{"id":88,"date":"2011-01-27T13:29:16","date_gmt":"2011-01-27T13:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/activistfaith\/2011\/01\/reflections-on-tucson.html"},"modified":"2011-01-27T13:29:16","modified_gmt":"2011-01-27T13:29:16","slug":"reflections-on-tucson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/01\/reflections-on-tucson.html","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Tucson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s “Reflections on Tucson” comes from Activist Faith co-founder, author, and pastor Daniel Darling<\/a>. While some have moved on to the next news topic, I sensed it was appropriate to look back at the recent shooting tragedy and continued to lift up those involved in the recent shooting, including Gabriella Giffords, in our thoughts and prayers.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Please read, pray, and share. I’m praying for each of you reading these words today.<\/i><\/p>\n

-Dillon<\/i><\/p>\n

+++
<\/span><\/p>\n

\"DSC00375-e1269660193484-300x249.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

L<\/span><\/span>ike
\neveryone else, I was shocked and stunned to hear of the shocking
\nmassacre in Tucson on Saturday, a clear assassination attempt on a
\ngifted public servant, Gabriella Giffords, their Democratic
\nCongresswoman. Typically, as in every national tragedy, the media began
\nit’s typical feeding frenzy, wondering what this story meant, what it
\nsaid about our culture. I don’t really fault the media, because shock
\noften leaves people searching for answers. People want someone or
\nsomething to blame, because we want to push a button and fix it.<\/p>\n

But I’m not sure this story is a statement on our country. <\/strong>Many
\non the left were quick to blame Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh for their
\nharsh rhetoric. I think this is patently unfair and wrong. I’m not a
\nhuge fan of extreme rhetoric on the right. I’ve warned Christians often
\nabout the need to be Biblical in our public words. Words do matter.
\nHowever, nothing Palin said or Rush said can be blamed for this guy’s
\nevil deeds. Just like when a medical doctor massacred his own soldiers
\nat Ft. Hood. Many on the right were quick to blame the President for
\nperceived softness on terrorism and an unwillingness to confront radical
\nIslam. Many on the right drew political meaning from that. That too,
\nwas wrong.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

We also need some historical perspective. <\/strong>It is true
\nthat we live in politically charged times, when anyone can spout
\nill-informed opinions. However, politics in America has never been tame.
\nRead some biographies of Adams and Washington. Read about Aaron Burr
\nand Alexander Hamilton. Read the papers produced by political parties
\nback then. Today’s stuff is tame by comparison.  As a matter of fact, we
\nmay have gotten more secure. In the 60?s and 70?s, we saw the
\nassassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr, John F. Kennedy, and Robert F.
\nKennedy. We saw much more violent riots and explosive situations.<\/p>\n

So why did what happened in Tucson happen? Why did Ft. Hood happen? Why did a gunman open fire in a church in 2009 and kill a pastor in cold blood?<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Not because of Rush or Palin or Obama or anyone.
\nThese things happen because of one singular thing we want to avoid
\ntalking about in polite society: the evil that lurks in the heart of man<\/strong>.
\nAs Christians, we believe the Scriptures, which tell us God’s creation
\nhas been radically infected with the poison of sin. Sin lurks in the
\nheart of every human being. We want to believe there is some higher,
\ndeeper reasoning, that if we just stopped all the nasty talk, put all
\nthe guns away, and locked our leaders in a glass case, there would be no
\nmore assassination attempts. That if we just stopped the bullying in
\nschools, if we just had every kid read the New Testament, if all
\nteachers were perfect, we’d have no more school shootings. Sadly,
\nthat’s not the case. Because the human heart is wicked. It is evil. But
\nthe good news is that there is hope, that hope began on a lonely hill in
\nIsrael, 2,000 plus years ago. On a nondescript Roman cross hung a man
\nunjustly sentenced to death. That man, Jesus, was God and man. His death
\nand resurrection are the answer to the problem of evil. And only when
\nmen put their full faith in Christ will their hearts have the potential
\nto transform, by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. And only when Jesus
\nreturns in power and glory, will the instances of evil be forever
\neliminated from the earth. When every man bows the kneed to King Jesus,
\nwill sanity be restored and murder finally put to death.<\/p>\n

This is why the Gospel<\/a>
\nis more relevant and important than it has ever been. We live in a
\nfallen world. Each of us is one tragic accident or sin away from
\neternity. Those of us who have met Jesus must declare Him to those who
\ndon’t. <\/strong><\/p>\n

We also saw in Tucson, the entrance of God’s grace. There in the rubble of sin, we saw the wonderful heroism of Daniel Hernandez, an intern of Rep. Giffords<\/a>. We saw the story of a pastor who was present and took a bullet, sacrificing himself to save his wife. <\/a>We saw the steady, grace-filled leadership of our Congressional leaders and our President.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think what Christians must do at a time like this is pray and ask
\nGod’s grace for the families of those who lost people, to pray for the
\nparents of this shooter, and, to pray for the shooter himself, that he
\nmight realize his own brokeness and sinfulness and might find salvation
\non Christ. We might also pray that out of this tragedy, many might come
\nto realize their own need for salvation.<\/p>\n

I do know this. God is still sovereign. He is still in charge. In that we can rest. <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s “Reflections on Tucson” comes from Activist Faith co-founder, author, and pastor Daniel Darling. While some have moved on to the next news topic, I sensed it was appropriate to look back at the recent shooting tragedy and continued to lift up those involved in the recent shooting, including Gabriella Giffords, in our thoughts and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,13,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-dignity-of-life","category-faith","category-worldview"],"yoast_head":"\nReflections on Tucson - Activist Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/01\/reflections-on-tucson.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reflections on Tucson - Activist Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today’s “Reflections on Tucson” comes from Activist Faith co-founder, author, and pastor Daniel Darling. While some have moved on to the next news topic, I sensed it was appropriate to look back at the recent shooting tragedy and continued to lift up those involved in the recent shooting, including Gabriella Giffords, in our thoughts and…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/01\/reflections-on-tucson.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Activist Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-27T13:29:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/activistfaith\/files\/import\/DSC00375-e1269660193484-300x249.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dillon Burroughs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Reflections on Tucson - Activist Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/01\/reflections-on-tucson.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Reflections on Tucson - Activist Faith","og_description":"Today’s “Reflections on Tucson” comes from Activist Faith co-founder, author, and pastor Daniel Darling. While some have moved on to the next news topic, I sensed it was appropriate to look back at the recent shooting tragedy and continued to lift up those involved in the recent shooting, including Gabriella Giffords, in our thoughts and…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/01\/reflections-on-tucson.html","og_site_name":"Activist Faith","article_published_time":"2011-01-27T13:29:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/activistfaith\/files\/import\/DSC00375-e1269660193484-300x249.jpg"}],"author":"Dillon Burroughs","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/01\/reflections-on-tucson.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/01\/reflections-on-tucson.html","name":"Reflections on Tucson - Activist Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/01\/reflections-on-tucson.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/01\/reflections-on-tucson.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/activistfaith\/files\/import\/DSC00375-e1269660193484-300x249.jpg","datePublished":"2011-01-27T13:29:16+00:00","dateModified":"2011-01-27T13:29:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/d931a1eb5dc2e7bf29e30bb1ea7d0311"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/01\/reflections-on-tucson.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/01\/reflections-on-tucson.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/01\/reflections-on-tucson.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/activistfaith\/files\/import\/DSC00375-e1269660193484-300x249.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/activistfaith\/files\/import\/DSC00375-e1269660193484-300x249.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2011\/01\/reflections-on-tucson.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Reflections on Tucson"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/","name":"Activist Faith","description":"Christian Inspiration, Christian Blogs, Christian News, Top Christian Blogs","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/d931a1eb5dc2e7bf29e30bb1ea7d0311","name":"Dillon Burroughs","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7e\/e7e0e064c658f0c59bfb3c9a1a05121bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7e\/e7e0e064c658f0c59bfb3c9a1a05121bx96.jpg","caption":"Dillon Burroughs"},"description":"DILLON BURROUGHS is an author, activist, and cofounder of Activist Faith. Dillon served in Haiti following the epic 2010 earthquake and has investigated modern slavery in the US and internationally. His books include \"Undefending Christianity,\" \"Not in My Town\" (with Charles J. Powell), and \"Thirst No More\" (October 2011). Discover more at DillonBurroughs.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/author\/dburroughs"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}