The AP wire app on my phone sent the first signal that yesterday would be different. A quick two line message that said "Reported shooting at school: Newtown, CT." I cleared the message and went on with grading finals. While doing some exercises later in the morning, I received more notices with more details, sometimes conflicting with details posted earlier that morning. In the afternoon, the messages started including death tolls and then the horror of the day: children among the dead. I paused, thought about my children at school, and said a short prayer for families that could not count on that sense of security. The routine returned but the day was different.
And then Facebook blew up. First, posts related to information about the shootings started appearing. Second, concern for gun violence flared. Third, posts clarifying misinformation. Fourth, posts that noted an absence of prayer/God in schools caused this profound evil. By that evening, posts had counter-posts and the great gun debate returned. I have two observations from the day.
The power of an open and transparent media helps us make sense of the world around us, but news that unfolds before our eyes, generally without filters, causes knee-jerk reactions. The spread of social media allows us to receive information almost too fast. I am as guilty of this need for information as anyone else, as my AP app shows. The corrections for the AP wire are an example of this pressure to produce information at breakneck speed. As the shootings' toll became clear, two Facebook newsfeed posts appeared next to each other that stated the information wasn't coming fast enough and that the information needed to slow down with some filters. My fear in all of this is that we'll spend an enormous amount of unproductive time arguing over gun laws and forget to ask serious questions about ourselves and our need for sensational news. Children die too frequently from gunshot wounds around this nation and we barely raise our heads from the television/phone/computer. But yesterday was different; the facade of control came off and we did not like it. Whether guns kill people or people kill people cliche represents our bumper-sticker culture, minimizing a serious moral quandary to an either/or option. Yesterday and today, I could care less. Last night, parents who purchased their children's Christmas gifts will not have those children on Christmas day to open the gifts. Last night, grandparents cried because they cannot take away their children's grief. Each one of those numbers has a unique story, including the young man who caused the mayhem. All of these families grieve the lost of someone precious, and they will likely never have sufficient answers to comfort them. We shared in their worst moment and made judgements about our nation. Their grief required so much more from us.
I am grateful that God's presence in this day is beyond our control. Mike Huckabee, God bless him, became the Jerry Falwell of our time. I am not in the business of understanding the presence of evil in our world. I have some theological opinions, but generally keep those to myself to help me understand the chaos that sometimes enters my life. But Rev. Huckabee decided yesterday was a good time to remind Americans that the removal of God from schools "caused" this tragedy. Shut up, sir! The presumption that all those children and adults did not bring God into the classroom with them is stupid. May their last prayers, said in shear terror, cover the sins of those who make political judgements out of tragedy. God was there yesterday, just like God is there every day, in the mundane roll taking and simple coloring/spelling exercises and in the heart-wrenching loss of life. I am sorry that a minister of the gospel forgot yesterday that the God we worship is present in the suffering not the moral platitudes of punditry. Yesterday, he failed to be a minister. Forgive us, God, for invoking you in the midst of our own agendas. So, I am grateful that God was there yesterday in ways that I will never fully understand. Since I am inclined to fuss like Job, I may even feel the need to ask God tough questions, but that means God is listening, even as he judges. Hopefully for Rev. Huckabee, God will be gracious to all of us.
As I return to my routine, all of those families who were affected yesterday do not get to go back to their routine. Their new normal will play out in front of millions and will become the fodder for political rhetoric. My hope this morning is that God's spirit will be present to them in the kindness of strangers who will become a part of their lives and that they may one day find Advent peace.
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