The scenario has become all too familiar. This time, it was a group of people worshipping God on a Sunday morning in a small town outside of San Antonio, TX.
You’ve heard the news: 26 people, ranging in age from 5-72, were murdered by a gunman who entered the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, TX., and opened fire. At least 19 others were hospitalized.
Only the location is new; it’s happened too many times before: at a concert in Las Vegas; a nightclub in Orlando; a school (Sandy Hook Elementary) in Newtown, Connecticut; a prayer meeting in Charleston, South Carolina. I could mention more: Aurora, Blacksburg, seemingly every night in Chicago.
What distinguishes the massacre in Texas from the others is that it occurred in a rural community of about 400. The church attendance was around 150.
The reality begins to sink in: NO ONE, ANYWHERE, is safe from this kind of tragedy.
I listened to the news coverage the day after the shooting.
The news show hostesses were interviewing a lady who lives across the street from the scene of the shooting. She talked about how she he had heard what she thought at first were firecrackers, then realized there was a shooting at the church, cried out to her husband, called 911, saw the shooter walk back into the church, and finally witnessed the horrific aftermath.
It was frightening, “for it to be that close to home,” the lady said.
Yes, she is right, it should make all of us feel uneasy, “for it to be that close to home.” It’s not just people in nightclubs, or concerts, schools, or churches in larger cites; it’s people in rural communities, in smaller houses of worship, across the heartland.
In our armed and dangerous culture, everyone needs to be on guard. No longer can we say (in reality, could we ever?) “Those awful things only happen in larger places where there’s more likelihood of deranged people doing something like that.”
Isn’t it time that we do something? Or has the frequency of these shootings numbed us to their evil, their danger?
After offering condolences to the neighbor who witnessed the Sutherland Springs shooting, one of the show’s hostesses offered condolences and then quickly transitioned, “And now, switching gears, let’s turn to the weather.”
She was not being insensitive; it’s not for the news media to stop and morn.
But is her response becoming typical of us? Do we simply pause, express brief condolences, then switch gears, and move on?
Have we become so inured to these tragedies that we do nothing in response?
I wish I had a solution to the prevention of such horrific events.
Better, more effective gun laws? We can work for that. But It seems that those who are determined to kill, somehow have a way of obtaining the weapons they want.
I do know that I would feel safer in a worship service knowing there are a number of designated people in the congregation, individuals who are part of a security team and have obtained permit to carry a hand gun, and are trained to protect the rest of us from a crazed killer.
But I also want people to come to church to worship, and not to look around with raised eyebrows at any suspicious stranger who enters the church building.
Some have to watch, I suppose, so that others can pray.
And therein is the best response we can make: prayer, prayer for love to prevail, prayer for love to win, and it will in the end. I am confident of that.
We must do something.
Or else we will be caught in a continual scenario of stopping, grieving for a moment, and then switching gears and moving on.