Societal Responsibility-Our role in the Connecticut tragedy

Today I saw a status update on Facebook that stated the following:

"In addition to mourning the dead, I am reminded of what one woman said upon hearing that Martin Luther King was murdered: "I mourn society. We live in a sick society".  Obviously the lion share of guilt is with the young man who perpetrated this great crime. But we, contributing members of society, share blame for shaping a society that increasingly fosters and tolerates the conditions/teaching/morals that make this behavior more likely". 

This author stated so perfectly what I'd been wanting to say ever since I first learned of the horrific tragedy that took place in Connecticut. While there is most definitely a personal responsibility that has to be taken, we have to also question what we as a society played into it. For starters, in our attempt to vilify this type of tragedy, we actually turn him into some sort of a hero. His name is plastered everywhere, around the world! In an article in the New York Times, it was statedd by a neighbor "Who are they? I'm sure we rang their doorbell on Halloween". Because of this tragedy, everyone now knows who Adam Lanza is. People who likely mocked Adam while in school, called him 'different' or 'odd' (there are now reports that he may have had Asperger's Syndrome) now see his name everywhere. 

How many of us even know our neighbors? We don't live in the Leave it to Beaver days where everyone was watering their grass at the same time and the kids were in the streets riding bikes. We are so full of privacy fences and even fear of our next door neighbor. We come home and isolate ourselves on the inside of our houses and don't know the names of those around us, let alone what their life is like, where they work, their kids names or ages or anything else about them. There is a sense of community that needs to happen again. When people don't belong to a community, they eventually snap. We are not created to be isolated beings!



Next, we have a society that is constantly looking at media that is full of violence. We see graphic ways of killing people, blowing up cars, or causing mass hysteria. After awhile, a mind that is already altered due to drugs, alcohol or mental illness can't tell what is fact and what is fiction. The subconscious mind becomes powerful and blurs between subconscious and conscious mind.  We hear rap songs of rape and murder. We play video games full of violence. MILLIONS of dollars are made in sensationalizing these types of activities. The same people in Hollywood screaming the loudest about gun control, are the ones who are staring in these movies and making millions of dollars at our expense.

Third, we are a nation that simply can't turn away. We are all voyeurs at our core. If we see an accident on the side of the road, most of us (myself included) have to look at we pass and somehow construe in our minds what must have taken place in those final seconds. We sit by our televisions watching every second of the news coverage. We see the small children paraded in front of the camera being asked for details, asked how they are coping and if they are ok. We hear the media saying that this is the '2nd most deadly school rampage', which now opens up the door for another broken person to try to accomplish being the #1. We've seen the small victims faces, with no privacy for their hurting families. We crave every last detail and feel that we deserve to know. We deserve none
 of the facts. The families, however, deserve to mourn and
grieve without cameras and news anchors in their faces. 

We also have a society of hurting people. How many of us reach out to those who are hurting, the homeless man on the street, the drug addict and alcoholic? These people all deserve love. We may never know the issues this man was facing or if he had been rejected by society, but what we CAN do is look at those around us, be more compassionate and learn to love others who are 'unworthy' of our love. This, after all, is the Great Commandment! 

Ronald Reagan stated "We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions". While there is truth in this, we are also only as strong as our weakest link. Yesterday, our weakest link at that moment was revealed. We rise or fall as a nation, not as individuals. 

As Christians, we are told to love and support the orphans and widows and to help the poor and needy. We are told to do as Jesus did, and he loved those who society rejected. Even if society rejects them, WE are to love them! We don't know what happened int his situation yet, but only a broken, hurting person could do something so violent and evil. I'm not saying that loving the broken is easy, but what IS easy is to blame one person instead of looking at how we as a society could have also contributed to this in some way. (I'm NOT referring to more gun laws here!) It's about how WE treat others. It's a Biblical principle that if we, especially as Christians, would learn, maybe things would be different. 

I pray that through this tragedy, we will take a look inside and become a more compassionate people, a people who are looking for the hurting and find a way to reach out to them instead of turn from.  Praying that through this tragedy, we will unite in ways we haven't united in the past, hold each other to higher standards and accountability and rise from these ashes a strong, united front for justice and goodness.