I was a junior in high school in 1966 when I became aware of the depth of evil in our country. Mass murder would become a common event over the next forty some years. Some of these murders would make a lasting impression on me. The pictures of the eight nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital murdered by Richard Speck to the clock tower at the University of Texas campus in Austin where Charles Whitman, kills 15 people and wounds another 32 before being shot dead by police. That was in 1966. I have never forgotten the picture of the clock tower or the bodies scattered on the ground or the pictures of the eight nurses. Evil hearts have a deadly face.
Over the years, I have also often asked myself this question, “What has changed in America that can explain the increase in evil by individuals?” After forty years in the ministry and almost thirty years as a teacher what has changed is that there is far less religious influence today. When I first started teaching in public school I was amazed at the number of students who had never attended a church and that includes funerals and weddings. So it is not surprising they would not know “Thou shall not commit murder.”
That brings to mind the next question, where does the idea for these horrible evil crimes originate? Violent movies? Violent video games? Political warfare language? Or, like the Arizona sheriff investigating the recent shooting said, “The vitriol affects the [unstable] personality. . .” Are these factors contributing to the increase in mass murders?
Not to sound arrogant but I do have the answer, as the Shadow would say, “It is the evil that lurks in the hearts of men.” The prophet Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Murder starts in the heart. It is a spiritual condition. I know the progressive socialist won’t accept this. They will look everywhere for an explanation except where the answer lies---in the heart. To stop these violent acts the heart needs to be changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Much of popular culture minimizes religion, glorifies foolishness, wallows in corruption, and revels in cruelty, mayhem, blood, gore and sadism. All of this feeds the evil heart. Will it ever stop? History would tell us, NO! In my life time, starting in 1966 I have followed the stories of the mass murders and they continue to show the evil heart of man. Here is a time line of the mass murders which have occurred during my life time from 1966 to 2011 and I am sure I have missed some.
January 14, 2011 Tucson, Arizona, U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 17 others were shot at a public event—6 were killed.
April 3, 2009, Jiverly Antares Wong- Fourteen were killed and 4 wounded in the Binghamton, New York shootings
November 5, 2009 Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 people and wounded 30 others
February 2, 2008 - Five women were shot dead in a clothing store at a suburban Chicago shopping center in what police said appeared to be a botched robbery.
Feb 7, 2008 - A gunman killed two police officers and three city officials when he stormed a city council meeting in a St. Louis suburb. The gunman was later shot dead by police.
February 8, 2008 - A nursing student fatally shot two women and killed herself in front of classmates at Louisiana Technical College in the state capital, Baton Rouge.
February 14, 2008 - A man fired into a lecture hall packed with students at Northern Illinois University, killing five people and wounding 18 before shooting himself dead.
June 25, 2008 - A worker at a plastics plant in Kentucky shot and killed five people inside the factory and wounded a sixth before killing himself.
April 16, 2007 - Virginia Tech, a university in Blacksburg, Virginia, became the site of the deadliest rampage in U.S. history when a gunman killed 32 people and himself.
December 5, 2007 - A gunman opened fire in a shopping mall in Omaha, Nebraska, killing eight people and wounding five, before fatally shooting himself.
December 9, 2007 - A Colorado man shot dead four people at a Christian missionary training center and a church, then died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the rampage.
September 1, 2001, Twin Towers- 2998 killed.
April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing 168 killed.
October 1991George Hennard drives his pickup truck to Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, then shoots dead 23 people before killing himself.
February 16, 1988, Richard Farley shot and killed seven people at ESL and wounded four others.
August 1986 A former employee enters a post office in Oklahoma and shoots dead 14 workers before killing himself.
July 1984 Twenty-one people are killed when a 41-year-old man opens fire at a McDonald's restaurant in San Diego. He is shot by police.
February 1983 Three men shoot dead 14 people in the Wah Mee club in Seattle's Chinatown.
January 7, 1973 Mark Essex killed 9 people, including 5 police officers, and wounded 13 others in New Orleans between December 31, 1972 and January 7, 1973.
August 1966 Charles Whitman, a former marine, holes up in the clock tower at the University of Texas campus in Austin, where he had studied. He kills 15 people and wounds another 32 before being shot dead by police.
July 14, 1966 Richard Speck systematically tortured, raped and murdered eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital.
The proverb, "Fear only two: God and the man who has no fear of God," is a warning to our country. Solomon says, The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. Our country needs the fear of God put within our hearts--- that is the remedy for the evil that lurks in the hearts of men.
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