We Shouldn't Be Surprised

It's no secret there's a lot of mass violence in the US. We trot out the numbers every time another shooting happens, and those numbers are sickening. It's literally become a more-than-daily occurrence. One thing I don't agree with, though, is the rhetoric that seems to accompany it, especially among church people, that not reacting viscerally to such violence is a sign it's become routine, or that we've accepted the inevitability of such violence.

I mean, I get where that's coming from. We don't want to so forget the world God has promised us, the one Christ began to bring about, the one with no tears or sorrow, the culmination of which we look forward to each day and celebrate in our weekly gatherings, that we stop working and living into it. We don't want to say this is the world we live in and we just have to deal with it. We don't want to forget that there's something more. I get it.

The problem is, though, that the world we're rejecting, the one that's dying away and will ultimately parish still exists. It's not dead yet - and that world is one where violence is embraced and justified to gain and maintain power. Violence anywhere leads to violence anywhere. If you can justify any violence, someone will, in fact, justify any violence. The notion of good guys and bad guys is a fallacy from the pits of hell, but so long as we live in a world where it's still believed and lived out, this is the result.

I'm not saying you can't be saddened and heartbroken for the violence of our world, for the lives lost, and the lives forever changed by mass shootings, I just don't think we can be surprised that a world built on violence produces violence any more than we can be surprised that pulling the lever on the soft serve machine means ice cream comes out. It's cause and effect.

We don't have to live the effect, we don't have to be satisfied or complacent with it, but we shouldn't be surprised. Christians least of all. We should have a worldview that understands the problems inherent in the machinations of power, the complications that arise when love is not our response to absolutely everything. We should not be shocked by the world in which we live, even as we grieve it.

I get especially upset with this "don't be numb" rhetoric, because it's rarely accompanied by a full-throated, scripturally-based, Christ-like denunciation of violence. I recognize that the realities of the world mean we can't expect everyone to be 100% non-violent in every situation. That's not the issue, though - the issue is our inability to condemn ourselves, even as we recognize violence is sometimes the least bad choice we can make.

Just because violence is the best course of action we can come up with in a given moment, doesn't mean it's justified. If we, as Christians, resort to violence, we should be doing so with pleas of forgiveness and mercy on our lips. Taking life, even to protect life, is not a Christ-like virtue. When we make heroes out of people who do so, we contribute to a culture of violence whose byproducts are these senseless murders.

That's another thing: we call them senseless, because they make no sense to us. Often, though, perpetrators of societally condemned violence find great sense in their own actions. They plan them; they feel compelled that they are the best possible course of action, given the assumptions they hold.

Just because we disagree with those particular assumptions doesn't make them morally any different than the assumptions we use to justify the violence we deem (even regrettably) necessary. We live in a society where we're privileged to mostly outsource our violence to others - police, military, etc. Just because we're not perpetrating that violence, doesn't mean it's any less ours; it's done in our name, by people's whose actions we justify (at least passively).

Jesus said those who live by the sword will die by the sword. We can make our individual decisions - and I pray they are always to non-violence and love - but we're also communal people by nature; like it or not, we participate in a world that lives by the sword. Christians can be saddened by violent deaths, but we really shouldn't be surprised. Christians should know better.

People who grow up in a society where violence is the answer to evil have a right to be shocked and surprised when it's used to perpetuate evil. Christians, who've been exposed to the Kingdom of God, where violence is never the answer and always the enemy, just don't have an excuse. Gun laws are great and I'd support better ones. I don't believe any weapon should ever be directed at any human ever. Laws pushing us in that direction will likely save lives, but they won't solve the problem.

Violence is the problem. Until we name it and address it, nothing will change, and we shouldn't be surprised by anything.