This is an article I found regarding the Columbine shooting, but it is just as relevant.
COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL AND YOU
How can we understand the carnage at Columbine High School of Littleton, Colorado? One reason may be the freedom that the courts have given students, but we must go much deeper for the real reason.
Many are asking, "Why did two students go on a rampage and kill fellow students? What can be done to prevent similar tragedies?" One thing seems certain -- those who think that it takes a village (Washington, D.C.) to raise a child, will have their ideas.
One reason may be the freedom that the courts have given students, but the real reason goes much deeper. The real question is not Columbine High School. It penetrates to the roots of Christian ministries and Christian families. But for now, back to students and their freedoms.
Students have been freed from Bible reading and prayer. They have been freed from being exposed to a copy of the Ten Commandments hung on a wall. By preventing creationism from being taught in the schools, evolution (that pseudoscience that says anything can happen if you allow enough time) has freed them from the God of Creation.
Freeing students from the Bible and from the God of Creation, has freed them from knowing why they are here. They have been freed from knowing the meaning of life. Life has become meaningless.
They have been freed from a Creator who says what is right and wrong. They have been freed from a God who will judge and punish. They have been freed from a heaven to gain, and from a hell to avoid.
Students have been freed from the value of life. If we can't tell when human life begins, then any abortion, at any time from the movement of conception, may kill a human being, and life in our country is protected by our Constitution. But it seems that the Supreme Court could not follow this simple logic. Now, if a baby's head is born, but his feet are not yet born, it is legal to kill him. If an expectant mother can kill her unborn baby, we have taken a big step in freeing students to take the lives of fellow students.
Having been freed from the fear of God (which is the beginning of wisdom -- Prov. 1:7) and the moral restraint of this fear, to an alarming extent young people have also been freed, by parents, schools, and the juvenile courts, from the wisdom that is imparted by the rod and rebuke (Prov. 19:15). They have been freed to bring shame to their mothers (Prov. 29:15).
After freeing them from moral restraint, the world has given students music that teaches violence and glamorizes suicide, violence on TV and in movies, and video games that provide vicarious participation and training in violence. Why should we be surprised and shocked by the carnage at Columbine high school?
The family -- God's glue for society -- has disintegrated. All too many students have been freed from parental guidance. An alarming number have even been freed from having both a mother and a father. Most of those who have two parents have been freed from spiritual guidance, a moral compass, or even a moral example.
Christianity, through the work of God, transforms society. But in the last 50 or 60 years, society in the United States has disintegrated. The United States is now a post-Christian nation. And the results look very much like Romans 1:28 -- "God gave them up . . . ."
Why is the United States now a post-Christian nation? Could it be that we have failed to follow God's plan?
If we have lost the United States, and if we don't know why, how can we know how to regain it? If we don't know why we have lost the United States, can we have any assurance that our missions work, whether here or abroad, will avoid similar failures?
Did we fail to follow God's plan? Did we miss His instructions? Shouldn't we go back to the Scriptures and see if our church programs reflect His plan? Shouldn't we go back to the Scriptures and develop a biblical philosophy of ministries?
