Tragedy

There have been a number of newsworthy tragedies the past few weeks.

There was the death of that poor gorilla...shot to protect the naughty boy. The boy whose horrible parents didn't watch him properly. 
That never would have happened to my kids because I was a perfect parent. Those people should be punished for their negligence...All stupid parents should be punished!

Then there was the story about the rape of that young woman. The rapist was given such a light sentence! That guy should rot in prison! I can't believe he did that! I partied in college but I would never have raped anybody! Lock him up for life!
Well, that girl was partly at fault. I mean, she shouldn't have gotten so drunk that she passed out. She was practically asking to be assaulted.
I would never have put myself in that situation. I'm glad I'm not that stupid.

Did you hear the latest? 50 people dead, and 53 injured. By that Muslim who may or may not have ties to ISIS. We can all agree that this was tragic!
Wait...or can we?
"Yeah, what a tragedy"...but secretly we know it doesn't affect us that much because, after all, the people killed and injured were "gay". 
It was awful...but at least I'm way better than those gay people...Those sinners.

Let's talk about the guy who shot all of those people. We can't cry out for his blood, because he's already dead. But we can call for the blood of other Muslims. Because they are all evil.
Well, they are! They're killing people whom they deem sinful...Christians, gays, Americans...for no reason! And all in the name of Allah, their God! They are trying to defend their God's laws by killing those who break them! Ridiculous!! Who are they to judge us?

We should all be carrying guns and shooting them, before they have a chance to shoot us! They have such a warped idea of who God really is! They deserve to die! It's us or them, people! That's right. Protect myself at all costs. It's me and mine first. I'm right. They're wrong. I'm good. They're bad. I"m smart. They're stupid. Besides, we've got to defend God, the real God...the God of love...and mercy...and grace.  Right?

We try to keep ourselves "safe" by setting ourselves above those to whom bad things happen, thus explaining it away. They were stupid. They were careless. They somehow deserved it.
And then we particularly remind ourselves how far we are above the people, those people, who do bad things. We are especially better than them! They are stupid and evil...and sinful.


Life is often tragic. I believe that nothing escape God's sight. I believe He weeps over every tragedy.
But the news spotlights certain events to keep their viewers riled up. And to give us something to argue about over social media. Ultimately, it helps to keep us pitted against each other. 

And this, my friends, just might be one of the greatest tragedies of all...