A Dark Night

I woke up to the news that 71 people had been shot at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado. 12 of them have died.

How do you process such news?

12 people dead. I can only imagine moms, dads, friends, sisters, brothers, children all impacted forever by one senseless act of violence. Many in the hospital fighting for their lives or recovering from injuries. Bodies damaged. Minds scarred. Families mourning. Relationships gone. Lives never the same.

It makes you feel helpless. Nauseated. And strangely numb.

Unfortunately such events are becoming all too common. Maybe we are just hearing about them more. We are bombarded daily with the worst of the worst, the sickest of the sick, instantly, via multiple media outlets, from all over the globe.

Our world is shrinking and our heart seems to be shriveling up with it.

The motives of the killer will be examined, dissected, and evaluated. Probably no one factor can be blamed. A person who callously plans and randomly kills innocent people has to be irrational and unstable to begin with. Thus discerning exact motives is impossible and proposing simple answers is inappropriate. Ban assault weapons. Sure, there is a case for that. But would it have stopped a person who also had apparent knowledge and use of other weapons and explosives as well? Increase security. Sure, but where does such security stop? We can’t police everywhere nor stop every violent act. Arm everyone in society? Well, for every life saved, there may be more caught in the crossfire.

The debate about guns will certainly enter the picture but it will only be scratching at the surface, treating the symptoms rather than addressing the disease.

Ultimately it was a human mind that planned such an elaborate, cold-hearted attack. And it is the human mind that has to be addressed.

This man was sick but, in examining the initial details, also so “normal.” Nothing sinister seems to lie in his past. He had no previous police record. No apparent addiction to drugs. No real cause of vengeance to exercise on a group of people in a movie theatre. He just acted…almost as if he was part of the movie itself.

We seem to be a society losing touch with reality. We are so immersed in entertainment that the lines between fantasy and real life are constantly blurred. And when kids grow up exposed to an endless feed of violent games, violent shows, and virtual worlds, it is naive to think that there is no long-term impact on their minds. In many “games” today, young people play out killing people one by one with the most realistic of graphics. For an unstable mind, it can’t be a far leap to make it reality.

I remember reading excerpts from the trial testimony of Anders Breivik, the man who massacred 77 people, many of them teenagers, in a pre-meditated killing spree in Norway. He testified that he sharpened his skills and deadened his conscience by playing violent video games 16 hours a day for months at a time. His testimony was chilling because it was so matter-of-fact. So divorced from reality. So detached from the tragedy of innocent young lives snuffed out like they were part of a sick video game.

Again, there are no simple answers. Banning a video game or protesting violent movies is not the solution. But when you have a society with a steady breakdown in the family, a devaluing of life, an appetite for virtual violence, a growing sense of boredom and discontent, a love for notoriety, an absence of moral boundaries, and limitless exposure to methods of killing and destruction, then you have the makings of a “culture of death.”

As a society, we reap what we sow.

The book of Proverbs warns us bluntly: Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life (4:23).

The things that go into our minds do not just disappear. They work deep into our thought processes, affect our perception, numb our consciences, and flow out into our words and actions. It is a slow process which means no one piece of input can be pinpointed or blamed…and no one can really notice the changes in their heart. But the steady drip of virtual violence, entertaining immorality, and glorified self-gratification works into one’s bloodstream, poisoning the mind.

And a poisoned mind can eventually spill out into destructive actions, into needless tragedies that destroy innocent lives.

I pray for the victims of this tragedy…the critically injured, the recovering, the families and friends of the slain…and I pray for myself, my children, and the society in which we live. May we wake up to the Light of truth, honor, virtue, purity, and grace before we experience another dark night.

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