In the immediate wake of the Newtown tragedy; one that the mind cannot really grasp or understand, social media has of course, been the place for people to vent, process and discuss things in real time.
As this has unfolded, in the midst of beautiful and eloquent expressions of sadness, love and prayer, I have seen a pattern of posts from Christians, that I find odd, hurtful, or downright dangerous…
1) The Grief Police Warnings.
Facebook and Twitter have been filled with posts saying something to the effect of “Now is the time to grieve, NOT to talk about gun control”. These posts show an incredible insensitivity toward the act of grieving.
Grief is incredibly personal. No one experiences it the same the way, and there is no “correct” way to walk through it. As everyone reacts to this horrible, senseless mess, and tries to cope with the unimaginable, there will be all sorts of responses…
Some will turn to prayer.
Some will question the condition of this world.
Some will scream obscenities.
Some will want guns banned immediately.
Some will urge people to run to Jesus.
Some will say it’s time to confront mental illness.
Some will lose hope.
Some will find reason to hope.
Just what statement are we making about God; that because this country has certain laws regarding prayer in schools, that He allowed a mass murder to take place? Are we saying that God punished Newtown’s innocent children because of our government’s decisions?
Furthermore, are we claiming that God relies upon our consent in order to be God; as if He just sat outside Sandy Hook Elementary on Friday morning, saying, “I’d really love to help, but you’ve said I can’t go in!” Just what kind of God are we claiming to believe in, and just how petty and powerless is He?
God doesn’t inhabit buildings, He inhabits people, and we have already seen, through the stories of almost unfathomable courage and selflessness coming from teachers and school staff, that God was absolutely present in them and through them. To say God has been “kept out of schools” is an insult to their heroism and faith.
If you’re Christian and you want to wrestle with the much bigger and much more complex question of the existence of a loving God in the presence of such evil, do so, but don’t act like God is some hired handyman, waiting for us to sign-off so that He can do his thing.
3) The “This Country Needs Jesus” Posts.
I simply don’t understand what this means, and I’m a Pastor. The shooter needed Jesus, yes.
The disturbed mind, so tortured by circumstances and desensitized by anger, that it would conceive and approve of such horror and suffering inflicted upon innocent people? Yes, that mind needed to understand something it apparently could not. That soul needed saving.
But to throw out some easy, oversimplified platitude about America needing Jesus, is just, well, insufficient. Christians believe that God can change hearts, that He can transform lives, but He does that just as He did when he walked the world 2,000 years ago; one person at a time. He doesn’t wave a magic wand over cities or countries.
America does not need Jesus. Individual Americans do. I do. You do.
None of these responses are delivered with malice or intentional injury, but they do point to a sometimes shaky theology, and an insensitivity to comprehend the magnitude of suffering out there.
Right now you may be thinking: “So John, how SHOULD Christians respond to all of this, then?”
Lord, I wish I knew…
Pray, listen, allow people to grieve as they will, bear with every hidden or expressed agenda as people process, be honest about the questions this brings for you as a believer.
And lastly, consider where Jesus would be in the aftermath of all this pain and sadness, and then, as best you can… go there.
