Why Littleton?
by Michael Fort
Today, many Christians are blaming the violence in video games and movies for the violence in government schools. While they are probably sincere, these Christians are making a fundamental mistake in their reasoning — they are reasoning like conservatives and not Christians. While conservative and Christian worldview positions are often similar, the reasoning is drastically different.Those boys in Littleton did not go on their killing spree because of violent movies and video games. They went on their killing spree because they were totally depraved, as we all are until the Holy Spirit regenerates our wicked hearts. Those boys were born hating God and a decade in the government school system only intensified that hate.
Atheists believe that people are born basically good, and that only a corrupted environment creates corruption in them. The Lord teaches us in Genesis that man was born into a perfect environment but chose to do evil and consequently corrupted his environment. Man corrupts his environment, not the other way around.
Since atheists believe that bad environments cause people to do bad things, they seek to perfect man's environment in order to perfect man. For liberals, this translates into removing firearms. For conservatives, this translates into removing violence from video games and movies.
Who can really blame these Christians though? The blame must lie squarely on the preachers. This group of men would rather talk about godly-goosebumps and warm Jesus fuzzies than ever try to develop a consistent Christian worldview. As a whole, ministers call good evil and evil good.
Besides pointing out the fallacy of that argument, another view that non-Christians have of us should be cleared up. While it is very true that Biblical Law should be the basis of civil government, this should not conjure up images of Orwellian thought police. Biblical Law would not permit the government to censor movies in the way those Christians suggest. In fact, a government run in accordance with Biblical Law would do very little at all.
All the government may do Biblically is punish crime. What is crime? Crime is that subset of sin that God has told us to punish carnally. Immoral should not equate as illegal in our minds (conservatives take note). Murder, theft, adultery, and male homosexuality are some typical Biblical crimes. Biblical punishments include death by stoning, restitution (repayment of loss with some additional factor), and whipping not to exceed 39 lashes. Imprisonment only occurred while awaiting trial.
What are some acts that are not Biblically defined as crimes? The list may surprise you. Soft-core pornography, drug sale and use, drinking alcohol, thinking your own thoughts and yes, even violence in movies. Some of these are sinful but none of these are crimes. We must work to build the world that God would have for us, in accordance to the desires of the Lord — not the desires of popular culture.
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