More thoughts on VT Shooting

Okay…I am still thinking about the VT shootings and the young man who committed them. It wasn't like people where completely unprepared… they were just hoping it wasn't as bad as it looked. I think we all have moments like that. We want to hope for the best or maybe we just can't imagine the worst.

Quite frankly I cannot understand hate crimes… It just seems like such a waste of my time and energy to be hating other people. I dislike some of their choices, but to hate the person is like hating their Creator.

Anyway back to VT shooting and Cho Seung-Hui. Many people knew he had problems. He had been hospitalized. His teacher reported him because of the graphic and dark nature of his writing and yet it seems no one was able to stop this young man. His sister loved him. His parents are at a loss. What happened?

One source is stated at some point in his suicide letter he had gone on and on about rich students. This is reminiscent of a book I read by Dallas Willard "Divine Conspiracy", were he noted that even at Christian Colleges, the rich tended to treat the poorer students without respect. Now I don't want to take this too far, but what, if any, efforts were made by the Christian community on campus to reach this young man?

My wife told me she had read that the Campus Crusade for Christ, people had tried to befriend him, but to of no avail. So were all those students then just condemned to die because Cho Seung-Hui was somehow unreachable? I think not.

In the 13th chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul, tries to impress on his readers the importance of love. Not the "love your mama" love or "love your girlfriend" love, but the Love that proceeds from the very heart of God; agape love. In the midst of this Paul states that Love never fails. I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and if it says, "Love never fails," then I am inclined to believe it. But if we fail at loving, it doesn't mean that God's love is failing. God's love is not based upon our pride or our feelings, but rather it is a decision to trust God and treat other people like they are made in His image and worthy of respect. We don't wait to give people respect. They don't have to earn it, as Christians we should just give it, regardless or how we are treated.

People tried to diagnose and maybe fix Cho Seung-Hui, but who really tried to love him outside of his family. And I am sorry, telling him about the four spiritual laws doesn't count. Telling him he needs Jesus may not really count either. Who said to him, "Wow, you really seem to be having a bad day, do you want to talk?" And then didn't just give up when he pushed them away or refused their help. I am not blaming the Christian campus community for what happened, but I am asking, did it do all it could do. Did it try to love Cho Seung-Hui, or did it just see him as an aberrant, disturbed, boy, who should be shunned?