A young Texas man, dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force and with a history of domestic battery, opened fire Sunday morning at a small town church that was holding its weekly services, killing 26 and injuring 20 more...before apparently taking his own life after a high-speed chase by two brave heroes. The immediate verdict I'm hearing about the perpetrator of this massacre of the congregation at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs is that he was mentally ill, deranged as President Trump put it. Oh, I didn't know Donald Trump was qualified in diagnosing mental illness...
When you consider somebody like the Las Vegas shooter or the Sutherland Springs creep, it's easy to take the mental illness route of explanation...after all, how could anyone in their right mind commit such terrible atrocities? I'm afraid that this argument, however, has two counterproductive consequences. One, it paints a picture of those suffering from mental illness as being more violent and a danger to society, when in fact they are much more likely to be the victims of others. Two, it ignores the concept of evil as it infests the souls of people throughout their lives. These two men, whose names are beneath mentioning, made a deal with that evil and deliberately killed and injured scores of innocent people. They were not only evil, but also cowards...this last one dressed up in military costume and gunned down a baby, children, women, and old people. I get where the mental illness arguments are coming from, but in the end when do you stop going down that road and start to hold people responsible for their own actions?
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