Story of Cain, Story of Cho, Story of Christ
Friday, April 27, 2007
Like most of us, I have really struggled the past few days to come to terms with what happened on April 16th on the campus of Virginia Tech. I have also tired of the endless media coverage. I found myself reading the new Newsweek this afternoon, taking in yet another account of the terribly sick mind of one young man and the tragic ending of 33 lives. It is overwhelming.
In my most recent UM Reporter column, I try to offer one way in which the story of Jesus counters the stories of Cain, Cho, and all the other senseless acts of violence human history has witnessed. I don't know if it will help you at all to read it, but it did help me to put it into words.
The stress of the end of another semester has undoubtedly compounded the mental and emotional funk I am experiencing right now. I would be interested to hear how your communities of faith have dealt with the recent events.
Labels: Virginia Tech
posted by Andrew C. Thompson at 12:32 AM
3 Comments:
Andrew,
Thank you for this.
It is oversimplifications like this that keep the church from being effective. The church would be better served with a response to the ability to get guns, the ability to accept people not like us and the ability to stand for acceptance.
On the contrary, I don't think either my blog post or my column is an oversimplification at all. Rushing to specific proposals before carefully, and theologically, considering how such actions should impact us as Christians represents the real oversimplification.
It is interesting that you use the word "effective." John Howard Yoder argues that it is just such a focus on effectiveness that blinds the church to what its true stance should be. That is, if we want to offer the world a non-violent witness, we must first learn what it meanst to live non-violently. That may involve specific proposals or actions in terms of legislation, but that is not where we start. We start by learning to following the one who came preaching peace. And there's nothing simple about that!
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