June 1, 2022 – Click here to listen
Today we are once again asking ourselves why kids have begun shooting up schools and killing their classmates. When I was growing up mass school shootings were not happening. Every class I attended began with reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag and then prayer. I was not enamored by prayer at the time, but I at least feigned participation. Why? Because I can personally attest that if a student misbehaved, they were soundly paddled with a wooden paddle, and it hurt.
Egad! Corporal punishment??? How neanderthal of the school system . . . Yep, corporal punishment. If that didn’t work, we were sent home and parents were called. In my case, I would have happily endured twenty paddlings rather than one session with my father.
I went to 19 different schools and bullies always singled me out as the new student. I dealt with them using fists and it worked just fine and I didn’t even think of shooting one. We were taught right from wrong. A boy was a boy, and a girl was a girl. We weren’t allowed in the girl’s locker room or bathrooms and vice versa. We weren’t taught that it was right to have premarital sex, just the opposite, no one I ever met was confused about what gender they were. If they had a penis, they were a boy and if not, they were a girl. Abortions were pretty much unheard of and if a girl got pregnant, it was something to be ashamed of and she either got married quick or went to an unwed mother’s home.
Somewhere along the way all of that changed. School prayer was banned, sex before marriage became openly commonplace, homosexuality came out of the closet and onto the front page. And today no one seems to think it’s wrong to live with someone of the opposite sex rather than marry them. Abortion became acceptable, and corporal punishment was eliminated and termed as cruel. Bullies became free to torment their classmates with impunity and social media anonymously exposed their victims to ridicule in their entire world in nanoseconds.
Should we be surprised if some kid that has been tormented by his classmates and doesn’t fit in becomes angry at being relentlessly teased and ridiculed, and with no discipline or parental controls administered at school or home takes a gun and shoots up a school? They see gun violence on video games, television shows, movies, social media, mainstream media, even comic books.
Discipline is necessary. The Latin origin of the word discipline is ‘to teach’. Disciplining your child means teaching them responsible behavior and self-control. With appropriate and consistent discipline, your child will learn about consequences and taking responsibility for their own actions. God disciplines us and we should discipline our children, (in school, at home, or otherwise). The Bible is not some set of harsh rules. It tells us how to lead a great and happy life. Get your kids to read it.
If someone has even a smidgeon of common sense, they could understand that as a nation we have turned our back on our God and have let our children down. Even a cursory read of the Bible will make it vividly clear that the consequence of that action is for Him to withhold His blessings and bring about judgment. The Bible makes it clear that God’s patience does eventually end, and judgment replaces it.
As always, I hear, “Where was God during this latest shooting?” God was asked or rather told to leave! We need to apologize and ask Him to come back. Try telling that to one of your woke kids or friends. Sigh . . .
Hebrews 12:11
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.