The Harvest of Shadows:  Guns, Faith, Fear, and Zombies

God, Adam

Whenever some sad soul goes bonkers with a gun, the media instantly goes into a lather of breathless updates and saturation coverage. Yet one single factor evidenced in every American mass shooting remains curiously unaddressed by the media’s “in-depth” coverage. They stubbornly avoid mentioning this determinative factor:

None of the mass-killing perpetrators had a deep spiritual connection with God. 

Camouflage for the Obvious

It’s an undeniable fact. Yet the media won’t identify or focus on it.  Anti-religious dogma brays too loudly from their precarious perch. The media is determined to overcome every barrier; to expand every boundary of human discourse – except where the boundaries of God bear upon moral good or evil. 

Consequently, the media whirls aimlessly around the problem of evil – like autumn leaves blowing through the rigid branches of prejudices that are uniquely theirs.

And it shows. Almost immediately, the media begins to fixate on finding the killer’s motivation.  It’s as if that sole consideration will somehow reconcile their superficial grasp of the larger reality.  What insight has the killer’s motivation ever offered in any mass shooting? No scribbled note of disjointed, delusional rantings can provide the rational justification or preventative resolution for what happened.  Autumn leaves…

But this convulsive reflexive overwhelms the broadcast airwaves after every shooting. The staging is well-practiced: trot out the “talking heads” who summarize opposing positions on either side of “gun control” in 60-second sound bites. Their scripted lines will be voiced in frustrated tones of solemnity and purposed gravitas. The network anchor dutifully heeds each comment before one final question spins the desired political slant. Dismiss the panel. Cut to the commercial.

The media browbeat Americans with these same situational extrapolations and talking points again and again.  It’s a sideshow: “informed” pundits parroting the latest polls or shamelessly promoting their personal political agenda in order to troll for new constituents in the blood-pools of tragedy.  It’s disgusting… and not very helpful.

The media is simply railroading America into one of two opposing “gun control” camps. Stir the rage. Get the ratings. Their gun control predilection lingers profitably.  Conflict is attention-grabbing. But that media obsession equally obscures a breathtaking insight:

“Gun control” has nothing to do with the actual problem!

If it Quacks Like a Duck…

When a culture becomes unhinged from an ultimate reference of Infinite Goodness, human creepiness becomes inevitable. 

This lack of any spiritual connection with God bears a more familiar name: Evil.  What defines the intensity of a contrast if not a reference to the opposing reality?  Darkness is defined as an absence of Light. Similarly, evil is defined as an absence of God.

Because gun control arguments on each side don’t acknowledge the role of evil, they inevitably lapse into logical futility. It’s like calling for “scalpel control” legislation every time a doctor commits surgical malpractice.  Consider the sound-bite parallels:

  • Reduce surgical malpractice by making scalpels harder to obtain! 
  • The majority of surgical deaths are caused by scalpels!
  • Limit the number of scalpels that a doctor can have on his tray at any given time!
  • Smaller scalpels will minimize incision wounds until suture teams can arrive!
  • Mandatory penalties for injuries involving a scalpel will stop malpractice!

The logical disconnect is unveiled by such parallels. Let’s move toward more productive considerations and analysis.

There is a sad consistency observed in mass-shooting perpetrators. Every one of them fit the profile of a social outcast and loner. They felt desperate, unloved, unrecognized and insignificant. That psychological deficit wasn’t caused by either guns or scalpels!

It was caused by a lack of human compassion. But not in them! The decisive deficit of compassion that triggered their tragic decline was first identified in us.

What!? It’s true: our lack of compassion is responsible for these bloodthirsty lunatics. Admittedly, Christian perspectives can often appear both idiotic and perverse to unbelievers. Those silly dogma-saturated Christians always want to love somebody…

Yes, we do!  These evil beings weren’t created that way, folks!  What turned them into such frightfully perverse, sub-human monsters?

Somewhere – at some time, somebody failed these tragic people. Someone didn’t offer their own time or effort to engage them, to make them feel wanted by affirming their unique humanity and precious gifts as “part of the plan” and therefore, part of us. Important to us. And important to God.  They never knew Him. They never saw His goodness in any of us.  Perhaps they were blind.  Or, perhaps we just refused to see.

The Apocalypse of the Undead

Humans can actually die from lack of contact. That’s been proven in babies who never got held or cuddled but otherwise got adequate physical nourishment. They died.

Similarly, a human soul desperately starving for love withers and dies. It’s a miserably slow death of increasing, agonizing daily pain.  But it ends, eventually.  And when it does, something unspeakably inhuman ushers from that grave. The soul died – but the body goes on living.

It’s called a “zombie”. The living dead. They’re not just something from a movie script. They’re real. They showed up in Las Vegas, Orlando, Virginia Beach and Sandy Hook.

Into that crypt-like human wreckage rushes all that is evil.  All that is darkness. All that has forsaken the Light. Yes – we’re talking “demons” here. (This is where the media roll their eyes and walks out. They’ll accept ANY other explanation but this one!)  

Demons enter by various gateways of the human will: resentment, anger, hatred, revenge, despair, envy.  Each dark emotion has its own demon. Demons are terrifyingly powerful beings who don’t give a damn (literally) about human free will. Once entered, they don’t leave voluntarily.  Like the zombies they occupy, they’re also very real.

Again, these evil beings weren’t created that way, folks. God didn’t create demons.  He created angels with free will, just like ours.  When they chose to turn from His Goodness, they became horribly twisted supernatural inversions of the superior intelligence and power God created in them.

Their angelic powers weren’t forfeited by their bad choices any more than our human capabilities are dismissed by ours. These frightfully malicious and powerful demonic hosts have no relationship with – or desire for – God. They hate God. They hate His creations. And therefore, they hate themselves.

Just like the mass shooters.  

“Religion” is about reaching out to bring these dying human souls some “Good News”. Not just us Christians. It’s everybody’s responsibility to offer and restore a sense of value to each individual life that crosses our paths. We must do this spontaneously and reflexively. Every day. In all situations.

This isn’t a mega-church project. It’s an intimate, personal one-on-one battle against individual alienation, isolation, and feelings of insignificance. Start with your own world – the person nearest you. Reach out to the stranger. The harvest grows one seed at a time.  We’re all here to plant those seeds. Not out in Africa… Right here. Now.

The Fear Factor

But Mom told us not to trust strangers!  Unfortunately, whom we chose not to trust, we will eventually fear.  Let’s talk about “fear” for a minute.  It is the anvil of evil.

Fear is the manipulative tool of every megalomaniac tyrant who ever walked the earth. Fear works with an uncanny efficiency. Its ability to subjugate people into cowering subservience knows no equal.  Hitler, Stalin, Genghis Khan, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, the Roman Legions, and Pol Pot used this weapon brilliantly. No surprises there.

Fear also serves the biggest megalomaniac tyrant who ever competed for the title. He was once The Light Bearer; the most powerful, glorious and gifted angel ever created by God. By reason of those very attributes, he fell into pride and envy. He refused to acknowledge any greater reality than himself. Not even in God! God let him go free to create his own reality – apart from God.

Lucifer manipulates mankind to fulfill his own purposes through fear. Fear of God. Fear of death. And most of all, fear of each other.

Gun Facts

Fear is a manipulative tool for bad actors. Only bad people employ it. That fact begs an interesting question for us to stop and consider at this point.

Are you or I very likely to die from a gunshot? 

The statistics answering that question are helpful.  Simply stated: the chances of death by gunshot in America are one out of 84,743. The same as being in Denver’s Bronco Stadium when a gun fired randomly anywhere into the capacity-filled crowd hits only you.  Think Like A Cop, Guns, Shooting, Police Tactics, Self Defense ®

Consider: to what do the talking points on either side of gun control appeal, if not to our fears?  Let’s explore this proposition by framing each opposing consideration:

  • Gun control may reduce my odds of becoming the next victim of a random shooting!
  • Gun control threatens my Constitutional right to bear arms and defend my family against civil anarchy or totalitarian government oppression!

Each position is a rational proposition. Each is sincere. But each is rooted deeply in personal fears.  The odds of each circumstance are small.  The fear that underlies each position is not.

Diluting the Devil’s Dosage

Once we calm down and stop bleating and panicking like frightened sheep, we’ll become more friendly — and more trusting.  

Let’s start by becoming more interested in that person sitting next to us. The person standing behind us in the cashier’s line or next to us on the rail station platform. The mousey, shy worker tucked into that nondescript office cubicle down in the basement.

Let’s try to proclaim and affirm in each other what we share in common. Consider it a brilliant counter-strategy against the current vogue of “celebrating diversity” like a bunch of media lemmings.

Think: The subtle deception of “celebrating diversity” focuses our attention on what divides and individualizes us – what makes us distinct and separate from each other.  As such, promoting “diversity” necessarily accentuates a sense of alienation by focusing us on what proclaims the “stranger” in the other.  We fear strangers.

The “dogma” of a Christian counterpoint rejoices in and celebrate what unites us.  It encourages us to embrace each other in our common human experience and in the love of the God who created all of us.  We embrace friends.

Two opposing agendas. One breeds fear and division. The other encourages trust and unity.  One confirms the manipulative signature of bad actors.  The other, the healing balm of God’s goodness.  Choose.  They are mutually exclusive.  Darkness mixed with light casts only shadows.

Shadows Grow as the Sun Sinks

“Gun control” is one of those shadows. It provides no antidote or solution for evil.  The solution is a personal lifestyle of offering love, encouragement, and compassion to others. Especially to those whose lives have measured less in the balance against our own ambitions, priorities, and selfish pursuits.  

That the “zombies” should resent and hate us for neglecting them is not surprising. That they should exhibit their dehumanized reality in shocking acts of unexpected viciousness is also not surprising. Wounded animals act this way.  And so do wounded humans.

Focusing on “gun control” instead of evil makes as much sense as focusing on scalpels instead of doctors.  Evil is a reality our media-dominated culture won’t acknowledge. That’s because so many of us prefer not to recognize or acknowledge any greater moral reference or reality than ourselves. Perhaps that reasoning sounds familiar…

Let’s renew our individual efforts to be different – let’s strive to reach out. Let’s trust. Let’s be friendly and welcome every stranger as a friend whom we’ve not yet met.

The alternative is to sow more destructive seeds of neglect, alienation, and fear. Where we’re all heading is not good for anybody – regardless of where you stand on gun control.  Gun control is not the issue.  The issue is the zombies. Their inhuman forms and bloody actions increasingly proclaim a culture of death and…

The harvest of shadows.

by Michael White

Guest Contributor: Michael J. White is a Catholic convert, a real estate investment banker, lawyer, Cursillista and father of four boys. Having navigated an Exodus from California, he now lives in Castle Rock, Colorado with Mary Jo, his wife of 36 years. Mike teaches RCIA  at his parish and writes on contemporary faith and economics issues.

 

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6 thoughts on “The Harvest of Shadows:  Guns, Faith, Fear, and Zombies”

  1. The Las Vegas shooting has dropped off the media screens. Hmmmmm.
    Coincidence of course. But, anyway, have you ever see any of the security videos of this man bringing his very many weapons inside a Vegas casino which has, I would bet, many hundreds of security cameras.
    No, you haven’t and you won’t. ‘Cause, like, there was kinda, maybe, more than one shooter??

  2. Hi mike. I am curious to hear your answer to my question: to Muslims—and I am no expert there- allah is god. The msm, the atheists, etc have used the allah/ god connection to promote the “ I hate all religion” because it results in hate crimes. After 9/11, the atheists were having a field day dressing down all faiths claiming that religion promotes violence. I was two blocks away from the San Bernardino massacre done in the name of the Muslim god. Either the Muslim god is not god or your opening salvo fails. How am I wrong ?

    1. David,
      As a lawyer, let’s engage that proposition logically. There is only Truth. Truth is necessarily singular, not plural. And therefore, Truth can logically bear only one singular reference of definition. Consequently, only one source can be an absolute reference of all Truth – whom both Christians and Muslims identify as a singular “God”. Yet human ideas of God are NEVER definitive of that Reality – which necessarily exceeds the constraint of any merely mortal cognition. So by definition, whatever is Truth must be revealed to humans by and through that singular Reality. Yet both Muslims and Christians claim their religious “truth” about God is “revealed”. To the degree such religious “truths” diverge and oppose each other (and they do!) one of those claims must necessarily be identified as false. But which one? There are only TWO sure tests of “revelation”. The first is consistency: no revealed Truth can later reverse or contradict any prior revelation. The second is miracles: they are the objective fingerprint of a Source outside of physical time and space having the power to surpass and alter both. As such they confirm “revelations” as coming from that Source. Jesus never preached or authorized revenge or practiced the taking of human life. Mohammed did both and singled out the Jews as targets of his own decrees of atrocity and revenge in expelling Jews in AD 624 (Qaynuqa), AD 625 (Nadir) and the wholesale slaughter or enslavement of the Jews in Medina – the Qurayza – after their surrender. Is that consistent with recognizing the Jews as God’s “Chosen People” (a long-standing Christian belief – even as individual Christians betrayed that same belief in the Crusades)? Mohammed’s decrees were creeds of his “revelation” and he attributed them to a direct revelation from the Archangel Gabriel. Really? To this very day, there remain tangible present-day physical evidences of miracles in the Catholic Church. The muslim creed bears no similar current physical evidence of miracles to my knowledge. They have no modern equal to the Miracle of the Sun witnessed by over 70,000 people in 1917. The 10 Commandments given to Moses said thou shalt not kill. Mohammed did not confirm that teaching; Jesus did. Fingerprints and consistency. They are all you need. Discern accordingly. It’s just not that hard, is it? Truth is logical. So when a religious creed contradicts logic (ie, inconsistent revelations and lack of confirming miraculous “fingerprints”) it is has nothing to commend it as “Truth” except a merely human acclamation. Human acclimation may be ascribed as a “religion” but will never independently confirm itself as “Truth”. Any “religion” that promotes hatred, persecution and killing and revenge as a duty to “God” in order to force submission upon the free will of a human being bears its own unmistakeable fingerprints…

  3. Michael JW-This is sooooooooo goooooooooooood, I wanted to get a comment in long before the gun controltrolls find this.

    There is a perfectly 100% legal way for the democrats and other totalitarians to impose gun control so that only the tax-paid-for bodyguards of their children have guns: the Constitution itself lays out the legal means for changing – amending – the Constitution. All those among the ilk of Hitler, Stalin, Hillary, Castro, and Barry need to do is do what the Constitution mandates. Bye bye 2nd Amendment; so long freedom.

    Thank you for saying what so many will not say, and saying it so well.

    Guy McClung, Texas

    1. Thanks for reading and for your comments, Guy! Agreed – the constitutional amendment process is the authorized mechanism for addressing the Right to Bear Arms. But no matter where one falls on the “gun control” issue, both sides must concede that laws which seek to restrict or enforce human behaviors are simply unable to eliminate the underlying reality of evil in ALL of us. Evil and consequent sin will remain as long as our fallen humanity persists in procreating itself. Consequently, whenever a given instrumentality of evil is constrained, an alternative will inevitably arise to take its place. No mere human constraint has ever subdued the indomitable power of human resourcefulness over time… It’s just one long, tragic game of whack-a-mole until it stops at the Cross. Christians rest in that hope as equally inevitable… and assuredly greater.

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