Impersonal Reasons for a Killing

The killing of over thirty students and faculty last week brings out the best and worst in us. When I went to work that day and Karen mentioned to me what she heard on the news it was so overwhelming that I just wanted` to close my eyes and make it go away. I am in the "avoidance stage" when hearing about more massacres that come from hearts of evil men and women.

The headlines confirm exactly what the Bible says in Ephesians 6: We fight not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavens. How else can we explain the actions of a deranged young man or a group of deranged Muslims who kill hundreds of men, women, boys and girls just to get their coveted news headlines? As one of the wounded survivors said:

Garrett Evans said of the man who'd shot him, "An evil spirit was going through that boy, I could feel it." (Peggy Noonan, OpinionJournal [OpinionJournal@wsj.com], April 20, 2007)

Yes, Mr. Cho was mentally deranged but he was also a walking, talking cesspool of demonic evil that the victims could feel flowing out of him. Just as we can feel the power of God coming through an anointed Christian, believers can discern the presence of evil in a man or group.

Several members of the Korean Campus Crusade at Virginia Tech tried to minister to Cho but he rejected them. A Korean Pastor also attempted to reach him but he was rebuffed. Many times mentally ill people are attracted to Christians and their Jesus. But, like the Gadarene demoniac who feared the power of Jesus, some are repulsed. Evil spirits know their fate is a certain loss of influence.

One of the reasons I do not like to hear all the details of such evil acts is because of the often predictable comments of talking heads on TV and radio. Maybe they tap into my own lack of wisdom about what to say, but politicians and therapists have no choice but to answer the questions put to them so they sometimes say some pretty dumb things. Looking back in a few years I imagine they will wish they had been silent.

For example, the head of the VT Campus Counseling Center said troubled people did not get the help they need because there is a lack of Government funding. (The counselors were impotent against Cho. They have all the financial resources they needed no power to intervene.)

Barack Obama compared the murders to losing a $7.00 an hour job and Barbara Boxer suggested the killings were similar to Global Warming. Others promoted either gun control or more guns as the answer. Can't these people get off "message" for one moment out of respect for the families? Are politicians so narcissistic and driven that they have no empathy for these dead people and their loved ones?

Sometimes pols need to simply act like human beings and respond to the media's obsession with issues with, "I am so sorry. I do not know what to say other than I am grief stricken. Let me go home to my wife and kids and hug them." Shedding a tear is a human response to evil and so is a resolve to fight it. But answering a reporter's query with a canned issue response actually facilitates the evil.

Bryan Williams and NBC gleefully facilitated the evil and Cho's plot by publishing his rants and showing his videos. Just as Islamic TV stations encourage and reward suicide bombings NBC glorified the demonically insane ideas of Cho by using his madness and badness to get ratings.

I refuse to watch the videos and I will not support NBC by watching what passes for "News" on the General Electric owned stations. I am aghast at their callous disregard for the sensibilities of people who fired Imus for making a very bad joke and then turn around and glorify the evil acts of an evil man even before his victims have been buried. (This seems to be a continuation of the NBC approach to put ranting maniacs like Keith Olberman on the air.)

I have prayed for the victims' families and for the University officials. I am also praying for the campus ministries. I will continue my prayers for only God can rescue us from evil men and evil groups of fanatics.