filled with the Spirit of God…. he was a man possessed. Don’t we serve the exact same God? So since we do, let’s start serving Him fully and making a difference in our “neighborhoods”.

We have got to get to the point where we stop searching for who to blame when things happen like what took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, and start, as individual believers, taking responsibility to do whatever it takes so that when Jesus looks our direction He can say of us that we have proven to be a neighbor. Who knows what God may do through our willing and available hearts? We could very well be an important tool in the hands of the Master Craftsman that changes a life destined for utter destruction into a life of eternal significance. We may be the one used of God to stop a potential Salvador Ramos, not with a gun, or our religion, or our political stance, but with the unconditional love of Jesus Christ that is flowing through us.

Jim Canady

Perhaps you don’t struggle in the areas I addressed below. To be honest, this was written as much to me as it was to anyone else. However, if what I wrote struck a chord with you. Let’s do some brainstorming now. What can we do to do better? What are some steps we can take? I know for me and my family, we need to purpose in our hearts to make a difference in our “Jerusalem”. That place where God has placed us. What about you, I would love to hear your thoughts. Jim

(Please note, this is largely a reprint of a blog post I wrote in Dec. 2012 after the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown CT. I made a few changes to match what recently took place.)

Seasons Greetings.....or Maybe not! My thoughts on The 2020 Political Season.

I don’t know about you, but I love the seasons! I do have my favorite, which is spring, but there are things about the other seasons I also love. The chills of winter bring the beautiful purity of the new fallen snow, which remind me of what believers have in Christ. That the forgiveness we have as a result of His sacrifice on the cross, washes us whiter than snow. The heat of summer brings growth. We currently live in the midst of the corn and soybean fields of Indiana. Corn and soybeans grow best with the summer heat, accompanied by some summer rains. I am reminded that oftentimes we as believers also grow best during the heat and rain. Heat, to me, represents the trials and tribulations of life. Whereas the summer rains represent refreshment, refreshment from the heat. Oftentimes the trials and tribulations of life seem overwhelming and just when I reach the point of despair, my eyes turn to the God of the universe and He moves in like a refreshing summer rain and I experience refreshment and relief. Fall, well fall brings with it colorful leafs which have their own rustic beauty. Similar in many ways to believers in the church. Honestly, it would be pretty boring if all believers were like me, and you too, by the way! Spring brings with it new life. Flowers start to bloom, trees start to bud, and in some instances have their own blooms. I picture, in my mind, and individual bowing for the first time to the Savior Who gave His life a ransom for them on the cross and the new life that sprouts in the heart of that individual. 

There is one season I don’t care for. We have recently entered into that season. Perhaps you may be thinking, “Wait, didn’t fall just start? And you already said you enjoy fall, what gives?” Actually, I am not referring to any of the 4 seasons with which we are most familiar. The season I don’t care for is one that generally happens only once every four years. It is the Presidential Election Season. The season that makes enemies of close friends, enemies of family members, enemies of those you sit next to on Sunday mornings. Comments in social media turn into anything but…well social. I have noticed that over the last couple decades this ugly season has gotten even uglier. Chances are this will be the worse one in my lifetime. We are in the midst of a pandemic, which has greatly divided our Nation, and there is a racial tension that seemingly has set us back by 50 years. These things lead me to believe we are in for the ugliest election season ever! With that in mind, I wanted to give some of my thoughts on how, I believe, we as believers should approach our social media posts during this election season. 

To begin with, I’d like to start with a question. What is the chief goal of every believer? According to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:31, as he writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the chief goal of every believer is to glorify God in everything we do. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” What this means is that before we hit the send or post button when we are on social media, we have to look back over the post to identify whether or not our post will bring glory to God. If it doesn’t, hit delete, don’t post. 

Now there may be times you are unsure if what you are posting brings glory to God. I look at what I post as if what I am posting was literally words proceeding from my mouth. With that in mind, let’s look at another statement from the Apostle Paul. This one comes from his letter the the believers in Ephesus. We find this in Ephesians 4:29 where we read; “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” I love the picture Eugene Peterson gives us in his paraphrase of this verse; “Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.” Did you notice his last phrase? “Each word a gift.” In other words, each word that comes out of my mouth, or in the case of social media posts, each word that comes from my fingertips, should be something I can wrap like a gift and give to someone and that the gift of my word would bring great pleasure to them. So, similar to how the last paragraph ended, if what I am about to post, isn’t gift worthy, then the key I should hit is the delete key, not post. By the way, I want you to notice something from Ephesians 4:29. Paul ends with the phrase; “that it may give grace to those who hear.”  What I want you to notice is, Paul isn’t specific with who he is referring to as “those who hear”. In other words, the listeners could be anyone, not just those who share the same political point of view as we do. What we post should give grace to virtually everyone. For some of us this may have a significant impact on what we post, in fact it may eliminate much of what we plan to post. At least when it comes to political posts. 

One more question. What was the first corporate command the resurrected Jesus gave to us? We find it in Matthew 28:19 where Jesus directs us to; “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...” At Liberty Chapel, we are currently on a journey through The Gospel According to Mark. The last message I delivered was from Mark 4:21-34. There are 3 lessons in these verses, The Lamp Under The Basket, The Parable of the Seed Growing and The Parable of the Mustard Seed. Each of these lessons addresses our obligation to be a light, to plant seeds of the Gospel. As I have done throughout this post, I want to equate this to what we post on social media. This means that our social media posts should shine the light of God’s love, should be planting seeds of the Gospel to those who read through them. Again, the question we need to ask before hitting the send or post button is, Will what I am about to post shine the light of Gods love, plant the seeds of the Gospel to those who read it? If the answer is not “Yes”. Then hit the delete button, not the post button. 

You know what I have noticed over the years I have been reading and posting on social media? So far, I have not seen a single individual who read a post that came from a different political viewpoint than theirs, who at the conclusion of reading the post left the comment, “Wow, I never thought of that before! I’m going to change my political party. Thanks, so much for enlightening me!” What I have witnessed countless times is threads deteriorating with each new comment. I have seen good friends become enemies. I have seen families torn apart. I have seen people that shared the same pew one Sunday, flat out ignore that former pew mate the following week, and every week that followed. I’m not sure that matches very well with what Jesus said in John 13:35; “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

To summarize this post. What we as believers post on social media should first:

1. Bring glory to God.

2. Give grace to those who read it. 

3. Shine the light of God, planting the seeds of the Gospel.

4. Give evidence that we as believers have a deep and abiding love for one another.

With these thoughts in mind, post away……after you bathe your post in prayer. And do me a favor, would you hold me accountable to these same guidelines? 

Thanks, Jim Canady

By the way, I welcome your comments and any discussion. I am not the end all authority on these things.