A Spiritual Response to the Virginia Tech Tragedy--One Year Later

April 14, 2008

By Buddy Duncan

On Monday April 16^th, 2007 our moral and spiritual sensibilities were once again bludgeoned by a senseless brutal act at Virginia Tech that took the lives of 33 individuals and horribly impacted countless others. Since the earliest reports that morning, our televisions, computer monitors, and minds were filled with non-stop images of brutality and mayhem. With no escape from the non-stop news reports, some attempted to cloister themselves and detach from as much of the horror gnawing in their spirits as possible. Yet, the media relentlessly pursued our longing for understanding with repeated reports that overlapped one another ad-nauseam.

Just when we begin to believe the incessant repeated information may have been exhausted, the evening news exploded with yet another harrowing detail: the estranged killer took time during his killing spree to vent, video, and mail his polemic to NBC news. The arrival of his package was delayed by an incorrect zip code, yet another indication of his lack of functioning on a reasonably normative level.

Unanswered Questions

As the killers profile was microscopically analyzed by pundits far and wide, we were presented a portrait of a troubled, estranged, mentally ill, loner who was disconnected to all those around him. Inside his psyche there apparently simmered a cauldron of hatred deeper than most of us can begin to fathom. So many questions arise that we feel bombarded and overwhelmed to even begin to find answers:

Why did he hate so much?
Was he that mistreated?
What can we do to prevent another event of something this awful?
Why do horrible things keep happening?
What's up with all these school shootings?
Is there a religious element to this?
What is all this about angry young men?
How did Christianity fail him?
How come nobody did anything to prevent this? Did his parents and family not see how off he was?
What were his roommates thinking as they lived with this guy?
How many more mentally ill people are out there waiting to snap?
How is Jesus responding to this?
Why doesn't God stop this kind of stuff before it happens?

We could process these questions and countless others for more hours and days than we'd care to. At the end of the processing I'm still not sure our answers would satisfy the hole we currently feel in our souls.

A Plan of Action

I am Praying that God will Enlighten me/us--As I go through my daily life I won't allow anyone in my realm to be a shadow person like this estranged young killer. I am praying that each day my spiritual awareness will grow and at least attempt to touch the life of anyone around that is hurting so badly. Anne Frank said, “It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.” I know as I pen these words many reading may recoil and say how clueless!

I am a Christian Idealist--I am willfully naïve. This tragedy has again proven that evil is still alive and well in this world. Romans 12:18 tells me as much as is possible live at peace with all men. Note the qualifier; “As much as is possible.” The truth is that in this life some will not allow you to live at peace with them. Jesus tells us we will have wars and rumors of wars. In his earthly life Jesus was constantly assailed by those plotting His death. Clearly Jesus elected to not get embroiled in their wickedness, but rather to so live His life as an example of overcoming evil with good.

In Tragic Circumstances Heroes Arose--As we saw in the tragic events of 9/11, there are countless individuals who are willing to sacrifice their lives to save the lives of others. Our various media outlets elect to primarily broadcast tragedy and mayhem supposedly because that's what people tune in to see and that pays their bills. I also believe that in each day that these heinous acts are committed, literally countless life-giving acts are going unrecorded but not unnoticed. It happened there, it will happen again.

It is Imperative that we Actively Engage our World, Seeking Each Day to Overcome Evil with Good. Far more life has sprung forth from the lives of those willing to offer themselves in the name of peace rather than violence, in the name of life rather than death. Jesus, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr. have each impacted our world in ways far more significant than can ever be adequately stated. They each went against the tide. When darkness raged all around them they each stood their ground and marched headstrong into eternity absolutely confident that right always triumphs over might.

Survival is a Privilege

Evil seeks to steal, kill and destroy, but God has made a plan that has proven throughout the ages that life finds a way. The New Testament says unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed: but if it dies, it produces many seeds. Each one touch one with light and life rather than death and darkness. Our light will not be vanquished. Our lives will spring forth to create even more life. This is our spiritual response to evil. We will not go quietly into the night. Simon Wiesenthal has said, “Survival is a privilege which entails obligations. I am forever asking myself what I can do for those who have not survived.”

Our physical bodies may not have been targeted like those in the classrooms of Virginia Tech, but our souls most surely are. Evil longs to create terror, to destroy hope, to leave us weakened. We have the responsibility to respond not killing but creating, not acting out of hate but out of love. As we have seen gruesome events unfold before our very eyes, we have sometimes thought, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

In light of this ever-present grace, let us choose to seize this day to leave this world better than we found it, loving as we go.

ninetyandnine.com

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Buddy Duncan is chaplain at the Fort Walton Beach Medical Center.