A little over two weeks ago a teenager at Perry High School, near Canton Ohio, committed suicide. That is the SIXTH suicide in that school district in the past five months. Last week at the same school a teenager was arrested for threatening “to go Columbine” and massacre students. At nearby Jackson High, a teenager committed suicide. Just days ago a student shot and killed two other students (and wounded 17 others) in a Benton, Kentucky high school. A student at Uniontown Area Senior High School in Uniontown Pennsylvania had planned to massacre students. He had a rifle, a shotgun, a pistol, throwing knives, and machetes. Last week, in Italy Texas, a teenager shot and seriously wounded another student.
Kentucky governor Matt Bevin said that our nation “celebrates death” in our entertainment, and “our culture is crumbling from within”.
What is going on? Why are our teens murdering others and taking their own lives? The immediate reason are manifold: bullying, addictions, breakup of the family, no sense of absolute morals or the value of life.
No truth, no hope, no future for many. At least…that’s how it may seem to many.
Could it be that the way out is the way back…back to the absolute truth that there is a loving God who cares, desires our companionship, and has prepared a future for those who follow Him?
Acknowledging that would require a lot of old fashioned humility and repentance. I hope that we can begin now, and not hear of another high school tragedy next week…