Contributing Factors to the Violence in Our Land
The recent shootings in El Paso, TX, and Dayton, OH, remind us again that times have changed. The world is more violent than it was when I was a boy. People put no value on human life. Since 1973, abortions have been made legal in this country and many millions of babies have been murdered. On the streets of our cities, especially the large ones, murders have increased each year. The senseless killing of innocent lives is beyond our ability to comprehend. Such killing of the innocent seems to be a regular occurrence. I recall the deranged man who went up into the tower at the University of Texas many years ago, and with a rifle was picking off individuals passing by. That was rare. Now we are seeing men entering schools, malls, Walmarts, church buildings, theaters, with assault weapons gunning down innocent people. It is hard to understand. I do believe there are contributing factors that enter into the minds of these deranged people. I want to list a few of these factors. I am not giving any special order in listing these reasons.
The impact that Hollywood has had on the minds of many has played a significant role in gun violence in this country. Hollywood extolls violence in their movies. One can say, “Well, they are just movies or just a television show;” however, the least they do is harden our senses to killing. Sometimes, one cannot tell the good guys from the bad guys. It is the height of hypocrisy for a man or woman to make violent movies, then turn around and talk about the need for gun control, etc.
Violent games that the young (and some not so young) play promote violence. One who spends his time playing violent video games has to be affected by it. I do not even know the names of these games, but I have seen them advertised on television.
Songs influence society. They may reflect society, but they also influence our world. Songs that glorify violence—murder, rape, etc., encourage those who listen and watch the videos. They desensitize the listeners to violence. The statement: Let me write the songs of the nation, and I care not who writes the laws, has been attributed to different ones. It makes no difference who said it. The fact is music plays a powerful influence in our lives. What we think is what we will become. If we view or listen to violence, we will think about violence. Thinking leads to action. Solomon wrote, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Jesus said, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For our of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man” (Matthew 15:18-20).
Hateful rhetoric contributes to a violent world. That is just what the devil wants. People need to stop it—from the highest office in the land to the man on the street; it needs to stop. The adage that sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me may be true in one sense, but they can do irreparable damage and cause great harm. Solomon said, “A soft answer turneth away wrath: But grievous words stir up anger” (Proverbs 15:1). Again, we read, “The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly” (Proverbs 26:22).
It is my judgment the theory of evolution has played a significant role in the violence in this world. If a man is merely a higher form of an animal, not made in the image of God, what difference would it make if one killed a cow, a cockroach, or if he killed a man? However, “God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:26-27). Man is a threefold being: body, soul, and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The sanctity of life is not valued by many today.
Another contributing factor to the violence in our land is the removal of the Bible from society. It is not taught in the home; it is scant in many churches; it has been erased from our schools. This has created a vacuum in the world. Moses Lard made this comment in his masterpiece on Romans: “Had God kept silent in regard to sin, and never communicated with man upon it, in the form of law defining what things are sins, the conception of sin would never have been in the human mind” (229). The further that we get from the Bible, the less we know about right and wrong. The standard of right and wrong is God’s word, not society, nor one’s feelings, nor the majority of the people. The Psalmist said, “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Psalm 19:8). I remember sister Kemp, a longtime Bible teacher of little children and the wife of one of our elders, both of whom have passed to their reward. But she would have the children quote Ephesians 6:1 and emphasized the last part of the verse: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.” It is right to obey one’s parents! The people in Isaiah’ day did not want to hear right things. So, God said to Isaiah: “Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: which say to the seers, see not; and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits” (Isaiah 30:8-10).
We must also consider the failure to execute the murderers speedily. Solomon wrote, “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). I believe men ought to be given a fair trial, but when there are many witnesses to the murderous attack, it is right to punish the perpetrator in a timely fashion. The appeals process takes too long. And if we had public executions, it might deter others from the dastardly, despicable, deathly deeds that some are committing. God said, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man” (Genesis 9:6). IT will always be right for civil government to put to death the murderer (cf. Romans 13:1-7).
A recognition of reckoning day coming would also cause some to rethink their actions. Paul wrote, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
Ben Vick
Indianapolis, IN
11 August 2019