Beyond the Hot Takes

Oh, I have plenty of hot takes. But I want to focus on the real substance.

As our nation has become increasingly secular, we all, regardless of ideology, faith, politics, and conviction, are tempted to seek political solutions for spiritual problems.

There is no real political solution to evil. A Christian school in Nashville yesterday confronted evil. Three children, including the pastor’s daughter, died, along with three adults. Police killed the shooter — a mentally ill twenty-eight-year-old woman who identified as a man. Some reports, including the chief of police, got this backward. The shooter was a biological female who used male pronouns. Even this morning, transgender activists are expressing their displeasure that some press outlets referred to the shooter as female.

Karen Lopez @datachick

5 times @CNN misgendered. No correction. A mass shooting is horrible. Misgendering does not make anything better.

This week, transactivists have declared a “day of vengeance” in Tennessee for the state passing a law prohibiting gender mutilations and hormone therapy for children. Terry Moran of ABC News tied the passage of that law to the shooting as if to excuse or explain the shooter. In fact, time and again, the press increasingly has found ways to excuse or explain away leftwing violence like this. The evil actor was, in fact, the victim constantly becomes the theme.

Jorge Bonilla @BonillaJL

IT BEGINS: ABC's Terry Moran ties the Nashville school shooting to Tennessee's recently-passed legislation banning the hormonization and mutilation of minors. The shooter was 28.

Newsweek @Newsweek

Drag shows and gender-affirming care for minors were banned in Tennessee this month, while assault weapons remain legal.

newsweek.comTennessee Republicans’ ban on drag shows mocked after mass shootingDrag shows and gender-affirming care for minors were banned in Tennessee this month, while assault weapons remain legal.

Sadly, these conversations turn political. Should guns be banned? Should we fund mental health more? Should we hire or fund security for schools to stop shooters? All these are political and political policy positions.

What happened was evil devolved from a spiritual problem running amok in our society.

Transgenderism is not normal. It is a mental health issue. Its activists are increasingly violent. More and more have declared their intent to be violent. They shout down, bully, harass, and attempt to cancel others.

Lonestar MVE @matthewhoke

@ConceptualJames Doesn't look peaceful

Aaron Sibarium @aaronsibarium

An English professor at Wayne State University says the Stanford hecklers who disrupted judge Duncan didn’t go far enough. It is “far more admirable,” Steven Shaviro said, to “kill” transphobes instead of shouting them down.

reason.comProfessor Suggests Murder as Alternative to Shouting Down SpeakersA professor takes to social media to suggest that murdering speakers with whom you disagree is a better strategy than shouting them down.

Kevin McMahon @Kevin__McMahon

they hate you

But this shooter goes beyond all that. She went back to the school of her youth to murder innocent Christian children and those who cared for them. It was evil.

Evil is not generated by God or caused by God. Evil is the absence of God. A society that has driven God out of its conversations, thoughts, and institutions is a society that must deal more and more with evil in the Godless vacuum of moral relativism. It is in that vacuum of relativism that society begins its war on truth and its embrace of evil.

Archbishop Chaput once noted that evil preaches tolerance until it is dominant, and then it seeks to silence good. We see that more and more. That evil exists in a society that drives God out, who in turn hands men and women over to their own depravities.

Plenty of scoffers are scoffing at Christian children in a Christian school tied to a conservative Christian denomination (my own denomination) being murdered. “Where is your God,” they ask.

The response must be that