Responding to Tragedy

One week ago, a devastatingly horrific tragedy hit the community of Newtown, Connecticut. While many agonized over why a sovereign God would allow such a thing to happen, sadly (albeit not unpredictably) some Christian leaders were quick to chalk it up to the fact that our (supposed) once "Christian nation" had "turned its back on God."

This post by Peter Wehner does an excellent job of summing up my reaction to such comments and I recommend you read it. But if you lack the time or the desire, please at least read this one very helpful paragraph from it:

The workings of God in the midst of tragedy cannot be reduced to a simplistic moral mathematics in which sin yields to disaster, in part because America is not a covenant community on the model of ancient Israel. The community of faith is found in every nation.  Believers share the blessings and tragedies of their neighbors. Rather than declaring the suffering of their neighbors to be deserved, they should work and pray for the common good.

Click here to read the entire post.

(HT: Daniel Rose)

We Must Do Something

This is a little out of the ordinary for the topic of a post here. But I thought there was much wisdom in the words of Joe Scarborough in the video below. He powerfully makes the point that whatever we, as individuals, happen to believe about various issues related to mass murders such as that in Newtown, Connecticut, two things are certain:

1. It is a complex, multi-faceted situation, with no simple solutions, and 
2. We MUST do something.

Take a few minutes and watch the video below, which is an edited clip of a longer statement made by Scarborogh on today's Morning Joe.



Click here to view the full context of Scarborough's remarks.