Terror in the Big Easy. Current reports claim at least 15 people have been murdered and dozens more are injured. We seldom hear and/or know how to grapple with the spiritual and emotional trauma that accompanies such events, but that trauma exists.

Who knows if we will ever know the truth about the perpetrator(s)? llegal(s) or U.S. citizen(s)? His and/or their (in case there’s a network at play) religion? The worldview undergirding the murders?

Connection: Today when I returned to my work location, I was reading in the Pentateuch. Moses penned this about man’s fallenness:

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart (Gen 6:5-6 ESV).

It’s easy to rip verses out of context, so let us not do that. At its most fundamental level, what God is teaching here is that human depravity is real and universal. It is what’s known in theology as total depravity. A few of the scores of passages that teach it follow. Well, for the sake of brevity, just consider Romans 3:10-18 . . .

¹⁰ as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
¹¹     no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.
¹² All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”
¹³ “Their throat is an open grave;
    they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
¹⁴     “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶     in their paths are ruin and misery,
¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known.”
¹⁸     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Rom 3:10-18 ESV)

Questions: How might atheism answer this? Ah, it’s just matter in motion. Random molecules bumping into other molecules. Nothing to see here but matter in motion. Stop all your whining.

How might Critical Race Theory and the Wokesters answer this? The perpetrator(s) was/were ‘oppressed.’ Who’s to blame? Invariably, those answers will be whites, the patriarchy, America, the West, Christianity, and the privileged. This drivel is as predictable as cold in winter and heat in summer.

How does Christianity answer this? Man is a rebel against the holy. Unless and until he is regenerated by the sovereign power of God, it’s a world of Cains rather than Abels. But thanks be to God, whose message is to go to all,

Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. (Hb 3:15 ESV)