March 2018
/Dear friends,
We are saddened by the tragic news that a gunman once again walked into a school, this time in Florida, and began shooting students. He left 17 dead. The usual calls for more gun control immediately followed along with the demonization of the NRA and anger pointed at politicians who take money from the gun lobbyists. The solution to the problem of gun violence seems obvious and simple enough. Take away the guns and there will be no more mass shootings. When emotions run high, people naturally tend to grasp at straws and to look for easy answers. But the solution to the problem of gun violence is not as simple as it seems. How do you get rid of the guns when there are more guns in this country of 300 million people than there are people?
Australia confiscated firearms in a nationwide buy-back program and made gun ownership illegal but shootings still continue in Australia much as they did before. Why? We can answer that question by asking another. Why didn’t prohibition work in the 1920s and '30s? Laws were passed to make the production and sale of alcohol illegal but people kept drinking all the same. Prohibition had to be repealed, because it gave rise to organized crime; a worse evil than the one it sought to end. Likewise, in the 1980s we appointed a Drug Czar to fight the war on drugs. How well has that gone? Sadly, we have lost that war. Why? Because, organized crime will not be deterred by laws and because there is a great demand in this country for pot and crack cocaine. People who want to get high will find a way to do it; as every teenager in this country crying now about gun control knows.
We can abolish the second amendment but people who want a gun will still be able to get one and shootings will continue. Why? Because, the problem isn’t guns. The problem is sin. Human nature, created in the image of God is basically good. But human nature has been corrupted by sin. Sin, the rejection of truth and the attraction we have to believe and prefer lies, is the root of our problem. Sin can only be controlled and overcome by grace. Therefore, the problems we have, shootings, alcoholism, and drug abuse, can only be solved for us by God. We need God. That’s the truth. And until we turn to God and accept the truth, our problems will only intensify.
For example: it is a terrible thing when 17 students get murdered for no reason. We all stop as a nation to mourn. But on the same day as those poor children were gunned down, about 100 of our friends and neighbors were killed in car accidents. This mass slaughter gets no notice because the deaths were spread over all 50 states. Were the lives of those victims less important? But where is the call for action? Where is the call for justice? Why is there no passion to end this brutal slaughter on our highways? Most of the accidents are caused by drivers under the age of 25? Isn’t it time that we raised the legal age of driving to 25? Isn’t that an obvious solution; one that would save dozens of lives a day? If guns kill people, cars kill even more people. Should we not make car ownership illegal?
About 75 people a day die from prescription drug overdoses? Should we not shut down the pharmacies, make opioids illegal and throw the doctors who prescribe this stuff in jail? Why not? It would save thousands of lives a year.
About the same number of people die every day from overdosing on non-prescription drugs as die from prescription drugs. How is it possible that so many die each day from heroin and crack when we have laws forbidding the sale and use of those drugs? It happens because laws don’t matter to law breakers. God told Adam what would happen to him if he ate of the forbidden fruit but he ate of it anyway. That’s the problem. The problem wasn’t the fruit on the tree. That problem isn’t guns or cars or drugs. The problem was the sin in Adam’s heart. And that still is the problem. People who think that laws are made to be broken are the problem. Restore respect for the natural laws of God and for speed limits and for other civil laws and you will solve the problem.
Why didn’t we have these problems, at least not nearly as awful as we have them today, in the 1950’s? Back then we left home without locking our doors and walked around at night without fear because the vast majority of people in this country went to church and took their kids to Sunday School. And as a result, the vast majority of Americans had respect for the laws of God and for the civil laws. The whole attitude was different. What’s changed? What’s changed is that there is no “war on women” in this country. That is classic demagoguery designed to confuse fools. But there has been a war on Christianity and a whole sale rejection of Christian moral values propagated by the sexual revolution that has ripped up the fabric of this culture and left us in shreds. Everyone today is “liberated." But the liberation we celebrate today in the secular culture is a false liberation. Jesus Christ is humanity’s Redeemer. We are only truly liberated from sin to the extent that we conform to his word and allow his grace to heal our souls.
In other words, when this county gave up on Christ in the 1960s and embraced the sexual revolution, we began living a lie. We are all paying today for that betrayal of the truth. That’s the truth. And until America faces up to it, you can confiscate all the guns and pass all the laws you want, but you’ll never solve the problem until you restore in the hearts of the American people respect for the laws of God.
Faithfully,
The Reverend Jansen String
Dates to Remember
Sunday March 4 Holy Eucharist 9 am. Fr. Tobias Haller will preach and celebrate.
Thursday March 8 Easter Egg Making begins, 5pm
Friday March 9 Easter Egg Making, 9:30am–4pm
Saturday March 10 Easter Egg Making, 9:30–4pm
Sunday March 11 Holy Eucharist, 9 am. Easter Egg Making continues following the service, lunch at noon
Monday March 12 Easter Egg Making, 9:30–4pm
Tuesday March 13 Easter Egg Making, 9:30–4pm
Wednesday March 14 Easter Egg Making, 9:30–4pm
Saturday March 17 Easter Egg pick up, 10 am–4pm
Palm Sunday March 25 Holy Eucharist, 9am
Holy Thursday March 29 Holy Eucharist followed by stripping of the altar, 7pm
Good Friday March 30 Stations of the Cross and prayers, 7pm
Easter Sunday April 1 Holy Eucharist, 9am