More Die While We Point Fingers and Skirt the Cure
How Long Before We Do What Jesus Said?
America is angry again.
Angry that more schoolchildren are dead.
Angry that guns are the reason again.
Angry that they died while praying, and God seemed neither to see nor care.
Angry that guns and people are out of control, and nothing gets done.
And fingers are pointing.
Again.
"Prayer is not freaking enough," said MSNBC host and former White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, a comment that went viral after the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on August 27.1
"I don’t expect a spiritually blind person to understand prayer," retorted Karen Hamilton, a candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates.2
Jesus didn't call for sword control.
We've been here before, and we will be again, until we believe and act on what Jesus said regarding a horror similar to the shooting at Annunciation.
The Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, had massacred a Jewish congregation while they worshiped. We don't know why the newsmongers brought this to Jesus' attention, but His answer suggests they wanted to boost their own self-esteem.
"Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things?" He asked.
"They perished, and so will you, unless you repent."3
He cut off the finger-pointing and pressed the group not to rebel against the Romans, nor to appeal to an international court for justice, and not even to demand laws to control swords and spears.
Instead, Jesus exposed the condition underlying the news, then prescribed the course of action.
Our hearts pump out the social sewage.
You will likewise perish. Jesus was speaking to Jews but insisted that the same antisemitism, the same condescension, the same heart for oppression that sliced through a group of worshipers beat in them.
"Out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, murders, pride, foolishness," and a score of other evils, He said.4
Another time, He said, "You, being evil, know to give good gifts to your children."5
We have believed the lie that psychologists, legislators, and educators have told us: that we are inherently good and that therapy, laws, and schooling will scour our misconduct. Consequently, we pursue the same programs that ancient cultures developed and proved ineffective.
“Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle.” Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence."6
Demand "Hands off the guns" all you want, but the hands are only executing the hatred in our hearts. They will find another means, just like Cain, who killed his brother.
Beyond self-healing is God's cure
Our mindset is, "Physician, heal yourself." We know we are socially sick, as our outrage proves, and try to self-heal with DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) training, medications, legislation, and environmental clean-up—all to clean up ourselves.
Jesus prescribed a different course of action.
Repent.
The word means to change your mind. Look where your thinking has brought you, and change direction.
A prophet centuries before Jesus shows what this looks like:7
I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. None of them repent of their wickedness, saying, “What have I done?” Each pursues their own course like a horse charging into battle.
Why do we resist this? Why does Jeremiah say no one repents, and Paul laments, "No one is righteous, not one"?
See the need, then do what Jesus said.
I find the answer in the aftermath of the Annunciation school shooting.
We don't see the need for it. We are self-righteous and divided, each side convinced it occupies the high moral ground.
To one, the call to repent means to recognize the source of these evils and the failure of laws, training, and good efforts to quell them. It means to discard the notion that we are self-healers and accept God's assessment:
Thus says the LORD: 'Your affliction is incurable, your wound is severe. There is no one to plead your cause, that you may be bound up; you have no healing medicines.
I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased.
Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable. Because of the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased, I have done these things to you.
"I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds," says the LORD.8
To the other, repentance calls us to shed our spiritual smugness. We boast how we read the Bible, pray, attend church, and donate liberally, yet the perishing goes on. Guns keep shooting, children keep dying, and the divide grows wider, our pride bolder, and the hatred harsher.
What are we to do?
Let's do what Jesus said, "Repent."
We have laws galore, have promoted DEI, have rioted and protested, and have shouted each other down.
God has given us another path. Notice the first step: shed the pride and don humility.
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.9
Like many, I have quoted these words frequently.
How often do we actually do them?
As I see it, we can't put it off any longer.
Unless otherwise indicated, Bible quotations are from The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982)
NIV: The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011) or
Hall, A., Moutevelis, A., & Fox News. (2025, August 27). MSNBC’s Jen Psaki turns church school shooting into attack on prayer, Trump’s DC Crime Crackdown. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/media/msnbcs-jen-psaki-turns-church-school-shooting-attack-prayer-trumps-dc-crime-crackdown?msockid=097c57aa30ea6836158e41e3313c69b5
Ibid.
Luke 13:1-5
Mark 7:23
Matthew 7:11
Colossians 2:21, 23 NIV
Jeremiah 8:6 NIV
Jeremiah 30:12-15, 17
2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV
Right on brother.
According to the media we have to fix the symptoms but ignore the actual cause. The sad truth is that this inner hatred only poisons the hater. If you want the cure, then read and follow the Sermon on the Mount. ... This will lead you to repentance, not the pride of thinking you are in the right and can hate the guilty and ignore the real cause.
We already have tens of thousands of laws in this country and people think that more laws will fix this.