Posted on 02/16/2018 8:11:10 AM PST by rktman
I've always felt a little uncomfortable about candlelight vigils in response to man-made tragedies.
Certainly, if people are killed by a deranged criminal, friends of the victims want to meet and have a memorial to remember their friends. But when someone guns down 17 people in a school, and a large number of people gather, apparently entirely unarmed, to mourn with candles, there seems something a little odd about that.
I mean, if people are protesting the fact that a bunch of unarmed kids were slaughtered by a guy with a gun, by gathering, also without arms, aren't they just inviting the same thing to happen again? How does mourning those who were lost do anything to prevent the same thing from happening again? It feels like a wholly inadequate response to evil.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
And they're a great place to pick up chicks.
It’s a liberal thing. It’s turned into their forum in MHO. If it is organized by victims families, I think it is fine, but the left moves in and takes over which makes it not fine.
But yeah, I see your point too!
I think they’re for people hoping to get some face time on television because there always seems to be a news crew on hand.......
Screw the candles. Go get the perp and take him and a rope to a tall tree.
Hmmm. Gotta question that. Would you REALLY want to be with a chick that attended such an event? LOL!
Apparently the perp is an Ar-15.
It’s the touchy-feely approach. First game of this NBA season - Gordon Hayward broke his leg on an alley-oop attempt. I was struck at the reactions of all the players - they grouped up and had dire expressions of pain and guilt on their faces. A communal reaction to a millionaire breaking his leg - he received the best medical treatment and still pulled in a salary. Yes, it was bad yet stuff like this happened on the farm as well and we reacted to it by getting whomever was hurt some attention and then our asses were back to work. We didn’t group up and feel sorry for anyone.
To play devil’s advocate.. This is exactly what the left says about those of us who pray. Everyone has their own way of dealing with these situations, I suppose.
It’s Rush Limbaugh’s old axiom - symbolism over substance.
Let’s be honest: most of those chanting “no more guns” in the candlelight vigil for shooting victims would feel totally comfortable holding a candle outside a prison while protesting the imminent execution of a mass murderer.
That’s a very good point, and you are the first to bring it up. Prayers are our way, candles, balloons and teddy bears are their way. So long as they keep the ‘chanting’ under control.
How does mourning those who were lost do anything to prevent the same thing from happening again?
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It doesn’t, nor is it intended to. Vigils comfort during what could possibly be the most horrible experience of a person’s entire existence. They are a time of remembrance and a time of prayer. They fill a spiritual and emotional void when it’s needed most. It’s a time of waiting during prayer, along with the support of the community, for God to respond in a special, and needed way such as waiting fo a missing one to be found, hopefully alive, but if dead, at least found. It’s a time of hope in that injured ones might be healed, or a criminal apprehended.
There are many things that can occur within the hearts and minds of the participants of a vigil. When God is present, hearts and minds can be changed, spirits strengthened, hope made alive.
Until it becomes politicized.
It’s their way of having “church” without God. Candles have always symbolized “light” coming out of the darkness and hope of victory against evil. So people who attend these things have retained some of the symbolism associated with true worship while casting out God, which is ironically why they find themselves at the vigil in the first place.
Did this young man have a faith life? Go to church? Know God’s commandments? Media and people on both sides of the political spectrum always talk about gun control/background checks and mental illness.. but when do we ever have a discussion about taking God out of our schools?
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