Who Are "They"

My keyboard has been mostly quiet about the Sandy Hook massacre. Initially I needed time to deal with the sadness that overwhelmed me as this story continued to unfold. Next I wanted time to try and understand the full impact of this terrible event. Not only this horrific mass killing, but I was also thinking of the others we all heard about in 2012. The rampage in Aurora, Colorado, six killed at a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, and the multiple killings at a Minneapolis factory; so many died, so much sadness and so many unanswered questions.

The actions of just four men had life changing and life ending consequences for so many innocent people. Andrew Engeldinger, Wade Michael Page, James Holmes and Adam Lanza are names that a collective America should never have known, but we do and now will never forget them. Just as we haven’t forgotten names like Jeffrey Weise, Seung-Hui Cho, Nidal Malik Hasan and Jennifer Sanmarco. There are at least one hundred and ten names of those that were killed, but sadly I can’t tell you any of their names. Eight killers, more than one hundred dead, it would appear that the killers are in the minority. And yet it is their names we remember. Do you remember Mark Gabour? What about Charles Whitman?  Whitman was a mass murderer in 1966, forty-six years ago, but his name still haunts the halls of the University of Texas. Mark Gabour was one of Whitman’s victims, he was sixteen years old. Mark’s name would fall in the majority, one of the fourteen killed. Whitman’s, the one shooter, is in the minority, yet it is Whitman whom we remember.

Everyone I have spoken with about the Sandy Hook killings share similar feelings of sadness, sorrow, anger and uncertainty. I have not met a single person who thought otherwise of this horrific event. An overwhelming, nay, perfect majority of common thought and distress has occurred.

Theories behind the murderous rampage of Adam Lanza vary slightly. People want an answer; if one is not obvious then we tend to place the blame on “They”. Who is “They”? Some will naturally want to place blame on the lack of stricter gun legislation; in this case “They” would be politicians. Then there are those that would like to believe that evil, hate-filled video games were the catalyst, “They’ being the big corporations that produce the violent games. And then there are those who believe that the lack of a moral compass is the cause of such destructive behavior. “They” in this case is anyone, individual or corporate, who have corrupted our nation with agnostic theorem.  If we look at each of these we find that they all could be culprits, each having a history to validate them as conceptual cause. But even so their impact and history are so very small, almost immeasurable, to blame any of these minor players is a sign of desperation for answers.

You don’t have to look far to see that stricter gun legislation rarely if ever actually reduces crime, on the contrary it may actually increase gun-related crimes. Millions and millions of young teenaged minds play violent-laden video games every minute of every day; the overwhelming majority does not turn into mass murderers.

Are we lacking a moral compass? I don’t think so. It may be broken, but not beyond repair. Every year around this time, I will read an article about how many people believe in God, or how many call them self a Christian. The percentages are always high, well above 51%, the majority marker, a number that would not be achievable if no moral compass existed.

This time of year we are also more apt to hear from those that we look to for spiritual guidance. Whether that is on a local level, like the pastors of our own church, or on a larger level from men like Franklin Graham, Max Lucado, Pope Benedict, and Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, men and women who possess the boldness to point the compass in the right direction by pointing out what is wrong, leaders who inspire and influence with their words and actions. But even combined these spiritual leaders would number in the minority.

Let me recap:

  Mass murderers               Minority with major impact

 
Reasons that spawn mass murders, (laws, video games, etc.) Minority with insignificant impact

 Spiritual Leaders              Minority with minimal impact

So if the majority believes that our nation is on a path of self-destruction and that a compass correction is in order, why do stories like that of Sandy Hook come too often?

Because of a Silent Majority! 52 Sundays a year we gather together in a place of worship to talk about the dangerous path we are walking as a nation. We cry together and we pray together. And then we leave together. By Monday morning we have forgotten together. If not forgotten, then we are collectively silent together. We trust that the church leaders are keeping watch on the world and there is nothing we need to do. We squelch our outrage, table our opinions, and begin another work week hoping that “that sort of thing never happens here.”

Who is the Silent Majority? You, and you and you. We no longer have the luxury of being silent about what is good and what is right. It is time to stand up and take back our schools, our movie theaters, our factories and churches. It is time to tell the enemy, “Get out, get help, and get God.”

Will you stand up? Or will we all sit around waiting to see who will?  

Silently.