The tragic drive-by shooting of Australian Chris Lane as he was out jogging in Oklahoma this week raises all sorts of issues. It is a horrific killing and the family needs prayer big time. And already the left is trying to politicise the shooting, with yet more calls for gun control.
But of course this issue is far deeper than mere guns. We are talking about a very entrenched social and cultural problem which has many layers. The secularisation of society and the corresponding rise in the sense of futility, despair and meaninglessness is one such issue.
The tragedy of most blacks today growing up in fatherless homes is another. Research shows that many of these youth are attracted to gangs as a way of compensating for the loss of fathers and families, and research is also quite clear that violent crime is closely associated with family breakdown.
Our overwhelmingly hedonistic entertainment culture is another factor. We are bored so very easily, and we expect non-stop instant gratification, amusement and entertainment – or else. Indeed, this trio who shot Lane told the police quite forthrightly: “We were bored.”
And then there is the glaring and obvious double standards here from the left and the mainstream media. Just where are Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Oprah Winfrey and Barack Hussein Obama when you need them? Where is the outrage? Why is this not front page news everywhere? Why did Obama not say ‘If I had a son, he would be Chris Lane’?
The Trayvon/Zimmerman case went viral with the MSM, and we were all told this is more of the endemic racism in America rearing its ugly head. Yet when blacks gun down a white youth, all we hear are crickets chirping. The lamestream media really is quite repulsive.
Thus a number of issues coalesce here, and various contributing factors can be examined in relation to this tragic shooting. The hate of the killers is now well known, especially the hatred toward whites, as evidenced by twitter remarks made by the killers.
Plenty of helpful commentary on this already exists, so instead of re-inventing the wheel, I will finish here by citing several recent pieces on this. Todd Staines argues that the “United States is raising a nation of savages”. He first offers a few more details of the case:
“Police Chief Dan Ford said they found a chilling message on one of the alleged killer’s Facebook pages: ‘Bang. Two drops in two hours.’ ‘I think they were on a killing spree,’ Ford told Australian Associated Press. ‘We would have had more bodies that night if we didn’t get them.’ In other words – the teenage boys were hunting humans.”
He looks at a few other recent horrible cases, then remarks: “The United States is now reaping what it has sown – for raising a nation of savages. We live in a nation that celebrates and glorifies violence. The proof is in our movies, our music, and our athletic pastimes.”
Staines cites Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas: “Parents have absolutely failed in their most basic, fundamental responsibility as parents. And that is to instill God’s moral law in the hearts of their children. The Good Book indeed says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. As long as you continue to tell teenagers they are nothing but a biological accident, we shouldn’t expect them to act in accordance with a Creator-God who has basic laws concerning life and death.”
Staines continues, “It’s true that American culture has turned its back on God. As a result, we’ve lost our moral compass – replacing the moral absolutes of the Almighty with the moral whims of an all-knowing federal government. Right is now wrong and wrong is now right. And under the leadership of President Obama criminals have become victims and their prey have become afterthoughts – ingredients for the surge in teenage violence….
“As the stench of our rotting culture sweeps across the nation, I’ve come to the conclusion that we have reached a moment in history when the make-believe world of violence no longer satisfies our bloodlust. The United States is now reaping what it has sown – for raising a nation of savages.”
And Capt. Terry M. Hestilow says it is “Time to revisit why kids kill for the fun of it”. He writes:
“As you might expect, television news reporters have already begun to interview psychologists. Exposing their own shallowness, they can never actually articulate the problem at the heart of such behaviors. Fishing in their empty lake of contemporary thought, they can never admit that certain behaviors can be expected when a culture inculcates in children a contempt for life (any life) and the institutions and moral constraints that once made our nation great.”
He offers a lengthy and incisive argument on why in a post-Christian West we have no final basis for morality, personal responsibility, and genuine altruism. All we are left with is evolutionary might makes right. He concludes with these words:
“In the end, then, if there is no God we can forget the concept of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and must live with the consequence of a world in which everyone decides what will be their best result (pragmatism). In such a world we will never build enough prisons and war will continue to be the only constant of international relations. In such a world we had better get ready for many more days where people, unbound by any moral accountability to God for their actions, can and will freely vent their rage against their peers; and it will never get better than that.
“Scripture reminds us to, ‘Impress [God’s commandments] on [our] children’ (Deuteronomy 6:7, NIV). It is the right time to return to the concept of teaching our children the truth about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’; and about the God to whom we each owe accountability.”
A nation cast adrift from God is ultimately a nation cast adrift from morality, from community, from decency, from love, from purpose, and from social cohesion. It is every man for himself, and the justification for any and every outrageous act will simply be, “We were bored”.
State schools teach man is an animal a bit more evolved than other animals, there is no God, no absolutes, no right no wrong, if it is right for you it is right, don’t let anyone tell you differently and impose their morals on you. Break free from religious constrains, our modern world has no place for religion. An unborn baby is a POC (products of conception) if you don’t want a POC get rid of it, if a frail family member is a burden to you get rid of them. And now, if you board, put some excitement in your life, go out a shoot someone at random just like you will kill a cockroach, you will be so glad you did.
Des Morris
Sadly, Des, most so-called Christian schools do exactly the same as the State schools – often using the same textbooks!
John Angelico
Yes, John, this is certainly true for those schools which are “church schools.” rather than Christian schools.
I have had the case mentioned a few times on the ABC though, this morning on the correspondence report with much perplexity, consternation and tryng to make sense of it all. That is probably as deep as the ABC allows.
Many blessings
Ursula Bennett
Dear Bill, It must grieve you as it grieves me about England, to admit how godless our nations have become. When teenagers can kill someone because they are ”bored” and when children can kill children as in the infamous case of the torture and murder of little Jamie Bolger a few years ago in England then there is something seriously wrong with both our societies.
Yet on the other hand Bill the US has produced sons like you who they can be proud of and who are prepared to stand up for what is good and right at the expense of being ignored or ridiculed by our secular media.You really are a voice crying in the wilderness.
My opinion of Americans was formed as a child when just after the war there was still chronic shortages of everything in England. Through my American pen friend I learned what a generous, Christian, God fearing nation America was because she used to send us many lovely parcels of things we had never seen and really needed. I remember my mother couldn’t get over the cake mixes which came in packets and which weren’t available in England. How we loved and appreciated them!
Therefore I cannot bring myself to lose faith completely in the basic goodness of both the American and British peoples even though I can’t say the same about both their governments.
However it is said that people get the governments they deserve so let us hope that one day in the not too distant future that will mean better governments for both countries because change comes up from the grass roots. This will happen when the bulk of our populations finally realise that there is nothing to be gained by abandoning our Christian heritage and embracing godlessness the fruits of which produce all the things you name at the end of your article.
State schools teach man is an animal a bit more evolved than other animals, there is no God, no absolutes, no right no wrong, if it is right for you it is right, don’t let anyone tell you differently and impose their morals on you. Break free from religious constrains, our modern world has no place for religion. An unborn baby is a POC (products of conception) if you don’t want a POC get rid of it, if a frail family member is a burden to you get rid of them. And now, if you board, put some excitement in your life, go out a shoot someone at random just like you will kill a cockroach, you will be so glad you did.
Des Morris
Sadly, Des, most so-called Christian schools do exactly the same as the State schools – often using the same textbooks!
John Angelico
Yes, John, this is certainly true for those schools which are “church schools.” rather than Christian schools.
I have had the case mentioned a few times on the ABC though, this morning on the correspondence report with much perplexity, consternation and tryng to make sense of it all. That is probably as deep as the ABC allows.
Many blessings
Ursula Bennett
Dear Bill, It must grieve you as it grieves me about England, to admit how godless our nations have become. When teenagers can kill someone because they are ”bored” and when children can kill children as in the infamous case of the torture and murder of little Jamie Bolger a few years ago in England then there is something seriously wrong with both our societies.
Yet on the other hand Bill the US has produced sons like you who they can be proud of and who are prepared to stand up for what is good and right at the expense of being ignored or ridiculed by our secular media.You really are a voice crying in the wilderness.
My opinion of Americans was formed as a child when just after the war there was still chronic shortages of everything in England. Through my American pen friend I learned what a generous, Christian, God fearing nation America was because she used to send us many lovely parcels of things we had never seen and really needed. I remember my mother couldn’t get over the cake mixes which came in packets and which weren’t available in England. How we loved and appreciated them!
Therefore I cannot bring myself to lose faith completely in the basic goodness of both the American and British peoples even though I can’t say the same about both their governments.
However it is said that people get the governments they deserve so let us hope that one day in the not too distant future that will mean better governments for both countries because change comes up from the grass roots. This will happen when the bulk of our populations finally realise that there is nothing to be gained by abandoning our Christian heritage and embracing godlessness the fruits of which produce all the things you name at the end of your article.
Patricia Halligan