Matthew 7 13Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Following the shooting at Covenant Christian School in Nashville, Tennessee, I googled this question: “How many school shootings happen in Israel?” Here is the opening headline from a CBS report:
TEL AVIV -- It's an inescapable fact that school shootings are rare outside the United States, and virtually unheard of in Israel. So, what are the Israelis doing differently? At one high school in Israel, we saw a typical scene -- an armed guard outside the main entrance.
In Israel of course, there is always the threat of Islamic nations whose terrorism tactics surround Israel, something we don't experience from the nations surrounding us. However, terrorism is terrorism, and usually, people die when it is experienced in any nation or neighborhood.
As usual, when terrorism like this occurs in our nation, we always immediately attack the weapon and cry out for stricter gun control. Many in Washington and several State Legislatures want to show some resolve against gun violence and go after the culprit that is least at fault. More discussion must focus on the mental illness that our culture has created and perpetuates in our nation. I think most Americans would agree that no one is in their right mind who goes into a school and kills innocent unarmed children and adults. What that would say to any civilized community is, "This can be preventable if we want to prevent it.” It is preventable, but it has nothing to do with banning guns and going down the same recycled talking points commonly parroted following a tragedy.
Look back at the CBS report at the top of this blog. One thing Israel does is because it realizes it is in a terrorist-prone world. is to put protection on the school grounds as a strong deterrent to any kind of attack. So, the number one change that must be made is the mindset that nothing can happen here at our schools. It can happen, and it’s just a matter of time before it does. The mindset change begins with, ‘Our number one job is to protect.’ We saw the shooter break into the locked school building by shooting out the door glass to gain access. I believe that triggered the alarm system that warned there was a breach in the building's security. It was about 14 minutes or so before any local police officers were able to arrive at the scene and contain the threat, but by then, 6 people were killed. In protecting a school compound, security on the ground needs to act immediately, and backup security must be in place with the administration itself. I see no other way to protect our schools from violence without changing the way we approach this problem. Alarms and electronic notifications to police are all good ways of protecting a school compound, but it is not enough.
Terrorists don’t care if they die, in fact, they know they probably will, but before they do, their unstable mind is going to kill people. Schools have become Petri dishes for mentally unstable people.
So, first, we change the mindset, terrorism can be anywhere.
Second, protect with boots on the ground.
Third, rethink our culture and start realizing that culture must be grounded in some way.
At present there is nothing that unifies our nation. We are so divided, and a divided nation will not stand. Somewhere, our liberties have driven us away from sanity. We live in a society that demands the most vital freedoms, all in the name of exercising liberty. What we have permitted is the liberty of a single voice to shout fire in a crowded venue, and that liberty of one voice has caused fear to run its course of trampling others to death. The irony is the majority of Americans do not want their country to be run by a minority of people whose agenda is to virtually destroy our country. The liberty of some who want to bring socialism to America is treason against the Constitution and the nature of what America was founded upon.
And finally, we need to once again call evil, evil, and not good. The deaths in our schools are evil, call it by any other name you want, but at its core it is evil. What is happening to our schools is first played out by the ideas that now rule America. The ‘woke crowd’ has a narrative that says, “Down with everyone but them, agree with us, or die.” Americans blame guns, blame racism, blame the political structures, blame, blame, and more blame. The blame game never ends, and the only thing that matters is my liberty, so my war is to protect my liberty while restricting the liberty of others.
Our grounding as a nation must cultivate a resurgence of who we are as a nation. Yes, we all come from various places, but all people regardless of nationality, must focus on how we protect our young against the mentally ill terrorists who want to do them harm. The number one principle that is found in all humanity, in all nations, is to protect the young, yet in America, we seem to have lost that principle.
Our liberty of feeding on evil has opened the door to what Jesus called the broad gate. It is a gateway where anything goes, do what your liberty wants you to do … but there is a cost. That cost is ultimate destruction. The broad gate is the path America is on.
Demonic activity is always found in the broad ways of humanity, and those whose lives promote the ‘woke agenda’ are the cheerleaders for how far the broad gate can go. Jesus talked about the narrow gate, leading to the resources of a loving God who wants us to live in the prosperity of His care.
It’s time to change our thinking on how our permissiveness has allowed evil to rule the ideas in the land. Our negligence in pushing back and standing against evil is astounding to me, and I hope it is to you as well.
Challenging the Culture with Truth … Larry Kutzler