We need to stop this political grandstanding after horrible tragedies. It’s awful.
I don’t post on Twitter very often, but I do scroll through my feed regularly — often to the detriment of my own sanity. But what I’ve seen on social media these days has made it hard to just observe how people are talking about the horrific mass shootings that happened in El Paso and Dayton last weekend.
Everyone — every single human being — with a shred of decency in their heart condemns and abhors cold-blooded murder of innocents, and wants to take measures to see that it doesn’t happen again. Every single world citizen with a proper view of the human race believes this. We’re all on the same side here.
You wouldn’t know it, though. Within just a day after the shooting, the usual political grandstanding began. Everyone ran to their pet political causes, but as usual, for the majority of people who post their opinions publicly, it was not to propose constructive solutions. It was to condemn the moral character of people who disagreed with their particular ideology.
You expect this from politicians, who have an interest in slandering their opponents. But it has been echoed by American citizens and people around the world. You can even see shameless grandstanding from world governments, such as Venezuela, run by an abusive dictator and one of the most violent countries on Earth, and Uruguay, with a murder rate twice as high as the US, which both declared travel warnings to America due to gun violence, as a political stunt to embarrass the US on the world stage. (Several other countries with lower murder rates have done the same thing, which might be understandable if they also declared travel warnings for the 80+ countries with higher homicide rates than the US.)
There is almost no constructive dialogue happening at the moment. So many people are so fixated on advancing their own agenda — whether that be promoting changes in gun laws, increased resources for mental health, a return to traditional cultural values, the evils of technology, the impeachment of President Trump — that they deny, ignore, or downplay everything else. Leading politicians and media outlets shamelessly promote their preferred narrative, dismiss all competing narratives, and the Internet echoes it. This is absolutely destructive, it happens every single time, and ensures that no change takes place; and these same people blame their ideological opponents for the lack of change.
All this accomplishes nothing but being inflammatory, and ensuring that those who disagree with you will be thoroughly unpersuaded and listen to nothing you have to say. And to be frank, this country, and the world at large, is so divided that that’s exactly what many people are hoping to accomplish. Many are not thinking about constructive dialogue. They’re thinking about how to feel morally superior to those who disagree with them, and how to demonize their opponents so their agenda — including the aspects of it unrelated to gun laws — wins the day.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t be angry, that all we need is a polite discussion. It’s right to be angry when white supremacists and other violent terrorists murder innocent people. Anger, rightly directed, brings about swift justice and accomplishes change. But when we dare redirect that anger toward those who disagree with us on policy — those who also denounce white supremacy and terroristic violence — and suggest that they are somehow aligned with an ideology that inspired an act like this, that is not just destructive, it’s immoral.
Those who are honest will admit: There is not one solution. There is not even a primary solution. There is a deep cultural epidemic in the United States that is unique to the United States, and there are so many factors. The solution is also unique to the United States. Pointing to other countries’ laws, which are vastly different and have been entrenched for decades or more, like those of Europe or Australia or Japan, is pointless. What works in the relatively ethnically and culturally homogenous hamlets of northern and western Europe is probably not going to work in the richly diverse United States.
Gun laws need to change. That should be a point of agreement for everyone. It needs to be harder for criminals or people with known violent tendencies to acquire guns. But they are not the only reason for mass shootings. I admit that I personally don’t know much about guns or the finer points of gun law, so I don’t have a well-formed opinion on what exactly will be the most effective changes. We must have reasonable debate on which laws need to change, and to what extent. But we should not be deluded into thinking a modest change in gun laws will get rid of this epidemic.
Mental health is an important issue, but it is not the reason behind most mass shootings. Most mentally ill people are not violent, and most mass shooters are perfectly sane. They just subscribe to an evil ideology that tells them killing people is okay. It may be radical Islam, like the Pulse nightclub shooter. It may be white supremacy, like the El Paso shooter. It may be a callous, nihilistic disregard for human life. It may be a bitterness and anger at the world for depriving them of some privilege they feel they deserve. But culture and ideology is a much more prominent factor in acts of violence.
We also need to proclaim, frequently, that white supremacy is an evil, despicable ideology that presents a real danger. It is one of the most prevalent forms of ideological terrorism in America. It needs to be repeatedly denounced and rooted out by all prominent politicians and activists. It must also be addressed and denounced in the church. Galatians 3:28 and Colossians 3:11 spell out in the clearest terms why there is no place for racism, sexism, classism, or any sort of discrimination among anyone who would identify as a Christian. Racial inequality, white supremacy, and ideological violence are not just a relic of the segreationist era. We need to talk about how Christ heals all broken relationships and eradicates all evil ideas.
The media also needs to stop publishing the names, faces, detailed background stories, and manifestos of mass shooters. There is no doubt that would-be shooters know they will become famous and their evil ideology will gain exposure. There is no benefit to that kind of exposure and glorification except TV ratings and newspaper subscriptions. Ten times as much space should be dedicated to the victims of such horrible acts. Every would-be shooter should know that it will be his victims who will be remembered, not him.
All of these issues need to be addressed at the same time. All of these things are part of the solution, and none of them should be downplayed by those who are inclined to be more vocally passionate about some than others. But what will not help is political grandstanding by Americans and those from other countries. It is absurd and detrimental, and if it doesn’t stop, we will never see change.
Finally, this country desperately needs prayer. I don’t pray enough for our country and for its problems. I don’t pray enough for the President, Congress, the Supreme Court, and state lawmakers to make wise and righteous decisions. Nor have I prayed enough for the victims of El Paso and Dayton, or their families and friends. This needs to be done more. Despite the derision some people hold prayer in, it does mean something and does bring about change, even though it’s not a substitute for action. Perhaps making sincere prayer to the God who loves both us and our ideological opponents will be a step toward dissipating the tension, anger, and hate.
