I find this video kind of sickening, but I share it to show that it’s not just gun control people using the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting to support their agenda. To say that God is allowing school shootings in some passive-aggressive way to “get back into schools” is RIDICULOUS. God did not do this. A psychopath did. I find it despicable that people are preying upon the fears and anger that always boil up in the wake of these incidents, making these tragedies into political tools. It only serves to further drive a wedge between people in our nation.
Friends, please don’t give into the media frenzy that would have you start fights with friends and family about gun control or walk around in fear for your lives and the lives of loved ones, despairing about “what’s happening to our country”.
My friend, Marc, wrote an incredibly insightful note on Facebook. He pointed out that people seem to forget that Satan is real and that he is actively waging war against us every day. If anyone is at the heart of the attack on Sandy Hook Elementary beyond the man who actually committed the act, it’s Satan. In whispering twisted thoughts in this poor man’s ear, convincing him that he had no other option than to kill his own mother, more than 20 kids, several other human beings, and finally himself, Satan didn’t just snuff out their lives. He sent ripples of terror through our nation that have since evolved into other caustic emotions.
While the deaths of the people in that school are a terrible loss, we have to realize that more than anything, our country needs level heads and lots of prayer. That was true before Friday’s shooting, that was true before the shootings at Columbine, and it will be true 50 years from now.
That is a rather disturbing theory in the video. I also think that people have a very twisted idea of what is and isn’t allowed in schools, religion-wise. If teachers want to pray for the protection of their children before class, no law stops them from doing that privately on their own at home, on the drive in to work, or silently during class while kids are working on projects. Does prayer have more effect if it is spoken allowed? Of course not!
And students’ rights go much further. If students want to pray as they enter the building, before lunch, or before a test, they are also welcome to do so. And, if the school allows non-school-affiliated clubs or organizations (such as the Boy Scouts) to use the facilities at all, that school must also allow students to use the building for prayer meetings or Bible studies, so long as it doesn’t disrupt classes. AND the school must allow the same rights for advertising within the school (so if the Boy Scouts hang posters, so can the prayer meeting kids). That’s why events like See You At the Pole can happen freely.
One of my greatest pet peeves is when Christians don’t understand the law about religion in schools and then complain about things being illegal that they are in fact allowed to do. We haven’t kicked God out of schools. We’ve only kicked him out of curriculum, and that’s far different.
And if God doesn’t go where he’s not wanted, what on earth was he doing meeting Saul on the road to Damascus?
Ali, good points all around. I agree that people (both Christians and otherwise) tend to get lazy and spout off rhetoric that they’ve heard broadcast without doing their due diligence to check the facts. I do believe that corporate prayer that is spoken aloud is more powerful than a single person’s silent prayer. See Matthew 18:19-20. It doesn’t specifically say that they have to be speaking aloud, but that’s generally how humans communicate ;). Having said that, I think you’re right to point out that teachers can certainly pray by themselves still and should see no repercussions for doing so.
Thanks very much for your comment, Ali!