Concerning the Children in Our Elementary Schools. You Shall Not Kill. You Make Me Sick.

You Shall Not Kill. You Shall Not Commit Murder.

You Shall Not Kill.

You Shall Not Kill.

You Shall Not Kill.

You make me sick to my stomach, you who would pass laws to plaster these words across the walls of our elementary school walls but go out to dinner and the movies or figure out your next vacation plan or simply go to sleep at night when the 11th mass shooting since 1984 in elementary schools, 7th since 2006, blows to smithereens the children in Silver Rail in Bend, Oregon. You stand by this 6th Commandment from God and think that somehow you are not yourselves condemned to hell when you keep allowing this murder to happen because regular citizens need to have guns to protect themselves against corrupt governments and other dangerous citizens?

You think the 2nd Amendment protects you from the 6th Commandment?

You make me sick.

You hold up the 10 Commandments (and can you hold them correct side up please?) and want my children to see them in my elementary school as my children are blown apart by “long guns” in their classrooms while you take cover under the Constitution?

You make me sick.

You think you know God. You have no idea.

God condemns you to hell, but you think God only condemns me and others to hell.

You make me sick.

I know I am going to hell for not running and screaming my way all the way to Bend today to shout my anger and pour my tears.

But you?

You are protected from God’s wrath and fury?

You can go on and plan your Sunday Church Services and your Monday Work Agendas instead of rending your garments, pouring ashes on your heads and weeping and gnashing your teeth?

You make me sick.

Thus says the Lord: You who allow your children and their Teachers to be gunned down in their elementary school classrooms are going to hell.

But wait, you say, of course you are not “allowing” any such thing! You have your sally doors, bullet proof glass, school protection officers, 911, citizens carrying concealed weapons or open carry weapons, lock-down procedures, active-shooter training for the kids, classroom door windows with shades, and on and on.

Of course you do. You are law-abiding citizens and want nothing more than the best for our children.

Yes, I know.

But it doesn’t seem to be working, does it? We keep having to have press conferences with all our agencies represented and all our thoughts and prayers expressed.

And the killing continues.

And you think God does not condemn you because you believe in God and the Constitution and you are doing your best, you say, to stop the carnage.

You make me sick.

God condemns you to hell.

I say this from that exact location. In hell. I am living in hell. I am already condemned by God.

But you, you make me sick.

And you make God sick.

And God is about to throw you up just like God did me.

God has already thrown you up but you think the vomit around you that is your 401K doing well in the Market or your wages beating inflation or your healthcare plan that is accepted in all networks will protect you.

You are blind to your own condition.

So go, take your 10 Commandments and have fun putting them up on the school walls. Maybe the Courts will let you. It doesn’t matter anymore because the children are dead.

But, there is more.

Not only do I hate God for God’s law that only accuses me, you, us. And hate Jesus too, for simply doubling down on Moses and commanding us to love not just friends but also enemies and not just stop committing adultery but stop mind sex fantasies and all the rest of his hard-hitting Sermon on the Mount.

Not only do I hate God and Jesus for the never-ending demands, but then there is the great offense of the forgiveness that I, we, hate as well.

The God of the Bible and in the Bible just flat out doesn’t give up on Israel. Jesus just flat out forgives.

We are taken out of the salvation game and must wait for God to decide and act. And when God decides and acts God just always gives Mercy and does not play by the rules of the Law where some win and some lose, depending. We hate both the inability to decide and the decision made.

Until it is made for us and to us.

We kill. God condemns. God forgives.

Did you hear that? Well, yes, you read it. But did you hear it? I’m afraid you won’t be forgiven for the killing unless you actually hear somebody say it to you. Not because forgiveness is not true if you don’t actually hear it, but because forgiveness is not a concept. It is not an idea but rather a word spoken to a given person at a given time and place.

As I said, we hate God not only for the condemnation that is relentless but also for the forgiveness that is given without any merit.

Is there no possibility to love God? I don’t know. You tell me. When you hear the word of forgiveness spoken to you by God what happens to you?

As I write this I do not want to forgive me, or you, for the killing of our elementary school children. It doesn’t matter. The children are dead.

But it does matter. There are children still going to school on Monday.

My God, please forgive us.

What’s that I hear from the Pastor in that old-fashioned looking church building? “God forgives you in Jesus Christ.”

You make me sick. I make me sick. Everybody makes me sick.

Jesus Christ makes us well. And there is hope for no more killing of the children in their classrooms with or without the 10 Commandments hanging on the wall.