Why Government Leaders Ignore the Root Causes of Violence

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Every time a mass shooting occurs in the U.S., our government leaders rise to the occasion by proclaiming the need for change. Those who are sincere will usually push hard for gun control while ignoring the root causes that have brought such sickness upon our society.

Why are our politicians so slow to look at the real issues? There are times when gazing into a mirror can be very unsettling.

In examining the Scriptures we find that the primary problem with human nature is an innate desire to be like God apart from God. This defining drive of the human heart finds its expression through three primary roots—self-centeredness, the lust for power and control, and a constant yearning for self-glorification. All three fallen tendencies drive the world of politics, but rather than potentially implicating themselves by addressing the real issues, our leaders and legislators will look for any scapegoat to deflect the attention from their own shortcomings. It is all simply a matter of human nature.

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I share these thoughts not as a disgruntled American full of disdain for our government leaders, but as a Christian who fully recognizes that these self-absorbed tendencies are common to the entire human race. If ours is a government for the people and by the people, at least to some degree, our government leaders serve as a reflection of the general populace.

All of this brings us to yet another factor in the rise of gun violence in the United States—the declining influence of a vital Christian Church in America. I cannot agree with those conservative historians who try to paint virtually all of our Founding Fathers as devoted Christians, but I can say that the men who fought for freedom from tyranny and who framed our Constitution were profoundly influenced by Christianity.

The First Great Awakening was a move of the Holy Spirit that changed the fabric of the American colonies in the 1730s and 40s. That experience, combined with longtime frustration with authoritarian monarchies, deeply impacted the hearts of America’s 2.4 million residents. The result was a new form of democracy replete with freedoms of all sorts, including an emphasis on the freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, and, of course, the freedom of religious practice.

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Even though the Founding Fathers may not have all been Christians, they all lived in a culture that had been colored by the Christian faith. The result was an ideal—the belief that if all pursued the greater good, they could build a society like none other. In the process, men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington established a system of checks and balances to protect this new ideal from the self-absorbed tendencies of human nature. Almost amazingly, the social experiment that we call the United States of America worked quite well until the moral influence of a vital Christian Church began to wane. With the decline of the Church came the lifting of the societal standards which stood against self-centeredness, the lust for power and control, and the constant yearning for self-glorification. Human nature, in other words, has become increasingly free to run its course. And just as it was when Cain killed his brother Abel, grief, tears, and extreme heartache are now our lot.

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Again, I want to be clear that my primary criticism is not of our government but of the Church at large in the U.S. Non-Christians will do what non-Christians will do—and all the more so without the steadying influence of a vibrant Christian Church. For those who profess Christ, we are now left with a choice. We can whine and complain and lament the loss of what once was, or we can lift up our heads, bow our knees, and pursue Christ with our whole hearts. Instead of being selfish, we can walk in love. Instead of seeking power and control, we can seek the advance of God’s kingdom. Instead of seeking our own glory, we can proclaim His through both word and lifestyle.

Will we be able to turn our nation back to the point where freedom truly thrives? In all honesty, I don’t know. But I do know that one life fully surrendered to the King of Glory can have a powerful impact on the lives of untold others. If even one potential mass murderer is won to Christ, not only is his life saved, the lives of all of his potential victims are also spared.

No matter who you are and no matter what your status, if you are truly alive in Christ, you will make a profound difference in the lives of others. What better legacy can we leave for our children, grandchildren, and the others who follow after us?

The Mystery of Violence Revealed

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World peace! It is a vision long held by many. Each New Year, it seems, we try to cast off the violence of the previous year like a dog trying to shake off water. Unfortunately, dogs are much more effective in their drying off efforts than we are in our quest to eliminate conflict between humans. Why is peace so elusive? Either we don’t understand the root issues of conflict, or we don’t care enough to change our behavior.

Did you know that Cain’s murder of his brother Abel was not the first act of violence recorded in the Bible? Somewhere in the recesses of time–or perhaps before time began–the greatest of angels, the one we call Lucifer, attempted a violent coup against the Creator of the Universe.

How you have fallen from heaven,
O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations!
But you said in your heart,
“I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.” Isaiah 14:12-14

Three particular aspects of this attempted coup are extremely relevant for our purposes:

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1. Lucifer repeatedly uses “I” to define his self-centered quest. Mysteriously, while God willingly receives worship, He is not self-centered. Always motivated by love and compassion for others, the life of Christ serves as evidence of God’s other-centered heart.

2. Lucifer also adds the word “will” to each of his five uses of “I”. Thus, one of his primary goals is for power and control.

3. Lucifer’s ultimate goal is to be like the Most High (the King of Glory), to lift himself up above all others.

When Adam and Eve fell prey to the serpent’s temptation in the Garden of Eden, they inherited the same  three tendencies which collectively form what we call pride. (I sometimes call it “C-pride” or “collective pride”.) It should stand as no surprise, then, that Cain, the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, murdered his younger brother due to nothing more than jealousy. The rest, unfortunately, is history. Since that fateful day in the Garden, human activity has always been beset with violent sexual assaults, murders, and wars of all kinds.

I have written about much of this in the past, but it bears repeating in light of recent mass shootings in the U.S. When someone mercilessly kills 20 first-grade children, as happened at Sandy Hook Elementary, something is desperately wrong. But something has been desperately wrong almost from the beginning of time as we know it. Even societies that have all appearances of peace are not that far from being immersed in conflict. Like a virus waiting for an immune system to be compromised, the violent tendencies of human nature need only time and opportunity to fully run their course.

Really, only two options are possible for the violence to cease:

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1. We remove various layers of freedom until an authoritarian government removes all potential weapons of resistance and forces its citizens to get along. Of course, the very real danger is that the authoritarian regime will itself be violent, subjecting its people to all sorts of cruelty and injustice.

2. We provide people with freedom but change their hearts so that they are motivated by love rather than selfish hatred. Herein lies the foundation for a truly prosperous society, but eliminating the selfish, self-exalting tendencies of the human heart is no simple matter. Real change requires much more than wishful thinking.

Unfortunately, in our self-absorbed world, freedom eventually leads to moral decay, giving way to violence in the end. At the other end of the spectrum, those revolutionaries who rise up to break the grip of an oppressive regime will almost always become the oppressors themselves.

In prophesying the birth of Jesus, Isaiah called Him the “Prince of Peace”. As a revolutionary, Jesus rebelled against the oppressive, self-absorbed establishment, but He broke their power in a thoroughly mysterious manner. By suffering unjustly Himself, Jesus Christ provided the antidote for each of the root causes of violence. We call that antidote the Gospel.

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I, too, really would like to see world peace. In my upcoming posts I will highlight how the Gospel truly is the only lasting cure for deadly virus of violence, but until then, I want to wish you all a happy New Year! My hope is that it won’t be a year that goes to the dogs!

Parenting 101

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A good friend recently had a significant issue and failed to inform me. The nerve of the guy! Didn’t he know that I was there to help? It made no sense to keep me—a good, supportive friend—out of the loop. It may take a while for me to get over this offense!

Do you see it? A scenario like this provides an excellent illustration of our human tendency toward self-centeredness. The situation was not, and should never have been, about ME. And yet, as with all of us, there exists within my heart a deep drive that ever attempts to make the world revolve around ME.

There are those who would argue that original sin is nothing more than a doctrine invented by religious people intent on controlling the lives of others. However, in the end that argument only lends support to the idea that such narcissistic tendencies are universal. We all want to be in control!

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In all my life I have never met a child who was not self-centered by nature. If you question this, I simply suggest that you get yourself invited to a birthday party with a group of two-year olds. Without parental influence, the majority of these “MINE” parties would surely end in all-out war.

Personally knowing God’s amazing love for us as individuals is essential to a healthy perspective on life, but it is only a first step. For us to grow to maturity, there must be, by necessity, a process by which our self-centered compulsions are put to death. Christianity’s answer to this problem is love—not just knowing God’s love for us, but also learning to extend His unconditional love to others. Knowing His love first is what makes us capable of loving others, but, Christianity is never ultimately about US. None of this works very well if we fail to extend genuine love to God and others.

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Is there any other arena in life where self-deception is so tempting and so prevalent? Human nature displays incredible skill in justifying its own self-centeredness—usually by focusing on what I deserve and what they don’t. I deserve to be treated with understanding and respect. They are, of course, worthy of my righteously imposed judgment because of their failure to live up to my expectations—the standards by which the entire world should be bound.

A wise parent is one who unconditionally loves his or her child without creating a self-centered monster in the process. Far too many homes are mistakenly child-centered when they should be Christ-centered. Debi and I told our kids many years ago, “We love you dearly and are thrilled to have you in our home, but this family is by no means about YOU.” Based on the overall character of our now-grown children, I tend to think that we were on the right track with our parenting plan.

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As the perfect parent, our heavenly Father knows exactly what He is doing in molding and shaping our lives. Unfortunately, we often ignore the full counsel of God. I find this to be particularly true of the general manner in which the western church presents the Gospel. The unfortunate result is a large percentage of professing Christians who innately feel that heaven revolves around THEM. A world full of big MEs presents a huge PROBLEM.

Love is never a bad theme for discussion, so it will be the focus of my next few posts. Regardless of how long we walk this earth, none of us will ever outgrow our need to pick up our crosses, deny ourselves and grow in love.

The Center of His Universe

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Some scientists say that only about 4% of the universe is visible to us. That means that even with our most powerful telescope, around 96% of the Universe remains out of our view—although we don’t exactly know how much because we can’t truly know what lies where no one has ever been.

Inside of our ever-expanding Universe we find no fewer than 100 billion galaxies and possibly as many as 500 billion. Each galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars. Again, these numbers are uncertain, but what do a few hundred billion stars matter?

Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is about 100,000—120,000 light years in diameter and contains 200–400 billion stars. Of course, we don’t know the exact numbers because we are on one of the outer bands of the Milky Way and it would take more time than any of us has to explore its entire expanse.

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Our own Solar System used to contain 9 planets, but we aren’t quite sure anymore and nobody has been able to get out there on the perimeter to take a good look around. Within our Solar System, the third planet from the Sun, the one that we call Earth, now has a population of over 7 billion people.

In considering the immensity of our Universe (if indeed ours is the only one), the numbers of galaxies and stars, and the number of people that walk this planet, it seems odd that any of us could ever be self-centered, and yet, self-centered we are. Every single one of us.

Lest you think that you alone are selfless among all Earthlings, tell me that you never hid your favorite desert in the back of the refrigerator so that some other human (that you profess to love) would not be able to find and eat it.

If my voice goes unheard or my new look unnoticed, I am offended. If my friends get together but don’t call me, I am offended. If no one acknowledges my birthday, I am offended. Are you any different?

A quote from the Institute of Physics web page says that “If you hold up a grain of sand, the patch of sky it covers contains 10,000 galaxies.”[1] What an illustration! From such a view, we feel huge and those galaxies small, but it is all a very distorted perspective.

Herein lies our struggle as humans. Intuitively we understand that each of us is infinitesimal in the grand scope of time and space, but the cry of our hearts demands significance—and not only significance, but centrality. My flesh expects a small Universe to revolve around a large ME. Call it an entitlement mentality or narcissism or whatever you will, but the bottom line is us.  If we recognize the reality of our smallness and think that nobody cares about us, hopelessness burdens our souls to the point of death.

Ours is an interesting dilemma—one which human reasoning promises to solve. But its solutions never deliver. Once again the Gospel of Jesus Christ provides the only real hope for the human condition. Our salvation lies in personally knowing God’s unconditional love and in extending that love to others. Love is what makes us great.

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Considering that same small grain of sand that covers 10,000 galaxies when held to the sky, let’s turn our attention to how many grains we might find on the Earth. One square cubic inch of sand contains about 300,000 grains. Put that in the scope of just one beach and once again we find ourselves dealing with mind-boggling numbers.

The context of Psalm 139 tells us that God’s thoughts toward us outnumber all of those grains of sand. Freeing is the best way to describe the effect of even beginning to comprehend this reality. It may not make logical sense, but knowing by faith that we are at the center of God’s Universe helps to free us from our compulsive self-centeredness.

Psalm 139:13-18 (ESV)

¹³ For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.

 

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[1] http://www.physics.org/facts/sand-galaxies.asp

Every Person a God = Every Day a Conflict

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Maryland blue crabs are crazy, ravenous creatures! Throw anything that resembles food into the water and they swarm to the location, consuming what they can while jostling for position. In their eyes, they are the bottom line—Numero Uno. No one else matters. And when threatened in any way, those pain-inflicting pinchers aggressively come up in defense. It makes perfect sense that the word “crab” is synonymous for mean and crotchety.

The thing about crabs is that they don’t get along especially well with one another. If you happen to see locals out catching crabs, you’ll notice that they often use bushel baskets. After catching more than one ornery crustacean, they don’t worry about putting the lid back on the basket, even though the last thing they want is for a crab to latch on to their toes. Every time that a crab tries to climb out of that basket, you can be sure than another will pull it back in.

Any crab with a brain would conspire with the others to work out an escape plan. They’d need only to allow one to reach the rim of the basket, giving a slight heave ho to help the others out. And the crabbers? Their feet would soon be mincemeat! It won’t happen, of course, because crabs don’t grasp the concepts of honoring others or seeking the common good. Every crab is its own god.

When Adam and Eve fell prey to the zombie conspiracy by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were looking after their own interests. When they attempted to redirect blame for their own actions, they were putting themselves first. When they hid in the shadows in shame, neither was concerned about the welfare of the other. Desiring to be like God apart from God is all about looking out for Number One—i.e. self-deification.

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In spite of claims to the contrary, there can only be one Number One. Fans will always prefer a sudden death playoff over co-champions. A tie is never sufficient, for glory and power are not easily shared. That’s just the way it is.

When each living human seeks to be the center of the universe, conflict is the result. When each living human seeks to control his/her own life and the lives of others, conflict is the result. When each living human climbs higher in a personal quest for glory above all others, you guessed it, conflict is the result. As these things happen on the playing field, we call it entertainment. It is nothing short of tragic, however, when real life is marred by discord and violence.

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We may sound a universal cry for peace, but it will never happen without violating someone’s free will, for the will never ceases to lift itself above all others. In a world where every person is a god you can be sure that every day will carry a conflict. Increasing measures of narcissism (self-deification) in our cultures means increased contention. As a result, the only way to enable people to get along is by passing more laws in an attempt to govern outward behavior.

Only the true Gospel of Jesus Christ can truly free us from our narcissistic tendencies without destroying our freedom in the process. A humanistic gospel, on the other hand, will be characterized by anti-virtues such as elitism, control, and contention; making life just plain crabby.

Personally, I have tasted the peace of the Gospel and I can’t help but find myself longing for more.

The Perfect Bond of Disunity

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I recently angered someone by a comment I made. I’m sure you’ve done it too. I certainly wouldn’t compare the experience to a pleasant summer day. More like a gray, ominous thunderhead consuming the skyline!

Ironically, my goal was to help foster a closer relationship by finally dealing with a few issues that had been simmering under the surface for years. Seemed like a reasonable idea to me. My 20-20 hindsight now tells me that in this situation my hope was nothing more than a wisp of wishful thinking.

These types of conflicts simply add more bricks to the walls that separate us from each other, but the stones that form the wall’s foundations are usually identity related, especially when cemented together by insecurity.

“And beyond all of these things put on insecurity, which is the perfect bond of disunity!” Colossians 3:14 (SCV)[1]

Why is it that so often we equate disapproval with rejection? Insecurity! Through the eyes of insecurity we view any type of disapproval as a complete rejection of our personhood. “If you don’t like something I’m doing, then it’s obvious that you don’t like me or want to be with me.”

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Can you imagine what the world of professional sports would look like if all athletes carried this mindset? There would be no one on the team–all of our beautiful tax payer funded stadiums would lie empty! A key factor in a player making a team is teachability. If they are willing to be corrected, they are willing to improve their game. Of course, if the game is already perfect, there can be no room for improvement.

As grown-ups can we not embrace the fact that disapproval should not be equated with rejection? I can accept you as a friend (just like I hope you would accept me) even if I disapprove of particular aspects of your behavior.

When we view ourselves through the gray lens of insecurity we simply cannot accept the specific realities of our imperfection. Oh, we might occasionally utter a general, “I’m so imperfect” sigh, but when a coach (or a leader or a friend or a family member, etc.) tries to correct something specific, it quickly becomes a threat to our fragile existence.

Small-minded, self-centered thinking keeps us from realizing that true love is bigger than our imperfections. If I can only love those who meet my standards, then I incorrectly assume that no one will love me if I don’t meet all of their standards. News flash! The kingdom of God does not operate by the same principles that drive the world around us!

Having wrestled with insecurity for much of my life, I now consider it to be a self-centered, evil force that can have no welcome place in the heart of a Christian. Insecurity, when befriended, distorts all rational and objective thought, making healthy relationships virtually impossible.

Thankfully, insecurity is not an unchangeable personality trait! The process may take time, but as we surrender our insecurities to God, He is able to build within us an unshakeable foundation for strong and healthy relationships.

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[1] SCV – Self-Centered Version