Catchphrases and
expressions we hear in passing stick in our memories. Such phrases might come from literature, scripts,
song lyrics, adages, punch lines, etc. Today
I was thinking about yesterday's mass shooting.
Dozens were gunned down in Texas inside their church. Men, women, many children. Suddenly, a line from a poem by Emily
Dickinson came to me: "This is my
letter to the World that never wrote to me." Perhaps to help me understand, if possible,
what might have been going on inside the head of the young male who made mass
murder and suicide his final statement on earth. I found myself thinking about other news as
well. Wars and rumors of wars. The Jewish American comedian who on national
TV the night before the mass shooting had made jokes about approaching a girl for
a date in a Nazi death camp. Then the
stories about the Hollywood big shots and actors, not to mention politicians,
who have been sexual predators for years, followed by all the political sludge
involving deal makers and foreign powers who have managed to influence public
opinion, thanks to Internet trolls, so that election campaigns can no longer be
taken at face value. Social media have
become an effective organ of propaganda. Even a popular pro-Trump blog, seemingly run
by a woman, turned out to be phony. I
could not overlook the worst of the news, obscene stories involving parents who
have harmed their own children. Choking
them on milk, duct taping them to the bed, beating them to death for not
knowing their Bible verses. One American
mother said to her husband a few days ago, "Babe, I shot the kids,"
an unintentional throwback to a movie title about shrinking the kids, not shooting
them. I'll stop the news review right here
and ask, rhetorically, what is happening today?
Where is this destructive impulse coming from in so many individuals,
not counting extremist terrorists? Is
madness catching? Or has this behavior been
inspired by pure Evil? I'm thinking of the
narcissistic gambler who fired on the concert crowd in Las Vegas and the
copycat who dressed all in black to kill Sunday churchgoers. Has Hollywood been sowing zombies? What with all the blood and guts. The serial killers. The evil clowns. Is some of this caused by too many video
games and not enough parental guidance?
But then, what about the parents?
Are they absent and/or stupefied?
To borrow a line from Pink Floyd, "The lunatic is in the hall."
Today as I considered the news, an
admonition came to mind. No, not
"Winter is coming," a popular new line in America, picked up from a
TV series, but rather, "an evil generation". I soon found the place in Matthew 16 where Jesus
says, rebuking the Pharisees and the Sadducees who came asking for a sign, "When evening comes, you say, 'The
weather will be fair, for the sky is red'; and in the morning, 'Today it will
be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the
appearance of the sky, but not the signs of the times! A wicked and adulterous generation demands a
sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." (Here Jesus was likely comparing Jonah's
three days in the whale's belly to the three days He would lie in the tomb.) A lot of people have been completely seduced
by technology, if not by arrogant atheists, into thinking that mankind no longer
needs religion. Some scientists in
Silicon Valley are preparing to replace religion with AI. Many are steering toward a whole new world religion. Some say that thanks to evolutionary science,
the notion of a Creator is irrelevant. We
have outgrown God, they think, refusing to understand that God is immeasurable,
too vast and too benevolent for anyone to describe with mere words. All the bad things happening these days are a
sign of the times, a clear signal that something is going very wrong with us. The Enemy is having a field day as modern
society slips into a bottomless pit. We do need God. Children need God. Teenagers need God. Adults need God. Are we part of a wicked and adulterous
generation? Expecting signs? Demanding them of the heavens lest we walk
away from our faith? If we ignore the writing
on the wall and fail to defend our one and only mighty fortress, then surely we
are not only complicit but also doomed. UN’AMERICANA A VENEZIA
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