The following is from Paul Harvey's syndicated column that appeared Tuesday, April 27, 1999. I believe Mr. Harvey hits the nail on the head. See if you agree.
For the life of me, I can't understand what could have gone wrong in Littleton, Colorado. If only the parents had kept their children away from the guns, we wouldn't have had such a great tragedy. Yeah, it must have been the guns...
1. It couldn't have been that our children are being raised in broken homes.
2. It couldn't have been because our children get to spend an average of 30 seconds per day in meaningful conversation with their parents. After all, we give our children quality time.
3. It couldn't have been because we treat our children as pets and our pets as children.
4. It couldn't have been because we place our children in day care centers where they learn their socialization skills among their peers, under the law of the jungle, while employees who have no vested interest in the children look on and make sure no blood is spilled.
5. It couldn't have been because we allow our children to watch, on the average, seven hours a day of TV filled with glorification of sex and violence that isn't fit for adult consumption.
6. It couldn't have been because we allow our children to enter into virtual worlds in which, to win the game, one must kill as many opponents as possible in the most sadistic way possible.
7. It couldn't have been because we have sterilized and contracepted our families down to sizes so small that the children we do have are so spoiled with material things, they have come to equate receiving material with receiving love.
8. It couldn't have been because our children, who historically have been seen as blessings from God, are now being viewed either as mistakes created when contraception failed, or inconveniences that we try to raise in our spare time.
9. It couldn't have been because our nation is the world leader in developing a "culture of death" in which 20 to 30 million babies have been killed by abortions.
10. It couldn't have been because we give two-year prison sentences to teenagers who kill their newborns.
11. It couldn't have been because our school systems, by teaching evolution as fact and by handing out condoms as if they were candy, teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who have evolutionized out of some primordial soup of mud.
12. It couldn't have been because we teach our children that there are no laws of morality that transcend us, that everything is relative, and that actions don't have consequences. What...the president gets away with it.
Nah, it must have been the guns.
While Paul Harvey did not quote one passage of scripture, every point he made could be backed up by many. Sadly, the majority of this world is teaching children there is no accountability or consequence for their actions or decisions. God teaches a much different set of truths than do the so-called "experts" of our day. Please read Hebrews 4:13; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Acts 17:30,31; Proverbs 13:15; Proverbs 14:12; Jeremiah 10:23; 1 Corinthians 1:18-21; Proverbs 14:34. When will mankind learn that when it goes against the laws of God, nothing but disaster, heartache, pain and misery lies ahead. Can man's wisdom be greater than God's? Is truth relative to the day? Can man come up with a better system that can direct his steps while he lives here on earth? Do we remember what happened to Israel when every one did "that which was right in his own eyes?" I must disagree with Mr. Harvey--it wasn't the guns! (Although I believe Mr. Harvey also reached this conclusion!) Leave God out of our children's thinking, and such situations will only become worse instead of better. --KG