April 28, 1999

Religious leaders weep with
Colorado, call for changed lives
___DENVER--"I was shocked, and in my heart I wept," said Billy Graham.
___Staccato Powell of the National Council of Churches pointed the finger of blame toward easy access to guns.
___Evangelist Luis Palau worried that the shootings would turn some away from God. "They cannot conceive how a loving, all-powerful God could witness such horrors and not seem to move a finger to prevent them," he said.
___As the tragic scope of the April 20 shooting rampage at Columbine High School sunk

STUDENTS from Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., pray in a circle on the ground after escaping a deadly shooting spree in the building April 20.

in, religious leaders struggled--yet again--to explain why Littleton, Colo., had joined the growing list of American communities in which students had murdered students with bursts of gunfire.
___Some blamed what they called America's moral decline and rejection of God. Others lashed out at the mass media, saying Hollywood and the Internet were contributors to a cultural glorification of violence that has left young people capable of horrendous actions. Some simply sought to offer solace.
___"Our hearts go out to the victims and their families, and to the families of the young men who were responsible," said United Methodist Bishop Marshall Meadors of Jackson, Miss., who heads his denomination's task force studying children and poverty.
___David Bunch, executive director of the Colorado Baptist General Convention, voiced appreciation to Southern Baptists "for their overwhelming prayer support and concern" for the state's Baptists as they minister amid the tragedy.
___In an influx of telephone calls and messages sent via e-mail, Bunch said Baptists across the country have offered "to assist in any way possible." They obviously feel at a loss to know what to do, he said, but yet they have promised, "What I can do, I will," he said.
___In Littleton, local clergy and other religious representatives scrambled to help the traumatized, offering a shoulder to cry on and grief counseling, and organizing memorial services.
___Thirteen of the 1,800 Colum-bine students attend Littleton's Ken Caryl Baptist Church. Rob Norris, missions director for the Denver Association of Baptist Churches, said deacons from the congregation visited each of the 13 after the shooting to offer assistance. None of the students had been shot.
___Yet even amid the ministry, Christians of all affiliations sought to understand how such a tragedy could occur and how to prevent it in the future.
___"Unless the institutions--family, school and the religious community--take us back to the basics of simple decency, we are doomed to repeat this horrible scene a dozen more times before the century shall end," said Bishop Delano Ellis of the United Pentecostal Churches of Christ.
___"Only God can give us a new nature that is demonstrated by love," evangelist Graham added. Because of that, he disagreed with those who believe more gun controls are needed to avoid a repeat of Littleton--the seventh such incident in the nation in the past 18 months.
___But Powell, the National Council of Churches official, offered a different view.
___"As people of faith, we must collectively find a way to form partnerships throughout all communities to prevent guns and other violent weapons and explosives from getting into the hands of our children," he said.
___In New Orleans for a speaking engagement the day after the shooting, retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African Nobel Peace Prize laureate and anti-apartheid leader, said the Littleton incident was indicative of a "vindictiveness" in American life he said is revealed in the nation's acceptance of the death penalty.
___"It has to do with the kind of society you are becoming," said Tutu, currently teaching at Emory University. "And I think you are going to have to look at this very carefully. America is a great country, with generous people. But one sees over time signs of mean-spiritedness and

MOURNERS pray at a mound of flowers left at the perimeter of Columbine High School April 21. (Reuters/ RNS)

vindictiveness that Americans exercise most clearly through the death penalty."
___Others traced at least some of the cause for Littleton to many of the films, videos and television programs watched by young Americans, as well as "hate" material on the Internet.
___Janet Parshall, Washington-based spokeswoman for the Family Research Council created by Christian radio personality James Dobson, castigated films and music videos that "rely on or glorify sexual deviancy, violence and suicide" for "encouraging copycat crimes and feeding adolescent hopelessness."
___That view was shared by Morris Chapman, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, and Richard Land, president of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
___Land said it is "well past time" the media be "held accountable for the severe emotional child abuse they have perpetuated upon our nation's children."
___"The problem exposed by this terrible tragedy in Colorado is not guns," Land said. "We've had guns readily available in our culture for generations and we did not have this kind of insane mayhem and grotesque violence.
___"We must ask ourselves what is different today than a generation ago, not what's the same. The things that are different are a lack of parental involvement and supervision, an absence of adult and societal boundary-setting and the barbaric glorification of violence on the Internet, in video games and the entertainment industry generally.
___"You can only imprint so many obscenities on a person before they begin to malfunction," Land concluded.
___Chapman said the tragedy is "yet another confirmation of the spiritual and moral vacuum in America."
___"Obviously, a number of contributing factors will be cited, and the causes will be vigorously debated. Even an attempt to enact new laws will gain momentum, but a vast segment of our society is prone to overlook the principal problem and its solution. We are facing a moral meltdown and an emotional emptiness that have been created by an unprecedented disregard for the consequences of sin," he said.
___"The increased violence in this country ought to be a wake-up call to every Christian of every church and every decent-hearted American," Chapman said. "We are doomed unless we become desperately concerned about the kind of movies, video games, music and websites seen and heard by our children."
___Compiled from Religion News Service and Baptist Press
___

---

Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!