[Faith-talk] A theological response to the shootings at Virginia Tech

Sun Apr 22 16:34:05 CDT 2007

Hey Everyone,

I wrote this article as a response to the shootings at Virginia Tech
and thought you all might be interested in reading it.

Paul

Where was God at Virginia Tech?
Author: C. Paul Grenier
Virginia Tech Reflections, April 20, 2007

What can one say about the tragic shooting of 33 people at Virginia
Technical Institute on Monday April 16th?  Why did it happen? 
Where was God?  How can one still believe in a god of infinite love
and power when we see so much evil going on?
	First, I think that it is important to really realize how much
suffering there is in the world.  On Monday 5 US. and 13 Iraqi
soldiers died in an attack in Iraq along with at least 51 other
civilians.  11 Iraqi children were killed in a bomb attack in Iraq
over the weekend.  And all over the world people are suffering and
dying.  On Monday approximately 1,400 people became infected with
AIDS, 95% of them live in developing countries without ready access
to medical care.  On Monday almost 3,000 children died of Malaria
and 16,000 children died of hunger.
And tragedy can strike us on our own American soil as well.  Every
year in the US. 1,500 children die due to abuse and neglect. 3,000
children die as a result of gun violence, 30,000 Americans commit
suicide, and 160,000 Americans die of lung cancer.  These are all
estimates, but this list of tragedy can go on and on.  It does not
include those who die of accidental drug and alcohol overdoses,
pollutant caused cancers, car accidents, etc. etc. etc.  When
reading a list like this it is hard for the mind, and even harder
for the heart to comprehend.  The individual lives turn into
statistics and figures, and even the figures congeal into one big
ball of despair that just sticks like a lump in our throats.  We
can neither swallow our pain nor let out our cries of anger and
sorrow.  And so we become numb to the horror of it all and try to
move on with the monotony of our lives.
But then an event happens like the shooting at Virginia Tech. 
Comparatively the deaths of 29 students and 4 faculty should just
be another drop in the bucket of our world’s sorrows.  But there is
something different about this event.  It is not just the fact that
the people involved were so young and their deaths were so
senseless.  It is all of those things and it is because we can
identify with these victims.  We have all sat in classrooms where
we felt safe and secure, whether in college or high school.  The
students and faculty who died on Monday were all people like us,
who had no reason to assume they were in danger.  And yet a force
of unreasonable terror came and cut their lives short.
Such an event rips away the veil of fog from our minds and shocks us
back into the reality of this world.  It loosens the lump in our
throats and allows us to morn openly.  When tragedy is brought home
we get the chance to revaluate our lives and cry out to God.
So what is a proper response?  How do we eliminate the pain and
resolve the conflict between the loving God that we long to know
and the cruel world that we know all to well?
First we grieve.  And we grieve knowing that God grieves with us. 
In the Talmud there is a story about how the Israelites rejoiced
after they crossed the Red Sea and escaped to freedom.  But rather
than rejoicing the Talmud tells us that God was weeping for the
dead Egyptians washed up on the shores of the Red Sea.  For they
were also God’s children.  And again in 2 Samuel we are told that
when a plague struck the people of Israel “the Lord was grieved
because of the calamity.”(2 Samuel 24:16)  How can we interpret
this?  Can God be moved to tears and regret?

In Genesis 6:6 we are told that “The Lord was grieved that he had
made man on the earth and his heart was filled with pain.”  And so
he sent a flood which almost destroyed God’s creation.  If God
could cry real tears, and if God knew the suffering of God’s
beloved creation we can be assured that God’s tears would flood the
world.
There is the old children’s story that when ever it rains it means
that angels are crying in heaven.  How fitting it is then that just
before the shooting at Virginia Tech the East Coast experienced one
of the biggest rain storms in the past century.
I would like to add to this fable a new story.  In Genesis 1:1,
before the world was created we are told that “The Spirit of God
was hovering over the waters.”  In other words we are never told
where this water came from, it was there before creation.  Maybe,
God contemplated for an eternity before he created us.  Maybe in
that contemplation God knew all of the pain and suffering that we
would have to go through if we were given the gift of life.  And as
God thought about this God wept.  God wept bitterly before the
beginning of time for all of the misery that we would suffer in our
lives.  So, in response to the horrific shooting at Virginia Tech
let us grieve with our creator.
But then God moved on.  God did create us and so God must have had
hope that we would be able to overcome this suffering. (Rom
8:18-24)
There is a proper time and place for grieving.  “There is a time to
everything, and there is a season for every activity under
heaven.”(Ecc 3:1)  Once the time of grieving has past we must also
move on.  We must not let our grief drag us into despair, or numb
us back into the fog of indifference from which we have been
aroused.  We must transform our grief into action, or we will drown
in our own tears.  This action is born of hope.  The hope that we
can make a difference and that we can prevent such tragedies from
happening.   This hope was instilled in us from the very fact that
we were created and it is promised to us by God.
But simply to hope is not enough.  Saint Augustine once said, “Hope
has two children: anger and courage. Anger at the way things are,
and the courage to change them.”  We are saddened by the tragedy at
Virginia Tech and we are outraged at a society that seems to breed
hatred and violence.  Therefore, let the tragedy at Virginia Tech
become a rallying cry to all people who have faith in the Lord and
hope in God’s promises.  Let it be a call for us to take action
against the evils of our society.  Let us get angry and respond to
this act of violent hatred with an act of violent love.  Let us
fight this evil, not by pointing fingers and throwing stones, but
by letting down our guard and opening our arms.  Let us embrace our
neighbors and tear down the walls of segregation that leave people
feeling isolated and cut off from their fellow human beings.  Let
us expose our hearts and gain strength from our shared
imperfections.  And let us turn away from images of worldly power,
greed, and violence, and look toward God in faith, hope, and love. 
Only then can we begin to dry the tears that threaten to pour down
from the ends of the earth and engulf us all.

C. Paul Grenier
cg2183 at columbia.edu

Iraqi story: http://www.thenewstribune.com/886/story/39955.html
AIDS statistics: http://www.until.org/statistics.shtml
Malaria statistics: http://www.amref.org/index.asp?PageID=50&PiaID=1
Hunger statistics:
http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html
Gun violence and children statistics:
http://www.neahin.org/programs/schoolsafety/gunsafety/statistics.htm
Suicide statistics: http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/suifacts.htm
Child abuse statistics:
http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/fatality.cfm
Lung Cancer statistics:
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_1x_What_Are_the_Key_Statistics_About_Lung_Cancer_15.asp?sitearea