Author Interests: Cultural Events that impact American History & 21st Century Christianity
by Dr. Toby K. Easley Since last weekend, law abiding Citizens of the United States watched in horror as evil played out before our very eyes in Las Vegas. Many families lives were changed forever as their loved ones were snatched out of this world by the ungodly act of a gunman who shot round after round until police arrived at his room. Since the tragic events unfolded, most freedom loving Americans knew exactly what the rhetoric and psychological angle of attack from politicians and gun control advocates would quickly take. First, in recent years, events like this immediately turn political. In other words, instead of focusing on this act being a problem of the individual heart that carried out the scene, the main question is what do we blame? Naturally, since the act was carried out with firearms, the guns unfortunately get blamed. This approach did not develop over night, but has developed as our society has turned over our human heart solutions to political policy and modern psychology. One of the trends that have taken root over many previous decades has been the popular thought pattern in psychology to find something or someone else to blame. This philosophical and psychological approach is consistently observed in many of the popular television series such as Criminal Minds and others. In most of the segments, the focus on the criminal mind is finding a past reason to blame for his or her psychological behavior. Naturally, most of the segments pinpoint a bad experience with religion, family, violence etc. Although bad experiences are an unfortunate aspect of life, what solutions to the human heart can psychological evaluation and blame actually resolve? These questions and answers will obviously be a source of conflict between theologians and psychologists throughout the remainder of human history. Naturally, as a Christian, my background and education is in theology. Consequently, I believe pinpointing the problem and evaluating acts of evil should not focus solely on the objects used, but the problem in the heart of the perpetrator. Furthermore, because we live in a society that either keeps at arms length Biblical truth and many completely reject it, the obvious is clear. Refusing to talk about sin and repentance forces the conversation to revolve around the previously bad experiences of deranged individuals and the objects they use in acts of violence. This psychological and modern political approach causes a cyclical argument that excludes the Biblical ideas every time events like this happen in our society. Consequently, having pushed out the Bible and the spiritual problems of the human heart, the idea of even discussing sin in the heart is labeled as antiquated and irrelevant. In this most recent tragedy in Las Vegas, the finger pointing has once again been directed at guns and trying to figure out some kind of psychological, political, and racial reason. However, when you look at the solution of blaming the objects used in the acts of violence, the logic used can be rather ludicrous. For example, because trucks have been used to run over people by terrorists in Europe, should we ban all trucks? Since criminals have used knives, crossbows, tire tools, bats, clubs, and other objects to kill people, should we remove all of these objects from society? Obviously for many logical and practical reasons the answer from most Americans is “no.” Wisely, the National Rifle Association today released a statement saying, "Banning guns from law-abiding Americans based on the criminal act of a madman will do nothing to prevent future attacks." However, the NRA statement did suggest a review by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE), to see if bump stocks comply with federal law. Formerly they were approved by (BATFE) under the Obama administration. The shoulder bump action on these devices causes the finger to rapid fire upon impact, giving the rifle fire the resemblance of a machine gun. The NRA is not compromising on guns and realizes that if you give politicians "an inch" on gun control, they will gladly "take a mile." The question then perhaps is, why are guns such a hot topic when these types of tragedies occur? I believe the answer revolves around the political and psychological objectives of those who want to continually hammer away at the 2nd Amendment rights of all Americans. The thought process is first of all reflected from the caricature spawned from the modern psychological blame game. As previously discussed in this blog, the secularists abandoned the Biblical ideas of sin, repentance, redemption, and God’s forgiveness through Christ decades ago. Therefore, the whole argument in their minds revolves within prisms of secular psychology, political ideology, and a human centered thought process, minus God and the Bible. The bottom line after looking at all of these different angles is to look at the places in the U.S.A. that have tried to restrict guns among law abiding citizens. The overwhelming evidence in places like Chicago and Washington D.C., is that criminals in those cities continue to get guns illegally, while law abiding citizens are left like sheep among wolves. The ongoing effort to disarm law abiding citizens in the U.S.A. is nothing but an effort to strip more freedoms from the people in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Can you imagine what would happen tomorrow, if all of the thugs, thieves, and criminals knew that law abiding Americans no longer had guns for protection? I certainly do, and I think we would mirror Europe with her citizens vulnerable and unarmed. Forget the threat of a “Trojan Horse,” when politicians in broad daylight open our borders and doors to those who hate Americans and Christians alike. The twenty-first century political mindset of “open borders” and a “gun grab” is the recipe for disaster and the downfall of this great Republic that we call the United States of America! The Founding Fathers knew the Bible and the looming human threats to their young Republic. The vigilance of an armed society they believed would help protect against foreign invasion and losing freedom from tyranny within. They understood and we should too, that whether the threat comes from within or from without, the Bible makes it clear that the human “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Too much power in the hands of a despot King or a corrupt political system, can detriment a free people as they had experienced firsthand from the American Revolution. Finally, may we as Christians when analyzing the current trends in politics, psychology, and polemics, continually proclaim that Biblical truth supersedes the “wisdom of this world,” and that Jesus is still the answer for human hearts in the world today (I Corinthians 3:18-19)! No gun has a mind of its own to fire shots, but hate within sinful human hearts can give fingers the capability to pull the trigger and murder. The Biblical evidence is in regarding the heart and the verdict is clear, why keep sending it to trial? The 2nd Amendment is in our U.S. Constitution and twenty-first century America should stop playing The Political Psychology of Blame, and draw near to Jesus, “The Name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9-10), and ask Him to comfort the families who lost loved ones in Las Vegas! ~TKE~
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Dr. Toby EasleyBLOGS on various Christian, academic, business, historical, cultural, and hobby interests of the author. Archives
October 2017
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