As our nation reels from the tragedy at Ford Hood, there are concerns for increased gun control, and possible banning people with mental illness from military bases

The Concern

The question before the nation is this:  What should we do?  But, more specifically, the question for the Church needs to be How might the Christian give testimony to the glory of God during such a time as this?

The News Story

Here is a quick overview of the news clip.  The main take away –for me- is that the problem is not being addressed as seen in this video

John Tamny, (at the 1.07 min mark) employed at Forbes, covering economics and politics, voiced his perspective that the above measures would never be adequate, because we ‘live in a world with “mentally unmbalanced individuals who are going to bring us harm…that there are bad people out there”

David Asman,  (at the 5.05 mark), news anchor for Fox News, mentioned that perhaps mentally ill people should not be on military bases.  Another stigma reinforced!

Fortuntately, Sabrina Schaeffer,  executive director of Independent Women’s Form (at the 7.57 mark) said that people with mental illness should not be profiled as potential murderers

My Opinion

I agree that there are bad people out there, but to imply that the bad people are the mentally unbalanced is not just wrong, but it is incendiary because it casts a stigma upon those with mental illness, leaving the Christian to think twice about loving this brother as he would another without a mental illness

As I mentioned earlier, the cause of the problem is not being addressed, but only the symptoms, and band aid solutions won’t work.

So here is my take away from all this

• The cause of this problem is SIN, and this affects ALL humanity
• Addressing only the symptoms the way this news clip does, could create a two class society, US who are not part of the problem, but who have ideas on how to address it, and THEM who are the problem or are those who are currently trying to fix it.
• Jesus Christ is the Answer to the problem, not a denomination or a church, but a personal saving relationship with the Lord of the Universe
• The Christian must persevere in sharing the Good News in the wake of such tragedies, realizing that God is not absent from our grief

Tragedies will continue to happen:  that is a fact.

How will you respond, Christian?

-Michael