It was in the late morning on Friday, Dec 14 when I first saw news of a school shooting in Connecticut.  I’d been helping our fourth graders make gingerbread houses and I knew I had a lot of work waiting for me, so I avoided it for a couple hours, but the headlines kept piling up, and so about noon I turned on the radio news and for the rest of the day I was pretty much useless.  I tried to work.  I tried to compose emails, do some writing, put together ideas for upcoming events and retreats, make phone calls—all the things that make up a normal work day, but I couldn’t concentrate.  My mind’s eye kept wandering to scenes of a gunman in a room full of first graders and parents getting the horrible news that their dear little one had died. By the end of the day my face hurt from fighting tears. 

 The entire event is horrible beyond words from start to finish, but by late afternoon, the talking heads were already debating gun control.  That debate has continued, as if this unimaginable slaughter is a gun control issue.  Granted, we have to have a serious discussion in this country about guns, but in my mind, this is not a gun issue.  It’s a life issue.  The problem with our culture is not guns; it’s that we’ve lost our sense of the dignity and sacredness of life.  How are we surprised by these mass shootings anymore when we abort over a million children a year, execute another 50 souls by lethal injection, pass laws supporting assisted suicide, and turn mass murder into entertainment on our computer, TV and movie screens?  Our government is content to shovel millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood, a group founded on the belief that killing another person – no matter how defenseless – is perfectly acceptable if that person is “unwanted”.  We’ve let Satan plant these seeds in our cultural heart— I don’t think it’s a surprise that we are now reaping his fruit. 

If gun violence is the fruit and sin is the disease-ridden seed, then we as Christians have the cure – and it’s not gun control.  It’s self-control.  And love, peace, and gentleness., and all the other Fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5)  that spring forth when we allow God to do the planting in our lives and hearts. Until our culture is ready to seriously battle the disease of sin — to have a serious discussion about the sacredness of life, we’re wasting our breath talking about guns. And our culture won’t battle sin until we as Christians are willing to boldly and gently proclaim the truth that the Christ’s love is the only real cure for our ills.   Until that day, I fear we’ll continue to battle bullets with band-aids.

Joe Ollier

Joe Ollier is the Coordinator of Youth Ministry at Ascension Parish in Kettering where he and his family are. He has 20 years experience in youth ministry and a Masters Degree in Theological Studies from the University of Dayton.