Friday, December 14, 2012

I still believe in life

Today I am reminded that the most important value in my life is one that underpins every thing else in my life.  I believe in life.  Life, every life, is important.  I know that the man who killed all those people had problems in his life.  He must have been very angry or mentally ill, but no matter what, what he did is an abomination that makes heaven itself weep.  Barring mental illness, he is responsible for what he did.  It was his choice, and I leave it to God to judge him.

Why does this keep happening?  Lives are seen as something disposable that can been thrown away to make a statement or when they are inconvenient.  We place the rights of the individual as paramount.  We have a right to treat each other as trash.  We use each other sexually, we cheat on our spouses and throw them away when we get tired of them, we refuse to set up social systems to keep the unfortunate from demeaning poverty.  The people around us are just there for us to use, like we do with the rest of the world.  We consume.  Why are we suprized then when someone uses the lives of the innocent as a way to say what they want to say?

How can we treat any life as disposible?  Life is a gift given to us by God, it came from God and we have no right to destroy it.  Until we resign ourselves to the fact that all life is precious and we have no right to destroy it, or hamper it, or make it not worth living, I fear we will continue to see these kinds of killings.

I pray for all those effected by this tragedy.  For all the parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, etc whose hearts are broken.  I pray for all of us.

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