Tragedy Again

Tuesday, April 20, 1999. Millions of American kids went to school, like any other day. But it was not any other day, because two kids went to school armed with all kinds of weaponry, and at the end of the day, while millions of American kids came home from school, fourteen, plus one teacher, did not.

By now, we know the victims names, and we know the names of the two murderers who died with them. And in the days since, students, parents, teachers and lawmakers have asked questions about how and why this happened in a quiet, fairly affluent suburb in Colorado. We too, ask questions, but we do not look to psychiatry or psychology or even the penal code for answers. Our answers should come from God. Some dismiss the Bible as old-fashioned, unable to deal with such grave issues as kids killing other kids, but we disagree. We believe the Bible is well-suited to equip us to deal with any problem, particularly problems of morality, of which this is one.

We have often discussed that evil is in this world and comes from Satan, and we have no doubt that is the case with the tragedy in Littleton. The Bible is man's armor in the war against Satan, and so it is there we turn to deal with this brutally sad dilemma. Many of our longtime subscribers will remember that we have dealt with such tragedies before, most recently with the school shootings in Jonesboro, Arkansas. There are so many questions with each such incident that we find it necessary to deal with some of them again in this issue.

In the Jonesboro issue, we focused our attentions on helping our own children understand and overcome their fears, while in this issue, we deal with the problems of evil in the world and of a so- called ""lost generation."" We have reprinted Warren Berkley's article from the Jonesboro issue because we believe it to have been of good use to our families.

Many have sought to place blame for the killings on media, Hollywood, video games, rap music or any number of other cultural factors. We have sought not to do that, despite our misgivings about many of those things. We have also avoided the temptation to blame guns, schools or the entire generation of kids. When we seek blame, we look squarely at Satan, the father of lies (Jn. 8:44), and at the individuals who committed these horrible acts (Ez. 18).

We have not focused our entire issue on this subject, and some may find that insensitive, but we make no apologies for being concerned with Bible issues over social ones. We hope that what we have written on this tragedy will be of use to you in your continued striving to please God.