Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Pray for the fallen

In Virginia Tech today, they held a vigil for the fallen students from Monday's shooting. It was a terrible tradegy. As a student at a university here, it is scary to think the same thing could happen on our campus.

From the sounds of it, the man was a troubled loner. I often think about these individuals, and wonder ' would this been prevented if people tried to reach out to this person? '. I think it's easier for most of us to not think about the roles we play in other peoples lives, but sometimes our inaction can be just as powerful as our actions.

My scripture knowledge is bad.. I haven't been reading my bible as much as I should be lately.. but I believe there is a passage in Proverbs that talks about 'rescuing those who are unjustly sentenced to die..' I remember this because the Right to Life association I used to belong to quoted that all the time to explain why they were opposed to abortion.. but the quote seems more appropriate to me in this context now.. When we see someone dying inside, should our Christian compassion compel us to approach that individual and offer them our friendship, and our Christian love? I wonder if anyone tried to reach out to him..

I also happen to think that we live in a society where we are too easily comfortable with violence. Heaven help us if you see somebody in the body that God made us in, but seeing a serial killer hack up a bunch of people with blood and gore makes for good t.v.

I'm not comfortable with idea of gun control.. but I have decided to give it a second thought. If we must live in a society that will not curb violence on t.v. because censorship has become a bad word, then we must consider what other alternatives exist for us.

I am also troubled by the fact that the media seems to want to focus on the fact that he was a South Korean student, like his immigrant status would explain away the violence we are experiencing in society world wide.

None of these problems are solved with easy answers, but I think we as Christians should pray.. for those who have fallen, and for those who need our help..

Shawn
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