More IWU Homework

How can young people murder each other without remorse?

I chose this question because it hits fairly close to home for me. If you peruse the news stories on Cleveland.com, you will see at least one murder story a week. Most of these stories involve teens and people in their twenties, either as victims or perpetrators. Although I will try to keep race out of the subject of this post, a large percent of these murders involve young, African-American men.

My search led me to the following sites:

http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1174.cfm

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20090430/articles/904304004

http://askkissy.com/2011/10/2-men-arrested-for-murder-in-las-vegas-why-do-young-black-men-kill-each-other/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200910/why-kids-kill-parents

What does this page reveal about our culture’s attitude toward human life?

Part of this trend of young people murdering each other is the fulfillment of prophecy, as Paul detailed in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NKJV):

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

This verse provides a litany of symptoms. The cause however, is this: human life is no longer seen as beautiful and valuable. To expand on that statement, no one sees others as valuable save him or herself. Think about what Sagan said in the first week, that nothing in the universe has any intrinsic value relative to anything else. Secular humanism teaches that man is no more than an evolved animal. We see this sort of behavior in today’s business world, where people move up the corporate ladder at the expense of their co-workers and families. We see the consequences of this mindset play out on the evening news every day.

Basically, it all comes down to one fact: Human life is not valuable.

Is there any dissonance between what we believe and the way we act?

I think there is a huge dissonance between what we believe – or what we say we believe – and how we act. Many corporations promote work/life balance, but ask workers to work overtime and sacrifice energy to get that next project done. Gang members are taught that they are all brothers, unless one of them goes against the flow, then he is nothing. Many Christians are not immune, either. They preach “love thy neighbor,” yet they do not practice it.

Are there underlying questions and assumptions behind these current issues?

There are several underlying assumptions, yes:

• Most young people murdering others tend to be black. This is not the case, particularly with cases like T.J. Lane.
• Most young people who murder others are bullied or abused. Although this is true in a few cases, such as the T.J. Lane case mentioned above, some come from good homes with caring parents.
• The killers come from poor or low-income families. Again, true in some cases, but not always. Take the Menendez brothers as an example.

Some questions asked include:

1. Why did no one see the warning signs?
2. What could drive someone to kill without remorse?
3. How can we ensure this doesn’t happen again?