VPI: April 16, 2007

Well this morning, as it was yesterday evening, all the news is about the shooting at Virginia Tech. It causes me to remember the several times we travelled to Blacksburg when we were at W&L. I remember Don's girlfriend, although I can't remember her name. She didn't like my black Stetson, said it looked ominous. How silly. As if we could label evil that easily.

I remember a lecture Dr. Evans gave about Paradise Regained. Of course, the central theme is Satan trying to make a deal with Jesus, but Jesus remaining true to his mission. Dr. Evans contrasted the heroic Satan in Paradise Lost, the one who would "make a heaven out of hell" with the Satan of Paradise Regained, where he is depicted as a salesman trying to make a deal he can't close. A peddler or salesman.

The news hasn't identified the killer, except to say that he was an Asian student at Virginia Tech. The descriptions talked about an emotionless, expressionless killer. Like a shark moving across campus, armed to the teeth. I think we feel like we can understand the crime of passion or even the enraged killer better than when death comes at the hands of a blank slate. It makes everything seem surreal. It doesn't help that he was Asian: the inscrutable oriental.

How do we establish the rule of law? More rules? More police? More courts? More judges? None of it seems to help. The more we work to keep the order, the more disordered we seem to become. Was life better in the past? We always think so. The statistics would seem to bear it out, but is it really true?

So what do we do? Pray for the victims. Of course, but it seems like our hearts and minds need to be altered to effectuate the necessary change. We can't see others as blank slates. We truly have to sense relationship to each other. Sure you might harm your brother, but the motivation, the understanding of the act in the mind of the evil-doer might be different if he sees his victim as his brother or sister rather than a nameless face in the crowd at which he aims.

Finally, would your desire to act be effected by a sense that there is a universal being demanding that you refrain from so acting? If there are universal and eternal consequences for your acts? I believe so. Our emotional and rational motivations have to be informed by a relationship to each other and to a universal God.