It's been another peaceful week in the good ol' US of A with mass murders in Texas and Florida. Driving home tonight I was listening to "All Things Considered" on NPR. One individual, who worked with the Army psychiatrist who killed 13, described him as a doctor who took good care of his patients, but that "sometimes people make bad choices". I'm sure that the families of the dead and wounded will take great comfort in knowing that it was just a "bad choice" that led to the carnage.
One of C.S. Lewis' oft quoted quotes is, "We laugh at Honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate, and bid the geldings be fruitful." And so we train our professional,s as well as our young, in considering murder, theft and rape in the psychobabble of "bad choices". From before they can read our children's lesson is: We are created from chaos, by accident and our destiny is oblivion. For some reason, unknown to those teachers, we are to behave and have meaningful lives between these two bookends of nothingness. Then follows the shock (shock!) when the massacres ensue.
"If Chance be the Father of all flesh,
Disaster is his rainbow in the sky.
And when you hear,
`State Of Emergency!'
`Sniper Kills Ten!'
`Youths Go Looting!'
`Bomb Blasts School!'
It is but the sound of man worshipping his maker."
- Steve Turner