davidbowerkingwood

Dimitrios Pagourtzis

Why?

A question that is in the minds of many who have heard of the shootings at Santa Fe High School by a young student there is why. What made that young man think the answer to whatever problems he felt he had was the shooting of high school students. Such rage and anger toward his classmates is difficult, if not impossible, for many of us to even imagine; what had gone on in his life that resulted in such a twisted solution in his mind?

We may or may not ever know the full answer to that question but the sad results of his tragic decisions have taken ten lives, left others with injuries and many lives in tatters.

Now we hear the loud cries for more gun control, as if the problems could more effectively be resolved if only there were more laws restricting the distribution and ownership of guns; the idea being to protect young people like Dimitrios by more stringent control over their access to guns; to put things they might use to harm themselves or others out of their reach.

Is Gun Control Another Effort to Childproof the Room?

The recent mass murders in Sante Fe, Texas  have once again provided an occasion to beat the drums for gun control. The mantra being if only we had better gun control something like this would not have happened. The fact of the matter is guns are inanimate tools and have no agenda whatsoever; killing is instigated by people, not guns.

Inanimate tools are nothing more than that, just tools; whether you pick up a gun, a knife, an axe, a stick, a hammer, or a chainsaw it is nothing more than an inanimate tool that can be used according to the will of the user. It can be used for either good or evil but that is a decision made exclusively by the user, not the tool. I have written more on this in “Money, Guns, Tire Tools, and Christianity.”

While the death of 10 people in Sante Fe is a terrible thing, it is a small number by comparison with the 762 killings in Chicago in 2016. Chicago just happens to have some of the most extensive gun control laws in the United States but this seems to do little good for those people who got killed anyway. The Associated Press distributed a press release on January 1, 2017 with this headline: “Chicago Ends Year With 762 Killings, the Most in 2 Decades”

Whether a gun, or any tool, is legal or illegal it can be equally deadly in the hands of a killer!

A Monumental Effort in Misguided Good Intentions

Our three children were born between 1957 and 1961 and were close enough in age to essentially grow up together. By the time our first boy was born we were enthusiastic students of the Bible and spent a lot of time rejoicing in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

As Christians who believed the Bible was the inerrant word of God we had already decided it was “given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

Based on that conviction we decided to raise our children in the ways of the Lord and proceeded to follow Biblical teachings in their upbringing. We believed the child should be taught how to behave and exercise the self-discipline needed to refrain from doing that which was unacceptable.

We had also come to believe in certain principles of life and living that would help our children establish a solid foundation for their lives; the first was an unconditional love on which they knew they could always depend.

The second was a principle I had picked up from Scouting Magazine; this had to do with the importance of establishing parameters of acceptable behavior. The children had to understand where the limits were on their behavior; in effect they had a fence around their lives beyond which they were not allowed to cross. Any crossing over the fence would result in discipline which brings up the third principle.

The controlling thought behind the third principle, discipline, was not severity, but certainty; the discipline didn’t have to be severe, just certain. This was a principle I had picked up during my short but intense period of service in the United States Navy. The axiom was “It is not the severity of punishment that counts but the certainty of it.”

I’m happy to report that this system produced excellent results; the children learned at an early age that self-discipline was a much better alternative and chose to exercise the self control needed to avoid parental discipline. The fact of the matter is their teenage years were rather fun for the entire family; at least most of the time.

By Way of Contrast

I mentioned above the concept of childproofing which is the real subject of the essay. When our children were very young we observed what appeared to us as a strange and unworkable phenomena.  Young parents of our acquaintance were embracing a new concept which included never saying no to their children and never disciplining them for their misdeeds. The idea seemed to be that such negative actions would harm their young psyches and hamper their development into productive adults.

In order to avoid creating situations that might cause the children to do something bad the parents were childproofing their houses so the little children couldn’t reach those things that might break or cause them to harm themselves or others. Anything thought of as breakable or dangerous was put out of reach of the children. Such a room was childproofed as far as the parents could make it.

I can recall speculating with my wife on the potential difficulties these children might face when they moved out into society and lacked the self-control to discipline themselves.

I had overlooked one significant and unexpected development; the same parents that would try to childproof the room would later try to childproof society as well. That is pretty much where we seem to be today; we see efforts all around us to remove the dangerous things, like guns, out of reach of the adult/child that has never learned how to exercise self-control.

I think on occasion of the verse in Proverbs 22:15 where it is written:

“15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.”

It would appear this foolishness is now bound in the heart of many adult/children and is being nurtured by society as it continues to futilely attempt to establish a childproof environment free of dangerous things. The problem is not environmental, it is internal and can only be successfully dealt with at the spiritual level.

The Real Problem

One of the questions being addressed by the media today is why did Dimitrios Pagourtzis go on a killing rampage; what happened to cause him to carefully plan and then murder all those people. Out of all the discussions appearing on the major news shows there has not been one reference to a spiritual problem that I’ve heard about.

The Bible makes it clear that Dimitrios Pagourtzis, just like every other human being, was born spiritually dead and from all appearances was spiritually dead at the time of the shootings; his fallen sin nature was always in control of his life and guided him in all his decisions. Fortunately the fallen sin nature does not guide everyone who is under its control to commit mass murder but it does inevitably result in eternal separation from God.

The only deliverance from this curse is the new birth which comes with salvation by faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That is why Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3

3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Even if, by some stretch of the imagination, society was able to perfect the environment and successfully make all of society childproof that would in no wise solve the problem of sin and lawlessness; the basic problem is internal, not external. This is clearly demonstrated by the experience in the Garden of Eden and the coming experience during the Millennial Reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Perfect environment is not and never will be the answer to man’s sin problem; the only answer is the new birth, you must be born again!

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be Saved!

Updated and revised from an earlier essay.