by jimwalton » Sat Dec 15, 2012 6:28 pm
Despite that we know how bad the world can be, it is always difficult to process such random acts of unmitigated evil against total innocents. It is unspeakable horrible to ever lose a child, but to lose one like this, in a random school slaughter—you never recover from that. Ever.
The blame question is so difficult to pin down because there are so many complexities of life that go into what a person becomes and why they act the way they do. Our culture is becoming increasingly more unrestrained in exposing children to adult themes, and not even filtering what we expose adults to. When the imagination is allowed to run unbounded, and evil (violence, random violence, virtual violence) invades our games and entertainment, music and art, people are influenced—especially people who are already showing symptoms of mental disturbance. For someone without appropriate restraints, the input just makes things worse.
A more important question on your mind is "How can God allow this to happen if he really loved us?" Actually, because he loves us he doesn't force us to be robots and allows us the freedom to choose as we wish. Only if he didn't love us would he regulate every thought and every action, and then we wouldn't be human. And if he forced us to love him, well, that wouldn't be love either. Love has to choose its course or its not love. Are there dangers and risks involved in that? Of course. Someone might choose evil. Well, if the other choice is to duct-tape your child to the bed and never let them make a decision, what kind of life is that either? Satan is free to choose. People are free to choose. Love guides, it warns, it disciplines, it instructs, it woos, it weeps, but it doesn't force love in return.
This is just a very brief response to very complex emotions and an extremely difficult situation. Talk to me some more and we can go deeper.
Despite that we know how bad the world can be, it is always difficult to process such random acts of unmitigated evil against total innocents. It is unspeakable horrible to ever lose a child, but to lose one like this, in a random school slaughter—you never recover from that. Ever.
The blame question is so difficult to pin down because there are so many complexities of life that go into what a person becomes and why they act the way they do. Our culture is becoming increasingly more unrestrained in exposing children to adult themes, and not even filtering what we expose adults to. When the imagination is allowed to run unbounded, and evil (violence, random violence, virtual violence) invades our games and entertainment, music and art, people are influenced—especially people who are already showing symptoms of mental disturbance. For someone without appropriate restraints, the input just makes things worse.
A more important question on your mind is "How can God allow this to happen if he really loved us?" Actually, because he loves us he doesn't force us to be robots and allows us the freedom to choose as we wish. Only if he didn't love us would he regulate every thought and every action, and then we wouldn't be human. And if he forced us to love him, well, that wouldn't be love either. Love has to choose its course or its not love. Are there dangers and risks involved in that? Of course. Someone might choose evil. Well, if the other choice is to duct-tape your child to the bed and never let them make a decision, what kind of life is that either? Satan is free to choose. People are free to choose. Love guides, it warns, it disciplines, it instructs, it woos, it weeps, but it doesn't force love in return.
This is just a very brief response to very complex emotions and an extremely difficult situation. Talk to me some more and we can go deeper.