Mass Murders at Virginia Tech...the Blood is on Our Hands
Greg Stier is the President and Founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries in Arvada, Colorado, USA, where he works with youth leaders and students, equipping them to be effective in sharing the Gospel.
by Greg Stier, Christian Today Guest Columnist
Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007, 15:27 (BST)
What do you get when you add easy access to weapons and a culture that increasingly devalues life and glorifies violence from video games to slasher films? A growing, almost exclusively American, problem. The mass murders by a lone gunman at Virginia Tech are the latest in a string of school shootings that are proof of this.
As this week marks the eighth anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School we couldn't find a worse way to remember that tragedy than through an even worse one. Our hearts break for the friends and families of the victims of this senselessness [act].
Eight years ago this week I was sitting in a youth room with six youth pastors promoting Dare 2 Share Ministries, an organisation committed to training and equipping Christian teenagers to know, live, share and own their faith in Jesus. At 11:30 or so the pastor of the church we were at popped in and said, "You guys had better pray. Something bad is going down at Columbine." Over the hours and days to follow, all of us discovered the extent of these slayings at the hands of two disillusioned teenagers.
Columbine is twenty minutes down the road from Dare 2 Share and I couldn't help but feel that some of the blood of the victims was on my hands. While I didn't pull the trigger I hadn't done all I could do to prevent school shootings.
Have you?
I had that same sinking feeling today at 10:45am Mountain Standard Time as I saw on msn.com that another school shooting of even greater magnitude had unfolded at Virginia Tech. To be honest, I feel like the blood is on my hands once again.
Do you? I think we all do.
And, just how degrading and violent do video games and movies need to get before moms and dads put their feet down with their own kids and "just say no" to their teenagers?
Movies and video games are getting bloodier and bloodier. And we just hide under the banter that "kids will be kids".
But, ultimately, it is not just a media thing or a gun thing, but a God thing.
America has forsaken her roots as a Christian nation and is embracing a culture of secularism that devalues life. Without God we only have "survival of the fittest". In pre-historic days it was those with the biggest claws and jaws that won the day. Today it is those with the biggest guns.
If there is no God then why not pull the trigger, on everyone else and then yourself?
If there is no God then there is no heaven and no hope, just the hell and hopelessness of everyday living in a pain-stained world.
But if there is a God then people matter, for they were made in His image. If there is a God then there is hope, there is a reason to value life.
Let's share the good news of Jesus with a culture that has forgotten or forsaken the true value of life. And let's pray for the family and friends of the victims of another senseless tragedy.
Because if we don't the blood is on our hands.
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Greg Stier is the President and Founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries in Arvada, Colorado, USA, where he works with youth leaders and students, equipping them to be effective in sharing the Gospel. Dare 2 Share has impacted the lives of more than 300,000 teenagers across the country. With experience as a senior teaching pastor and in youth ministry for almost 20 years, he has a reputation of knowing and relating to today's teens. Greg is widely viewed as an authority and expert on teen spirituality. He is known for motivating, mobilising and equipping teens for positive change.
For more information on Dare 2 Share Ministries, and the SURVIVE 07/08 conference tour, please visit www.dare2share.org.
Have your say on this article
The comments below are readers' personal opinions and are in no way intended to reflect the editorial opinion of Christian Today.
Added: Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 2:58 (BST)
I disagree with the premise that because Satan had his way with a misguided youth that all of our society is somewhat to blame. It's far to easy to blame, far harder to pray for forgiveness for the transgressor. Our society has turned its back on Jesus and the Lord God, that much is obvious. But not all have, and to my way of thinking, blaming all for this tragedy is akin to Christianity being blamed for terrorism because of the Crusades. It's not the access to guns, it's what is in the heart of those who misuse the tool. To me there is no difference between that young man pulling the trigger of a gun and a false prophet misleading the uninformed with misleading and false interpretations of the Word of God. We all need to pray for God's forgiveness, we all need to reach out to those who do not know Jesus and bring them the peace of fellowship. For me it does no good to blame, blaming only drives a wedge between those being blamed and the forgiveness God has promised. God Bless you for speaking out.
George Keesee, San Antonio, Texas
Added: Tuesday, April 17, 2007, 19:03 (BST)
This is shameful. While many of us are trying to deal with the aftermath of the shootings, Greg is somehow determined to push a political agenda. There is no indication that Cho-Sheung-Hui was influenced by violent video games. Not being able to come to grips with why God allowed this tragedy to happen is no justification for trying to implicate all American Christians.
Does Greg really think that after we struggle with God to answer why this happened, that God will respond by saying ban violent video games? I believe instead that He would answer by saying, "grieve with those that grieve, mourn with those that mourn." What better testimony of God than for many of us to do what we can to comfort the families.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christians.pray.after.us.college.shooting/10410.htm
John Payne, Omaha, Nebraska USA
Added: Tuesday, April 17, 2007, 18:12 (BST)
I have had easy access to guns my entire life. I have also watched my fair share of bang 'em up, shoot 'em up movies. I have also played countless hours of kill and destroy video games. I have never had the desire to go out and kill a bunch of people.
I am a Christian, who believes Christ died for my sins and rose again on the third day so that I may be forgiven and have a relationship with God the Father. I am 27 years old.
Don't go blaming guns and video games. The Amish guy who killed all those people didn't have access to any of the violent things you've mentioned. He just snapped.
Chad, Woodbridge, VA
Added: Tuesday, April 17, 2007, 16:26 (BST)
Sounds good. Except for the fact that the gun-man is not, in fact, an American. He was a resident alien from South Korea. It is NOT our culture, our entertainment, our boogey-man of the generation (video games) that caused this event. It was the work of a disturbed mind, not a culture gone wrong.
Steve Dallas, San Diego, USA
