Tragedy and Blame

     There have been a lot of horrible tragedies in the last few weeks.  The devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico that crippled that island.  The earthquake in Mexico that killed so many people and destroyed countless buildings and homes.  The fires in California that has caused so much displacement; and just this past week the horrible mass shooting in Las Vegas by a strange man that killed 59 people including himself and wounded nearly 500 more.  There is no answer for this terrible shooting, no motive, no way to understand what was in the shooters mind.  We can only wonder and grieve.   

            In the wake of these awful things, there has been a tendency to add blame to the list of tragedies.  The mayor of San Juan has cried out for more help from the United States and has received criticism from the President.  Mr. Trump went on to tell us what a wonderful job that he has done to deal with what that island needed. He minimized the lack of timeliness in the efforts to help the people of Puerto Rico and took credit for a “tremendous job”.  

            When we look at the Las Vegas shooting, it is easy to find blame.  We certainly want to blame the shooter.  That is our first instinct; but there is a deeper place to look. We really need to find fault with ourselves.  We have created a gun culture in this country.  The Second Amendment to the Constitution speaks of being certain that we permit guns to be in the hands of our militia so that we can all be safe.  In recent years, that amendment’s words have been stretched and interpreted to permit anyone at all to possess a gun, even semi-automatic guns that only have one purpose, to kill people.  I remember NRA spokesperson Wayne LaPierre saying “what we need to take care of a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” With the probability that the shooter in Las Vegas had some mental issues and the fact that he was high in a hotel and certainly unavailable to anyone with a gun, I know that Mr. LaPierre’s comment has no meaning.  In addition, I’ve never been able to understand how a hunter would take an AK-47 into the woods to harvest a deer for the table, let alone one that has been modified to shoot like a machine gun.  That makes no sense at all.  If we want to assess blame for mass killings, the place to look in inside ourselves. 

            In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he speaks to them of his qualifications for receiving the love of God:  He was circumcised, is a Hebrew, a Pharisee, a persecutor of the church and blameless as to righteousness under the law. Yet he goes on to say that whatever gains that he has because of all of this, he has come to regard as loss because of the presence of Christ among us. Paul is eloquent in speaking about the presence of Jesus Christ in this world as the basis for all of us to be loved and understood by God.  It is not because of what it is that we have achieved, but what has been done for us by our Lord Jesus.  He says that he wants to know Christ completely, his sufferings and his death that he may obtain resurrection from death.  That is a powerful statement from a man who had achieved the highest rank among his fellow Hebrews.  He held the coats of the people who stoned Stephen, the first martyr.  He was on his way to Damascus to further persecute Christians when he was knocked to the ground, blinded and turned into a Christian himself.  Paul was not above assessing blame.  He blamed the Corinthian Christians for fighting among themselves; but this passage from Philippians reaches deep into his heart to show us his true religion.  He holds the Love of God as his highest goal, not perfection in his own life.  That is a lesson that we all need to hear in these difficult times if we are going to ever find resolution. 

            Whatever we decide to do about guns is important.  Blame is not helpful to a solution, it only complicates things.  Let’s lash out at the problem and find a way to get our gun problem in control.  It is possible if we can come together.