SCHOOL SHOOTINGS AND RUNNING SCHOOLS ON SECULAR PRINCIPLES

 

Of course, we teach your students not to bully. You will tell them, “You wouldn’t want to be bullied, would you?”

 

When we say this, we are appealing to pragmatism—a cost/benefit assessment: “What if someone bullied you, you wouldn’t like it, would you? You might even feel humiliated. Why do it to someone else?”

 

If the students are clever, they might realize that you are not appealing a God-given principle of “right and wrong” but instead to self-interest.

 

Our students might not be able to articulate what is wrong with this reasoning, but they might intuitively realize, “I know what benefits me more than you do. I enjoy being part of the tough group or gang that is doing the bullying. Not only is it fun, but it builds group cohesion. It makes me feel I belong and am protected.”

 

The same conundrum also pertains to the tragic outbreak of school shootings. The teacher can teach against this tragedy from the POV of self-interest: “You will be caught, and your life will be ruined. Besides, think of the pain you will cause to all the families.”

 

The shooters might have also considered these things and have concluded that they are best served by getting revenge and regaining honor and respect. How could they escape with temptations based upon self-interest alone!

 

What’s missing in this equation? God—the source of all objective morality and value. Ironically, God is also the One who has been rejected from consideration! However, when students realize that they are beloved, valued, and honored by God, the need to secure these commodities from others is greatly diminished, especially in view that many shooters have come from broken families where they have not been inculcated with assurance of God’s love.

 

These shootings also coincide with the removal of any positive reference to God within our schools. I think that this correlation also helps to explain the proliferation of crime in the West since the 1960s.

 

Does science exclude the rejection of God? In, “Spirituality & Health Research: Methods, Measurement, Statistics, and Resources,” Harold G. Koenig MD, has done more to survey the available research regarding the question of what is associated with positive mental and physical outcomes than perhaps anyone else. He has identified religion/spirituality (R/S) as the key element. Here is a very small sampling of what he has found:

·       DEPRESSION: “At least 444 studies have now quantitatively examined relationships between R/S and depression, and 272 (61 percent) of those found less depression, faster remission from depression, or a reduction in depression severity in response to an R/S intervention (ten studies at a trend level). In contrast, only 6 percent reported greater depression in those who were more R/S. Of the 178 methodologically most rigorous studies, 119 (67 percent) found inverse relationships between R/S and depression.”

 

·       SUICIDE: “We identified 141 studies that had examined relationships between R/S and some aspect of suicide (completed suicide, attempted suicide, or attitudes toward suicide), and 106 (75 percent) reported significant inverse relationships; 80 percent of the best designed studies reported this finding.”

 

Our bias—secularism—has hurt us and our children!