Human Violence Is from the Inside Out

. 

.

The condemnation of God was against Cain when he killed Abel, and the type of weapon was not even mentioned. Human violence is from the inside out, not the other way around. It is a travesty to educate our society that the villainous murders at Newtown, Connecticut and the many others in our land were the result of the right to bear arms, which is articulated in the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Guns are used in murder, but as well guns are used for protective purposes. It is well established that the possession of firearms is basic to the protection of oneself in our society. This was a basic reason the Second Amendment was one of the basic rights to support freedom in our nation—the right to bear arms!

Murders similar to the Newtown instance occurred in 2012, such as the Feb. 27 incident in Chardon, Ohio where three were killed and two injured as T.J. Lane, seventeen, a sophomore at another area school, reportedly walked into the Chardon High School cafeteria and fired 10 shots at four students sitting at a table.  On April 2 in Oakland, California, seven were killed and three injured as former nursing student L. Goh, forty-three, who had dropped out of Oikos University, returned to the school and reportedly pulled an administrator into a nursing classroom, lined up students against the wall, and began shooting them. On May 30 in Seattle, Washington, six were killed including the shooter and one injured as Ian Lee Stawicki, forty, who had a history of mental and behavioral problems, was asked by a barista to leave a coffee shop before he stood up and opened fire. He fled and killed himself as police closed in hours later.

We can recall that on July 30 in Aurora, Colorado that twenty-four were murdered and 116 wounded as James Holmes gunned down patrons at the Century Theater.  On August 5 at Oak Creek, Wisconsin, seven were killed including the shooter and three were injured as White supremacist Wade Michael Page, forty, walked into a Sikh temple and opened fire just before Sunday services. On September 27 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, seven were killed including the shooter and three were injured as Andrew Engeldinger, thirty-six, was being fired from his job at a sign-making company.  Engeldinger pulled out a gun and shot his two managers, the owner, other employees, and a UPS driver as he walked around the building before shooting himself. On December 11 in Happy Valley, Oregon three were killed including the shooter with one injured as former gyro shop employee Jacob Tyler Roberts, twenty-two, opened fire randomly inside a shopping mall.

Yes, there are tragic murders in our land, but is the blame to be placed on the availability of guns rather than on the mindsets that commit such atrocities? One of the characteristics very much dominant in the murderers noted above is that most of the shooters isolated themselves from society. Social isolates can very often find their minds vacillating into destructive thoughts, and this is very much evidenced in the obsession of many of the shooters with violent video games. The effects of the violent video games are not negative to those who argue in supportive of them, saying the violent video games release violence many feel by providing a means to push harmless buttons rather than the pulling of triggers that kill, while the other side sees the video games as but practice fields for some who can’t handle their inner rage, which ultimately proves to be even more destructive.

The educational focus here is the assault by the ‘progressive’ elements in our society, as they seek to implant in the societies mind the picture that evil is not innate in people but that it is external and can be combated by the removal of external objects or situations. It is the belief that if this is taught long enough, strong enough, and effectively enough it will become a recognized truth.

There is a wave of thinking that blames everything from achievement in school to societal status to wars and conflicts on external factors rather than blaming the human heart. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” The “heart” referred to here is not the organ for pumping blood, but is our minds, the center of our physical, mental. and spiritual lives. The Lord Jesus taught that out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, and slander. (Matthew 15:19) In other words, defilement comes from within one’s mind, not the other way around. God’s commandments, including the one: “Thou shall not kill,” are learned and internalized through the Christian message, which was once dominant in American education, but which is increasingly being removed by the contemporary progressive thinking of our day. We need changed hearts, not more regulations.  It is the heart issue that we are neglecting!

In a response from the Democratic Hub, (Dec. 16, 2012) a couple wrote: “The right to bear arms has run its useful course and it is no longer necessary for citizens to possess weapons to fend off our country’s enemies both foreign and domestic. In our society we only need to depend on police and the military to look after our safety.”  Humanism denies the violence within the human heart and casts the blame on eternal factors, the availability of guns this respect—but why couldn’t it be availability of poisons, as many are murdered in this way, the availability of knives, or an endless variety of external objects.

Violence is increasingly becoming a part of the American scene.  Our society seems to be like a volcano, as we hear the rumblings, feel we the ground of our culture and society shaking, and wonder about the possible explosive disasters coming. It has been found that children who view lots of violence are much more prone to be violent, and that by viewing violence people become more emotionally desensitized to violence. Studies show that young children who have been exposed to violent media programming-video games, music with violent themes, and TV have an increasingly higher tendency for violent and aggressive behavior later in life. It can be said in religious terms that this situation has a “demonic influence.”

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut) addressed the tragic shooting at the Newtown school in his home state of Connecticut and pointed out that violent video games lead some people to become killers. He said: “Very often these young men have an almost hypnotic involvement in some form of violence in our entertainment culture – particularly violent video games…” about people involved in mass shootings. “And then they obtain guns and become not just troubled young men but mass murderers.”   He went on to say that he had heard “rumors” that Adam Lanza fell into this category.  But he reminded his colleagues that not everyone who played violent video games were killers, but noted that studies showed that young people involved in violent entertainment were “more aggressive.” (Senator Liebeman: Adam Lanza Had ‘Hypnotic’ Involvement With Violent Video Games.  Beltway Confidential, Dec. 18, 2012 by Paul Bedard)

On Sunday’s broadcast of ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Washington Post columnist George Will claimed that strict gun control laws often do not prevent determined killers from committing deadly mass-shootings.  “In 1996, a man went into a gym class in Scotland [and] killed sixteen five and six-year-olds and the teacher. A few years ago in Norway, a young, deranged man killed sixty-nine people on an island, mostly teenagers. Connecticut has among the toughest gun laws in this country. Didn’t help. Scotland and Norway have very tough gun laws. Didn’t help.”

Will added that the assault weapons ban that was part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which expired in 2004, and did nothing statistically measurable to prevent violent wide-scale shootings.  “Remember, we did have a ban on assault weapons….When we put the ban in place, these incidents did not really decline in a measurable way, and when we took it off, they did not increase in a measurable way.” (George Will: Tougher gun laws, assault weapons ban won’t help. (Dec. 12, 2012) )

Our Chief Executive, speaking at the Newtown memorial service, pointed to an anti-violence plan he would implement to stop such things as happened at the Sandy Hook Elementary School by launching a campaign to expanding government’s role in parenting and gun control. President Obamba said: “The job of keeping our children safe, and teaching them well, is something we can only do together, with the help of friends and neighbors…and the help of the nation…We will have to change…If there is even only one step we can take to save another child, another parent, or another town from grief…then surely we have an obligation to try.”  (OBAMA’S ANTI-VIOLENCE PLAN—Obama pushes partisan anti-violence plan at Sandy Hook victims’ memorial by Neil Munro–December 17, 2012).  Here is the plan of progressive thinking that sees the problems as being from the outside in. Change the culture to a non-violent one by government intervention.  But is the way to resolve the violence problem as displayed at Sandy Hook and the street corners across the U.S. to be through more government intervention, the confiscation of guns, and government control of parenting?

The government could do something about the violent videos, but little is said about this. However, it seems the direction is set to be more in the attempt to remove guns from private possession and children from parental control.   Now, just think about it, did God remove all the rocks or possible weapons from the earth to re-educate the human race after Cain killed Abel?  No, God condemned Cain, not the instrument he might have used, and he sent him to the land of Nod.

I feel that if we sent some of the progressive politicians who have said so much from the wrong perspective to the land of Nod that the situation might actually improve.

.

by Joe Renfro, Ed.D., Educational Columnist, Radio Evangelist, Retired Teacher and Pastor, 5931 West Avenue, Lavonia, Georgia 30553,  706-356-4173, joerenfro@windstream.net

.