The horror of the “Dark Knight'” theater massacre in Aurora, Colorado, is cause for profound grief and dismay, and I hope prayers for the victims, their families, the witnesses and for the gunman and his family continue for a good long time. I hope we remember that his family is suffering a loss unfathomable to any of us and need support, nurturing, and sympathy. I hope all of us commit James Eagen Holmes to the temporal workings of the court system and to the eternal care of the Lord Jesus. If the redemptive, reconciling grace of the Lord Jesus isn’t strong enough to reach him, it’s not strong enough to cleanse any of us from any of our sins.
And I hope that those on the left and on the right suspend for a significant length of time any arguing about gun laws. I have some pretty strong views about gun rights and gun control, but now isn’t the time. Now is a time for truth, for justice, for mercy, and for healing. Discussions about gun policy can and should take place, but now isn’t the time and Aurora, Colorado, isn’t the place, right now, to be exploited for those discussions.
My youngest son was at the Moscow Village Center Eastside’s midnight showing of the same film during the same time as the massacre, as were many other mothers’ children. You can bet we’re going to all be hugging those kids a whole tighter tonight and tomorrow as we feel, however minimally, the crushing grief of the victims’ families.
Lord, have mercy.