Virginia Tech and other thoughts

I realize that a lot of people are weighing in on the tragedy that happened at Virginia Tech this week. There are few things that can help us to understand such horrific events. The one thing I have noticed about the "news" channels is that they refer to it as a "tragedy," a "massacre," and a "horror." But I haven't seen anyone call it what it is...terrorism. We like to identify fundamentalist suicide bombers as terrorists, but people within our own country (whether natural born citizens or visa issued aliens) are rarely called terrorists. Remember Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols (the Oklahoma city bombing), or Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (the Columbine High School shootings)? These were domestic terrorists. Terrorism, with all the news spin, has been relegated to foreign religious zealots, but terrorists exist in our own back yard.

One of the things that people often ask when such tragedy takes place is "why?". we turn to psychiatrists, sociologists, and other professionals to explain the root causes. But realistically all they can do is describe the situation from their scientific perspective. The answer to "Why?" is not an easy one to grapple with, but I can reason from a biblical perspective that all evil in this world is a result of "The Fall."

God never intended for pain, disease, suffering, death, oppression, starvation, exploitation, war, slavery, bigotry, hatred to exist. They exist because humanity is free to make choices. If we were not free to choose to rebel, then we would also not be free to choose to love. It is a catch-22. My heart aches that such evil exists, but I am thankful that I might choose to love instead of being forced to. when I think about the subject of pain (which all of this eventually falls under) I realize that God is hurting too. He realizes that his Creation is fallen and he has been in the process of putting it back together for a very long time.

What can I do?

Well, for one, since I am free to make choices, I can choose to not contribute to cycles of pain. I can choose to support causes to alleviate suffering and oppression. I can choose to make responsible financial decisions. I can choose to make responsible moral decisions. I can choose to not cause pain to anyone.

I know it seems simple, but the old saying "if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem" does have some credibility. I want to be part of the solution. Maybe if we all wanted that, then we would not have to endure such horrific things.

Maybe I am an idealist, but I believe that people can choose good over evil. I hope that is the case.