Chardon

There is plenty to rant about tonight, but somehow it seems inappropriate. The tragic events in Chardon, Ohio, give one pause as to what we have become as a people. How does one make sense of such a senseless shooting? How do the families of the three dead students handle such a loss? How does the family of the shooter handle the guilt that will follow them for the rest of their lives?

We live in sad times. The moral base of our nation is deteriorating as those institutions that provide the compass of right and wrong are under attack and being torn down. The fact that this was not the lead story on some of the news channels tonight is perplexing. Is the Michigan primary really more important than this story? Has this become so common place that we shake our heads for a minute saying how bad things are, then go on with our coffee, I-pads and smart phones never missing a beat?

My minister gave a memorable sermon this past Sunday. He said we live in an age of cheap grace and meaningless sacrifice. He hit the nail on the head. We live in a phony world, where we fake concern for our neighbors, give lip service to inadequate solutions, throw a dollar into the Salvation Army kettle then pat ourselves on the back for being so virtuous. It takes more than that. One has to do the hard stuff, make the tough choices, come to unpopular conclusions.

The boy who did the shooting in Chardon is a tragic figure. He was raised by his grandparents not knowing his real mother and father. His brother is in jail. He was described by the police as being a bullied outcast. Postings on Facebook showed a deeply troubled individual who was putting it all out there for the rest of the world to see, and it was ignored. Did those in authority really not see, or did they choose not see?

The state and/or its subdivisions can’t be all things to all people. Unfortunately, the state has decided that it should be the substitute for parents and family. The state wants to decide what Mom should put in a lunch. In fact, the state has pretty much taken over all aspects of students lives. The state drives religion from the public schools. The state has taken down the Ten Commandments from the classrooms. Was the shooter ever taught Thou Shalt Not Kill, or was his moral code determined by video games and television programs and text messages?

People laugh when politicians talk about a return to family values. Why is that so funny? Raising a family, children, are the prime responsibility of those who bring those lives into this world. It is family that provides the basis for the development of a value system. It is family that is supposed to give support and guidance. It is the family that gives unconditional love. It takes hard work. It takes dedication. It takes patience and a steady hand. It is expensive grace with true sacrifice. In modern America, the family is dismissed.  It takes a village, we are told.

In modern America, lives are disposable. Whether it is gory, bloody violence on television or video games; whether it is doctors performing late term abortions looking for state sanction to kill babies born alive in the process of an abortion; whether it is the death penalty handed out for revenge rather than justice; whether it is euthanasia directed at  the sick and dying…all of this cheapens life. We can fool ourselves into believing its okay and even give platitudinal justification for it. But at the end of the day, it is cheap grace and meaningless sacrifice. 

Who is going to teach the likes of the Chardon shooter the value of life? Will you do it? How about the state? Maybe the school should do it! Maybe society needs to put aside the cheap grace and meaningless sacrifice to which it is addicted and re-examine how to build a civil society based on firm principles, teach that there is right and wrong, believe that there is evil in the world and the need to fight it, and elevate the role of family to its rightful place in our lives, preferably with a mother AND father if at all possible. Maybe then we will be able to send our children to school with some peace of mind.