One Little Word Newsletter - May 30, 2022
The tragic mass shooting in Uvalde, the SBC report on mishandling sexual abuse, and The Land Center's webinar on post-Roe activism
Happy Memorial Day. I'm so thankful for the many soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom here in America. Two things come to mind for me on Memorial Day. First, John 15:13, in the King James Version which I learned as a child:
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
Jesus, Christians believe, is the ultimate man who gave his life for his friends.
And then I think of Ronald Reagan’s iconic D-Day speech at the Normandy battlefield in France. You really need to give it a watch. It gives me chills every time I see it. It was delivered June 6th, 1984, at the 40th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy. Joe Carter has wonderful write up of the speech, written by, who else, Peggy Noonan. Seriously, you should watch it.
We are all reeling, of course, from yet another tragic mass shooting, this time in the small town of Uvalde. I can hardly comprehend the evil of someone who can gun down innocent children in a school classroom. I can’t comprehend the anguish of the parents. It’s becoming a too-common reality. Hopefully, prayerfully, this time will provoke us to take action to help prevent another. To do that, I think it will take all of us, which is what I wrote in my column for World:
“We should demand that our elected officials come together, cross party lines, and act where there is consensus. This problem will not go away by sloganeering for the next election, pretending that half the country is to blame, demonizing those whose solutions might be different from ours, and collapsing this entirely into the fault of gun manufacturers or sociological explanations alone. If we solve the problem of deadly violence, we will have to do it together, Republicans and Democrats, gun owners, and those who don’t own guns. Reason—not opportunism—will be necessary.
What’s more, while our lawmakers craft and debate legislation, we might be more vigilant in looking out for alienated young men, forgotten by society and radicalized by the internet, with so many wounded by absent fathers. All of us—pastors, parents, police, teachers—can do more than we are doing. We won’t stop every act of murder in a culture of death in a fallen world, but we may prevent some. And in doing so, keep another group of parents from experiencing the terror of Uvalde.”
What does this look like? I’m not sure, but a few pieces I read that were helpful to understanding the complexity of gun violence:
David French unwinds some of the myths about gun violence and urges the passing of red flag laws. This makes a lot of sense.
This Dispatch Podcast was enormously helpful in understanding the mass shooting crisis and what might actually be possible and effective.
Samuel James gets at the epidemic of lost young men in our society. I was with a leader this week who said to me that we have more fatherless young men than any time in our history. So many are alienated and alone, left to be radicalized into anger by the Internet or other influences.
Tish Warren reminds us that while we need to work on the multi-layered issue of violence, the grieving people of Uvalde do want our thoughts and prayers.
In other news, the anticipated, but no less troubling, report about the SBC’s mishandling of sexual abuse claims was shattering and sobering and sad. I’m praying that our denomination will work hard to do right by survivors and make the necessary changes. I appreciated Dr. Mohler’s response:
“The weight of truth calls for repentance, broken-hearted concern, and a concerted determination to make things right. We will not get—and will not deserve—a second chance at this.”
You should also read Dana McCain. But then again, you should always read Dana McCain.
In other news, we had our symposium last week at The Land Center on human dignity. Baptist Press wrote up a nice report on it. We also announced our Senior Fellows Dr. David Dockery, Dr. Ben Mitchell, and Dr. Nathan Finn.
And this coming week, we will also be hosting an online event on June 1st where Chelsea Sobolik, Katie Frugé, Dean Nelson, Patrick Brown, and I will be discussing the pro-life movement after Roe. If you’re interested in attending, please register here. I also had the chance to review Isaac Adams’s excellent book, Talking About Race for pastors on navigating racial conversation.
A few other things I enjoyed:
This conversation with Collin Hansen and Russ Ramsey about art, faith, and Rembrandt.
This book review of Thomas Kidd’s new Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh by Barton Swaim in the Wall Street Journal. I had a chance to interview Kidd this week for a future edition of The Way Home Podcast. Here’s his newsletter on friendship where he takes a look at what Alan Noble wrote for The Gospel Coalition.
And lastly in books, I’m reading and enjoying immensely and learning from Mark Sayers’s book A Non-anxious Presence.