Sad Days

The Revised Common Lectionary gospel for tomorrow, Advent III, is Luke 3:7-18.  John the Baptist is hectoring the crowds who have come out to be baptized, saying, "You brook of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come."  Last week's gospel was also about the Baptist, and was just as taxing.  So, I'd planned to give a cheerful little homily tomorrow about God giving us good news by means of both prophets (like John haranguing the crowds) and angels (like Gabriel chatting with Mary).

Then, as I was driving over to Petoskey for a visit with my dermatologist, I learned of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.  Clearly, there will be no cheerful little homily tomorrow.  Words cannot express the sadness I and almost everyone in this country feel about this tragedy.  Yet words matter at a time like this.

In its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for May 13, 2011, the Centers for Disease Control observed: "Violence-related firearm deaths remain an important public health concern in the United States.  During 2006-2007, a total of 25,423 firearm homicides and 34,235 firearm suicides occurred among U.S residents.... These national totals include 4,166 firearm suicides among youths aged 10-19 years; the rate of firearm homicides among youths slightly exceed the rate among persons of all ages."  As the CDC makes clear, we have a public health problem, and we need to talk about it.

See the full report at:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/wk/mm6018.pdf

As it happens, on Thursday the Michigan Senate passed Senate Bill 59, which if signed into law will significantly expand the state's concealed-carry law, allowing those with permits to take concealed weapons into area previously off-limits to firearms.  This includes bars, stadiums, hospitals, schools and universities, and day care centers.  Oh, yes... and churches.

In reference to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the media director for Michigan Open Carry, Inc. said: "This legislation has to be passed to at least have a fighting chance against the evil in this world."  He seems to believe that if principals, teachers, and parents were armed, crazy people like the young man who committed this crime could be prevented from taking innocent lives."  I ask: how many parents would want to know that their child's elementary school might suddenly erupt in crossfire?  And how many police would want to charge into such a chaotic situation, trying to distinguish in mere seconds between a criminal shooter and a well-intentioned and well-armed parent?

Where is God in all this?  That, I suspect, must be the burden of my comments tomorrow. •••