September 22, 1999
DOWN HOME:
Even our 'safe places' aren't so safe anymore
___"I never thought about being shot at church before," Molly said last week, moments after our family heard about the tragic shootings at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth.
___Never in her almost-13 years. Never in my 43 years, either. Random violence in a church sanctuary isn't something young girls, or their parents, or anyone else for that matter, should feel compelled to think about.
___And yet there it is, in color, on our TV screen. Raw violence.
MARV KNOX
Editor
___A profanity-spewing gunman unleashes decades of rage on Baptist teenagers in Fort Worth. A white supremacist sheds innocent blood in a Jewish day care center in Los Angeles. Troubled teens kill their peers in high schools nationwide.
___"What's this country coming to?" Americans ask.
___Ironically, America is a safer place than it was just a few years ago. FBI surveys show decreases in violent crime, such as murders, rapes and armed robberies.
___Yet we feel more vulnerable. And we wonder why.
___Because we now see slaughter in the safe places of our society. Churches, day care centers, schools. These are supposed to be the institutions that make our lives safer. How dare murderers invade sanctuaries of safety?
___Not so long ago, even when the incidence of violent crime was higher, most middle- and upper-class Americans could raise children without fear of this kind of tragedy. We taught them well: Avoid dangerous parts of town. Stay away from strangers. Don't get in a car with anyone who's been drinking. A few words of wisdom, taken to heart, could inoculate them against most violence.
___But now. Now we see children very similar to our own either killed or eye-witnesses to mayhem. Of course, we know the odds that they will be victims of violent death are greater when they are in the car with us than when they're at school, church or the library. They're more likely to be struck by lightning than shot at school.
___ Still, we're plagued by the realization that our safe and sacred places have been violated. Where can they be safe, after all?
___The answer is before us: Nowhere and everywhere.
___No place is absolutely safe. Never has been; never will be. Even if madmen don't shoot, roofs fall in, storms blow, diseases stalk.
___And yet every place ultimately is safe if, at the same time, we're in the arms of God. Not safe in time, of course, but safe for eternity. Safe in the only way that matters. Safe spiritually.
___And this is the safe place to which we entrust our children. They are special. They are ours but not ours alone. They belong to God.
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