The price we pay for God's love and respect for us in making us free is the kind of senseless tragedy which happened at Virginia Tech. If we had been created with no choice as to our actions, then today's shooting could not have occurred, but then neither the wonderful achievements of the human spirit.
We will hear now again the tired old refrain "guns do not shoot and kill people, people shoot and kill people". To that must be added, "people without guns do not shoot and kill people". The external reason, guns, for today's horror can be removed by legislation.
The internal reason for today's tragedy, admittedly more important, can be removed by training almost from the cradle which says that only God gives life and it is infinitely precious, too precious to e assaulted by mean public and private discourse and by a culture which sneers at our spiritual roots and which welcomes dehumanizing language as normal, be it in private conversation or over the national airwaves. The latter is more lethal since it can claim an infinitely larger hearing.
Finally, our society is doomed unless religious pulpits, public platforms, college lecterns, communications media and indeed all of us decide that we will leave the sewer in our thoughts and conversation and turn upward toward the stars. That will fit us better, since God has made us "a little lower than the angels" (Psalm 8:5; Hebrews 2:7).
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