Murder of Christina Grimmie: I was shocked when I first heard about this, and became even more shocked when I discovered that her death was not part of the mass shooting. As a longtime fan of The Voice, I remembered when she was on, and though she was not my favorite artist that season, she did have a good voice. Since her death, I have learned about her faith, and am even more saddened by what happened. A bright light was snuffed out that night by a crazed fan, but fortunately, her family is not going to let her legacy die with her. We shouldn't either.
Mass Shooting in Orlando: This was horrible, but what's even more horrible is how some have responded to it. Most people have responded appropriately, but there have been some who have missed the point, and sadly, too many of these people have been fellow Christians. Some have called for stricter gun control. What these people fail to understand is that the gun itself is not what killed these people: it was the terrorist wielding it. Of all the methods terrorists normally use, the gun probably did less damage than any of them would have. He also chose his first victim very strategically. He started by taking out the armed guard, who was the only person in the club capable of taking him out. Had someone else been armed, he would not have been able to do nearly the damage he did.
Another response related to this one was a post saying that since praying for the victims doesn't stop future tragedies from happening, that we need to take action instead. The poster is an athiest, so it's easy to understand why they feel this way, but we believers know the truth. Though prayer for the victims may not change things, it is still the best response to tragedy. What might change things is praying not only for the victims, but also for God's help to make sure this never happens again. One of my prayers is that people will see past the wrong reactions to the truth that this was an act of evil, and evil is what must be eliminated to prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future.
The worst responses, however, have been from Christians. They have ranged from seeing it as anywhere from less of a tragedy to justifiable for one reason: the victims were gay. However, their sexual orientation doesn't make them any less human or any less worthy of living. The terrorist that killed them did so because they were gay, and when we respond in any way other than sorrow, we tell the world that hate can be justified when it's against certain types of sinners. However, according to Romans 3:23, "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" and 6:23 states "the wages of sin is death," so by their reasoning, we should all be gunned down by terrorists. The sin of homosexuality, if it even is one, is no worse than any other, and certainly not the sin of the man who murdered them. As Christians, we need to mourn the victims, pray for the survivors and the families, and most importantly, show that the life-giving love of Christ is for everyone.
The little boy killed by a gator: Sure this is tragic, but why do I know about it? A little boy was allowed to swim in a place with a sign saying swimming was prohibited because there were gators, and he was killed by a gator being a gator. In a world where Christianophobia runs rampant in too many places, from the argumentative atheists here in the US to the sheer terror and daily danger faced by Christians in the Middle East, why is a tragic accident caused in part by stupidity national news? I don't even hear about all the traffic accidents I see around town on the news, so why am I hearing about something that happened in Florida? Yes, what happened is tragic, and yes, I'm praying for his family. I'm just wondering why I know about it when there are so many other tragedies I'm not hearing about on the news.
The death of Anton Yelchin: I'm still in shock about this one, and part of my shock lies in the lack of news coverage of it. I likely would not have found out about it as early as I did had it not been that I am a fan of Star Trek. When the story above made headlines for days, and the news talked about Prince for weeks, it surprised me how little I heard about this. Most of what I've found out about what happened to him I have discovered by researching it on my own.
It's incredibly tragic that such a bright young talent was snuffed out by a malfunctioning system in his SUV. This is not the first instance I have heard about something like this happening, but I keep praying that each instance will be the last. I'm always hopeful that car manufacturers will stop speeding to add new features each year without those features being fully tested. Innovation without proper quality control is literally killing people, and I wonder what the final death toll will be before they stop.
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