Everything has a political angle now. The left gets worked up by a jeans ad. The right gets worked up by Cracker Barrel removing both the cracker and the barrel from their logo. Red and blue, colors on the light spectrum and in nature, are now political. A 23-year-old transgender gunman killing children is political. The prayers offered are maligned as useless. It is all political.
My radio show is, when aired live, midday. I intended to talk about the Democrats and crime and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik convincing President Donald Trump we need 600,000 Chinese students in our universities. I had a humorous soundbite from Secretary of State Rubio begging Trump to issue an executive order banning Saturday weddings during college football season. Instead of all that, I had to narrate over an evil act.
While that was happening, my daughter, in college, was texting. She was barricaded in a classroom with an active shooter on her college campus. The students had moved a chair to the door handle to make it difficult to open, and were contemplating moving the bookcases. Unlike the events in Minnesota, the events on her college campus were inspired by a phone call that turned out to be fake. A series of such calls has plagued college campuses around the nation in the past week.
Through it all, news of the shooter came out. He had transitioned to female. He had used a picture of Jesus as target practice. He had written "where is your God now" on the gun magazine and "kill Donald Trump" on the barrel. He was depraved. He became another transgender shooter at a Christian school, having barricaded the children into a church at mass and begun firing through the windows.
I gave the Mayor of Minneapolis a pass for scoffing at people offering prayers. Children in his city just died. He was under stress, and his emotions were raw. People online excoriated him. He needed some grace to grieve and be angry. I gave him no such pass when, in the evening, he went on CNN to condemn those who might attack the transgender community. Were the shooter a Trump supporter, you and I both know he would be blasting the president and his supporters. The Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, just a year ago, wore a trans-rights t-shirt with a knife on it that implied using violence against those who oppose the trans-community. The transgender murderer had a sticker on his manifesto implying the use of violence to defend the trans community.
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Online, Democrats yelled that Republicans have blood on their hands for not passing gun control. Republicans yelled that Democrats had normalized violent mentally ill people. I have my own political opinions on the matter, which I hold to strongly, but should we not first pray? Should we not first cry? Should we not first grieve? I actually blame former President Barack Obama for our turn to political screaming matches. As president, when Sandy Hook happened, he used his time addressing a nation in mourning to assail Republicans and demand gun control. He gave license to others to immediately drag politics over the still-warm bodies of dead kids. Democrats claim to offer solutions, but they are unworkable. Republicans, instead of talking about gun control, talk about mental health.
In truth, neither side has a real solution. Politics has no solution for evil. No legislation solves spiritual problems. Guns will not be confiscated. Parents and states that support the transition of children will never admit they were wrong. Jesus weeps, and the tribes argue over who has more blood on their hands and which laws should be enacted or not.
The church has the only real answer. But Americans have moved beyond the church and worship at the altar of politics now. Even many self-professed Christians prefer social media tirades to quiet prayer and commitment to seeking the welfare of their community. The people of God, in the moment of crisis, have the gospel to confront evil. It is the only solution, and it is far better deployed in grace and love and truth than in political harangues as children lie dying, fallen in the path of evil.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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