Theater Shooter a Product of “Liberal” Education

July 26, 2012 05:01


“‘In academic achievement, he was at the top of the top,’ recalled [University of California] Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White.”

 

 

Much could be said of this latest of what are becoming “normal” tragedies, but one aspect particularly grabbed our attention. On July 20th, the Washington Post made this report of the perpetrator:

Holmes, 24, had shown scholarly promise…. He’d earned a merit scholarship out of high school…. He had graduated from college with honors. …He’d gone to graduate school at the University of Colorado at Denver.

And on the same day the AP reported, “‘In academic achievement, he was at the top of the top,’ recalled [University of California] Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White.”

In short, by most standards, Mr. Holmes would be considered a highly educated young man.

These of facts, along with the memory the shootings in Columbine High School and Virginia Tech, beg the questions: What does it mean to educate and what does it mean to be educated? Does attending top-notch schools, achieving outstanding test scores, participating in extra-curricular activities, and all that we commonly associate with a good education guarantee that one is educated?
We do not aim these questions first and foremost at educational institutions, or at the educational system. On the contrary, we hold that every American adult must face these questions, since the challenge of education regards the handing on of what a society holds to be most valuable to new generations.

We affirm that every educational endeavor has its foundation in the hypothesis it offers young people for the reason for their existence. It seems to us that almost universally we now offer young people the achievement of success as the most trusted hypothesis for the reason to live.

We find this hypothesis terribly insufficient for equipping young people adequately for life.

Real education means an introduction to all of reality and most importantly to its overall meaning, as Luigi Giussani points out in his book, The Risk of Education. Only by re-evaluating what we offer to young people regarding the meaning of all of reality, including the meaning of their own lives, can we begin to authentically face the root of such recurrent tragedies. For this reason, we urgently invite anyone of good will to engage with us in the attempt to rediscover the essence of a truly human education.

Communion and Liberation
A lay movement in the Catholic Church

 

Also consider:

Mass Murder ‘Normal’ in World That Rejects God — Ray Comfort Explains Why The ‘Joker’ Pulled the Trigger

The experts are fervently seeking clues as to why James “the Joker” Holmes murdered 12 people and injured 58 others in a shooting attack at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater where people had gathered to view the latest Batman movie.

But they’re not likely to find it, says author and television host Ray Comfort–because they’re looking in all the wrong places.

“This latest alleged mass murderer isn’t so easy to peg,” says Comfort, author of the new book “Hitler, God, and the Bible.” “He came from a good home, in a good area, and he had a good education. But those who ask ‘What went wrong?’ are asking the wrong question. It should rather be ‘What is wrong?’ The biblical worldview isn’t that anything went wrong. Here was a normal, sinful human being involved in an evil act of murder. The Scriptures tell us, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked’ (Jer. 17:9), and that no one is morally good in God’s eyes.”

Comfort continues: “However, the humanistic worldview is radically different. It says that no one is born with a sinful (evil) nature. All human beings are inherently good, so when someone goes off the rails, there must be some mitigating factor–he was bullied, was a loner, had an abusive father, or a domineering mother, etc. While some of these are serious issues, millions of people get through them without going out and murdering others.”

In other words, in a world that rejects God, mass murder would be normal.

As a sequel to “Hitler, God and the Bible,” Comfort is working on a book called “The Beatles, God, and the Bible” and a movie about John Lennon. In preparation he has been interviewing people to ask if they would murder for $10,000. While most say they wouldn’t, some would.

“When I questioned those who refused, it usually came back to being morally responsible to God for murder,” said Comfort.

“However, any real fear of God is slowly dissipating from our nation. I would dare to say that there are many who love violent video games and violent movies, who would like to know what it feels like to kill another human being. But they don’t carry out their fantasy because of the fear of retribution from civil law.”

Comfort explains that when the biblical premise of man being evil by nature is forsaken, a criminal often isn’t held responsible for his crimes. Societal conditions and life’s circumstances are frequently blamed, and so the criminal gets a mere slap on the wrist for his violent crime. He is not considered evil; he is just sick or insane, and therefore receives rehabilitative treatment rather than punishment.

“Imagine how wicked society would be if the fear of God and the fear of civil law were both completely removed,” said Comfort. “Imagine if a man could rape and murder, with no concerns about being punished. That’s when we would see the true heart of humanity, and that’s where we as a nation are slowly heading.”

 

 



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