GUNS OR BIBLE?
What must be addressed is the crumbling liberal order that is creating monsters. The first step to stopping the shooting is to acknowledge liberalism’s inherent defects.
Liberalism
has failed—not because it fell short but because it was true to itself.
Liberalism declares, “Feel free to do as you please.” As liberalism progressed,
it has fallen victim to its own success. When it reaches the end of its
internal contradictions, it creates monsters.
Indeed,
liberalism has fabulously succeeded in eroding the societal bonds of family,
community and faith that have normally shaped and governed moral behavior in
society. In the words of philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, society
has been reduced to “nothing but a meeting place for individual wills”, which
individuals use as “an arena for the achievement of their own satisfaction.”
The later phases of
liberalism now leave society defenseless against the ravages of the
shooter-monsters.
However, the worst mistake of liberalism is that it deprives
life of its meaning. Human nature is profoundly social. Remember John Don’s, “No
man is an island, sufficient unto himself”. Deep social relationships give
purpose to life. Individuals become frustrated when reduced to the shallow
associations that fail to provide context and value to their existence. The
political project of liberalism has turned individuals into increasingly separate,
autonomous, non-relational selves, replete with rights and defined by our
liberty, but insecure, powerless, afraid and alone.
Inside this God-forsaken
moonscape, it is easy to understand why the shooters appear, as they fail to
find meaning inside the loneliness of their existence. The shooters represent an
extreme and radical fruit of the principles of liberalism.
Liberalism’s
worst sin is to reduce God into a mere choice within the system. God has no
official role in liberal society except perhaps that of some absent clockmaker who
wound up the world and now leaves it alone to operate without him. The Church
is effectively emptied of her functions inside its system.
Liberalism does not
attempt to answer those existential questions which individuals have always
asked about the purpose of life, the meaning of truth, the final destination of
the soul, and the nature of God and true happiness. Individuals are led to
believe there are no real answers to these essential questions. Individuals
find they have no certainties to anchor their souls, despite craving for them.
Like
it or not, nothing makes sense without the one true God. There is no reason to
do good or avoid evil when it has no final consequences in eternity. History
has no meaning when God does not direct the course of events. Where there is no
Divine Providence
that benevolently provides for needs, life takes on a brutal
dog-eat-dog appearance. Where there is no Church to guide and teach, the worst
passions dominate. When taken to its final consequences, liberalism presents a
despairing worldview, in which man is the product of random causes inside an
unintelligible universe.
Hence, one sees the
dark, nihilistic side of the shooter-monsters who often desire their own
annihilation in addition to that of others. That is why their motives are so
mystifying since the shooters have long freed themselves from the moorings of a
rightly formed conscience, rational behavior and the natural moral law.
Until
these existential issues are addressed, the number of monsters will continue to
increase, and society as a whole will continue to fragment and decay.
Until Christ is enthroned
as King, there will be no peace over the land, and the shooting
will not stop. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, God made man, is the consummate and radical
provider of the principles of a true liberalism based on love God and neighbour.