Another school shooting has rocked our country and shattered lives. This time, three young children and three adults were killed by a disturbed woman who, for some reason, felt that killing others was the natural recourse to whatever she felt haunted her.
But to add more anguish to the pain, some journalists are mocking those of faith for prayer, and some are calling out the state of Tennessee for banning transgender surgeries instead of assault weapons.
These far-left reporters are doing all they can to skirt the truth: The shooter was mentally disturbed and committed a heinous crime. She paid for it with her life.
And while mass shootings have become all too common, we see a disrespect for human life everywhere. We see it in inner city shootings; we see it in the hatred spewed on social media; we see it in acts of violence against Christians and pro-life pregnancy centers; and we see it for preborn babies, the elderly, and those with disabilities.
We have raised a culture that doesn’t care about the tiniest, most vulnerable baby in the womb and that screams for the ability to rip that baby—their flesh and blood—apart, so why are we surprised that these people gun down strangers? As the saying goes, you reap what you sow.
We have literally created monsters.
We have raised a generation of kids who get lost on social media, who partake in challenges to do inane things like eating Tide pods and insidious things like stealing cars and shooting gel pellets at people. We have replaced social interactions with the ability to post anonymous—and often hateful—messages. We have created a life for our children where violence is cool or funny. In essence, we have given them devices and then set them loose to explore a cruel world they are not ready for, thus allowing evil to seep into their minds, pornography to secretly invade their rooms, and murder and death to become just another news story rather than the immense tragedy it is.
Is it any wonder that an organization like the Trans Resistance Network wrote in response to the Nashville shooting that the shooter felt she had “no other effective way to be seen”? While the group falls just shy of justifying the shooter’s behavior, its post certainly seems like it understands it. For it then went on to say that “life for transgender people is very difficult, and [has been] made more difficult in the preceding months by a virtual avalanche of anti-trans legislation, and public callouts by Right Wing personalities and political figures for nothing less than the genocidal eradication of trans people from society.”
The legislation it speaks of is aimed at protecting children. Children should not be allowed to take hormonal drugs or have surgery to alter some aspects of their gender. Children should not go on field trips to drag shows. These laws are not born of hatred but of love—love for children and their well-being. It is our job as parents and as educators to protect children. It is our job to see a hurting child and to help fix the problem instead of masking it with surgery and hormones that maim and destroy.
We need to do better—for our children and for society. We are facing a stark moral decline, and without action, it will only get worse.
We see evidence of this moral decline in the latest National Opinion Research Center poll funded by the Wall Street Journal, which found drastic changes from the last poll in 2019. Among the findings, were these:
- “Only 30% of 2023 respondents overall said having children was very important to them, compared with 59% in 1998 and 43% in 2019.”
- “Only 43% said marriage is very important (this question was not on the 2019 and 1998 surveys).”
- “53% of Republicans and 27% of Democrats said religion is “very important” to them.”
- “38% of Republicans and 26% of Democrats said having children is very important to them.”
The poll then found that “the only value that increased in importance in respondents’ minds from 1998 to 2023 was money, which increased from 31% to 43%.”
So a desire for God, prayer, and family have declined while a desire for money has increased. We should not be surprised that our country is in such dire shape.
As the Lord taught in Matthew, “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
No, you cannot.
If we continue to push God away, we will continue to have chaos. If we continue to push God away, we will continue to live with hatred, violence, and anger. If we continue to push God away, He will ultimately give us what we asked for—an eternity without Him.
But when we do His will, teach others about His unending love, and treat all people—born and preborn—with the dignity and respect they deserve as human beings, we will see the triumph of good over evil.
Though we may be mocked for our faith and though we may face threats and persecution, there truly is only one way to live—and that is to put God first and to teach our children to do the same. Faith must be a vital part of our lives and an integral part of our days. There is no other way to pull our country out of the dark abyss that has enveloped it. There is no other way to live.
This article first appeared in the Catholic World Report at catholicworldreport.com/2023/03/31/hatred-for-god-truth-and-life-compounds-the-pain-of-death.
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