"The Spirit of Violence"

The other morning I woke up and thought to myself on what a different world we live in today.  For those under the age of 30, maybe many of the things occurring in our world just seem normal, as that’s all you’ve ever known. For me, at the age of 61, this world today is vastly different. Sure, back in the 1960’s there was violence and protest.  Some of the protests were over the conflict in Vietnam, and yes, there were serious injuries and even deaths. There was a period of time when there were riots based on race, particularly in a number of inner city regions that had the distinction of urban decay and increasing poverty.  The most deadly riots were in Detroit, MI (1967), Los Angeles, CA (1965), and Newark, NJ (1967).

However, as we got into the 1970’s the number of violent and angry protests began to abate. In recent years a new “spirit of violence” has descended upon our land. From School shootings to drive-by-shootings it would seem we have become a bitter and angry nation.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the tragedy in Orlando, FL were 49 people were shot dead and over 50 people seriously injured by Omar Mateen. Now, this past week (July 7, 2016) police officers were gunned down in Dallas, Texas at a “Black Lives Matter” protest. In the Texas incident the ambush started with gunshots that killed five officers and sent screaming crowds scrambling for cover. It ended when a Dallas police bomb squad robot killed a gunman after negotiations failed.

 The increasing frequency of these stories should be a concern to all of us; however, to hear the Mainstream Media’s account, you would think that all this violence is caused by uncontrolled police brutality. President John Adams once said “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”  Those that seek to polarize and divide our nation have done an outstanding job of using “facts” to make their case.  The truth is the facts they often cite can be very misleading.  There was an interesting news story in the Washington Post that contained some astonishing facts that rarely make the mainstream media narrative because these facts don’t fit the current political narrative.   Here are just a few examples from that story:

Did you know that police officers take longer before firing their weapon on a black suspect than a white suspect?  Did you know that “officers are three times less likely to shoot unarmed black suspects than unarmed white suspects”? Did you know that you’re far more likely to be shot and killed by police if you’re white than if you’re black? If you watch NBC, ABC, CBS or CNN, these facts would be foreign to you.

Despite making up just 13% of the population, black criminals carried out 38% of murders, compared to 31.1% for whites, despite the fact that there are five times more white people in the U.S. than blacks. Recent FBI crime statistics reveal blacks commit eight times more crimes against whites than vice-versa, according to . A black male is 40 times as likely to assault a white person as the reverse.

While these types of statistics contradict political correctness and certain political ideals, they are “stubborn facts,” none the less.

As of this writing there have been 566 people killed by police nationwide. Of those, 136 were black.

Now, let’s look at the killing rate for just one American city, Chicago, Ill.  To date, as of the time of this writing, the total shot & killed is 311. The total shot and wounded is 1779.  The total number of homicides by all causes is 346.  To date only 4 people have lost their lives in Chicago in police related shootings.

The real problem is not a “gun problem,” but rather a “heart problem.”  As our nation’s moral fiber has been torn asunder and our collective conscience neutralized by political correctness and mindless entertainment, these problems continue to breed unabated.  Like a cancer it invades the "body collective" and leaves destruction and death in its wake, the same type of destruction and death that is glorified by the music and movie industry.

This “spirit of violence,” which has descended upon our land, will never be solved by politicians or programs, but only by a change of heart, and that change of heart begins with bringing God back into our culture, and is complete when we accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord.