Jesus. [the solution for ending school shootings]
I would plead with people to return to the foundation that built this nation. There are biblical foundations that built this nation. They’re proven to work, and we’ve chosen not to use them.
There’s nothing wrong with the plan; we’ve just chosen not to do it.
People need to be trained. [to shoot firearms, respond to violent events] Teaching has changed … that’s unfortunate. I hate that I need to say that … there needs to be more trained individuals.
Our nation continues to build higher, higher, higher, while simultaneously chipping away at the foundation. There are repercussions for that. There are consequences, and we’re living them, and it’s just getting started.
— Veteran Navy SEAL Jimmy Graham, the founder of Able Shepherd, a training program that equips people to protect churches, schools, and other institutions, Faithwire, May 27, 2022
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Because the solution is MOAR GUNZ.
I am a Christian but I agree that comments like those are outrageous.
Last time I checked, public achool teachers were required to complete a university bachelor’s program, get certified, and participate in continued training throughout their careers. Private school teachers, on the other hand, do not necessarily have to meet those same standards. I am not sure what additional training this blowhard believes teachers should receive. I can guess, though….
Ah, yes. What folks like him think is or isn’t being taught or happening in classrooms is responsible for the mass shootings. Or that men won’t be men and women won’t be breeders, I mean, women. Or that we let in too many immigrants—or the “wrong” ones.
Anything but the guns.
They remind me of the tobacco lobby back in the day. They would commission “studies” that “proved” vegetarianism, playing backgammon, watching public television—anything but smoking—caused lung cancer.
Couldn’t agree more. I suggest we star with Numbers 31 as our moral foundation. God’s commandments are timeless
The reason American society is so violent is that kids are exposed too much sex and too much violence at an early age. There is no respect for any kind of authority, Biblical or secular.
When a policeman stops me, it’s common sense you greet the officer and show my license. But in America, many people will argue, call the officer names, and do anything but cooperate quietly and let the officer do his job.
I am not Christian and neither is the rest of my extended family. Yet we all took it for granted that sex was to be reserved between married couples only and that any sex outside of marriage, consensual or not, was not only wrong but also dangerous since it can result in unintended pregnancies and transmitted diseases. My parents were teenagers in the 70s and they did not see nor hear of any sexual activities going on in school.
In my grandparents’ days, the elders typically arranged the marriages between their children and any form of public affection was seen as immodest
But that, I guess, is the difference between Asian families and Western families. Asian families are far more stable, much more respectful of the law. Yes, there is crime. But not NEARLY on the scale of Americans. Unless you’re talking about the military, it is very unlikely you’ll be assaulted and seriously beaten up just for making someone mad over here. In America, a thousand times yes.
My grandparents were married for 63 years (1957 to 2020, when they both passed away) and had 5 children and didn’t speak a word of English when they immigrated to California. The word “divorce” never once came out of either of their mouths no matter how hard things got. They always pulled together for the sake of their children and grandchildren.
In fact, the United States used to be like that too in the golden years of the 1950s when it was a wholesome family oriented society. You had the breadwinning dad. The housewife mom. One to two kids.
It wasn’t until a lot later when Baby Boomers came of age that you started seeing divorce, single moms, rampant sexuality, drug abuse, and well…. you get the idea.
Elliot, one size does not fits all. You may see the 1950s as “golden” but I see them as horrific. I never aspired to being a housewife, and I was only a stay-at-home mother when I was unemployed (a time of my life that I do not wish to repeat).
It’s nice that your parents had a long marriage, but again one size does not fit all. For me, divorce marked the end of a terrible, unbalanced and abusive relationship, and in retrospect it marked the moment when I started to thrive. No regrets.
As for premarital and extramarital sex, it has always existed; we’re just being more honest about it nowadays. That gives us the opportunity to mitigate the risks through safe sex practices and readily available birth control. There is nothing intrinsically immoral about premarital sex between consenting adults, but I do have a problem with adultery – because, absent an explicit agreement to engage in open marriage, it’s a breaking of the contract between the marriage partners.
(And as for arranged marriage, we can do without that kind of archaic crap, thankyouverymuch.)
I wasn’t condemning all divorced women as immoral. Obviously, divorce happens and is unavoidable in some cases such as if a spouse commits infidelity and/or is physically and/or financially abusive to his or her significant other.
What IS wrong is when divorce happens just because one or both partners are too emotionally immature to work out problems that arise in a marriage AND this happens when there are children involved. I have extended family who suffered through this. It was shameful. Should never have happened. And all of it could have been avoided if this individual didn’t get married as early as he did. But it did. And his kids suffered a lot. I’m sure they are still very traumatized over it. And if my Dad did that, I would hold him to account for a long time. Thankfully, he didn’t.
I wasn’t saying arranged marriage is better. What I am saying is that marriage is not just a union of a man and a woman. It is a union of two families. I would never marry a woman without first receiving the approval and blessings of both my parents and hers as well. I want any hypothetical children of mine to grow up knowing the love of their parents and the love of their grandparents in a stable family home.
I wasn’t condemning extramarital sex between consenting adults from a Christian viewpoint. I am merely saying it is risky and dangerous because birth control can fail. The safest way is to abstain until marriage.
As for abortion, I oppose abortion done for the sake of convenience. Often times, because of sexual irresponsibility leading to an unplanned pregnancy.
Abortions done to save the life of the mother or if the baby has some kind of severe disability that makes him unlikely to survive outside the womb for long is different.
A society ought to be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable demographic. The elderly, the disabled, children, babies, and the unborn. A truly just society that cherishes life and does it utmost to protect those who need protection naturally must oppose abortion.
This is something I feel very militantly and strongly about.
Elliot, the only reason anyone ever needs for a divorce is “I don’t want to live with that person anymore.”
And no woman should ever be forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term. Pregnancy is a life-threatening condition that permanently and adversely changes a woman’s body. “Convenience” has nothing to do with it.
Sigh. I see you’ve learned nothing since being banned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexuality_in_South_Korea
You have a warped, bigoted view of the United States.
You said, “in America, many people will argue, call the officer names, and do anything but cooperate quietly and let the officer do his job.” Do you have any evidence for this claim? Actual empirical evidence?
Ah yes, blame it on the baby boomers. You know western TV is not reality?
The golden years of the 1950s? Define “golden years.” What empirical evidence do you have for your claim?
If it walks, talks,,and acts like a Christian, it is a Christian. I predict you won’t be long for the comment section.
I don’t hate all of the United States. I hate Liberal America and I hate what they have done to what was once a great and respectable country.
I have seen many instances in the US where a situation escalated because people were simply too loud-mouthed with the officer and were giving him an attitude instead of letting him do his job. Over here, people don’t riot, threaten to kill police officers, destroy property, snort crack cocaine in front of small children in homeless encampments, puke on the subway, and generally behave like savage animals deprived of all humanity. I understand that a lot of people don’t like Trump. But it’s one thing to hate somebody. It’s quite another to stalk that person, damage his property, and threaten his family with bodily harm, which is something the extreme-Left BLM/Antifa mob have done to Trump and his supporters.
We don’t do that over here. Asians hold themselves to a much higher standard. Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese don’t go around torching cities and brutalizing innocent people in the streets.
Obviously not all Baby Boomers are wicked decadent people. You, Mr. Gerencser, seem like you were very much an old school American dad who upheld traditional values to a high standard. And that’s a great thing. Because Dads like you are unfortunately a dying breed in the West.
It’s these White aging wealthy Liberal Boomers who are to damn. This is the generation that accelerated the moral downfall of the United States as mentioned in the previous post. Sexual revolution. Abortion on demand. No fault divorce. Feminism. Drug use. The destruction of their Millennial children with pornography, drugs, and horrific music with lyrics celebrating mayhem, violence, and sexual immorality. A total wholesale rejection of the traditional family values that made previous Americans great.
The 1950s were the Golden Years of the United States in economy, culture, literature, music, cinema, and society in general. People were much nicer, warmer, and down-to-earth. They shared a strong sense of pride and duty to their country and loved their children and neighbors.
There’s much more that can be said on this subject, but the truth is, the West has reached a turning point in which it can simply no longer justify its own existence. It is a nihilist, hopelessly decadent civilization wholly ignorant of its own past and confused as to what it believes. There is no center piece holding it together. It will cannibalize and destroy itself as the rest of the world moves on.
The world will move on and Asia will take center stage. And by all accounts, it will be a far better world than the one that the West dominated. The Western dominated world order is about unilateral totalitarian control. Eastern nations are far more diplomatic. We won’t go around invading and bombing other countries that don’t do things our way. It will be a far more democratic, multipolar world in which individual national sovereignty is honored and cherished. Unlike the current one where the US wants to be the only one calling the shots
Jesus fucking Christ, Elliot, I take you off ban, and you go right back to your old ways.
I clear the moderated/ban list once or twice a year. You have had multiple opportunities to over the past couple of years to play well with others. Too bad you couldn’t use these opportunities responsibly.
You are permanently banned — a first on this site.
and gee, more lies and ignorance from Elliot. I’m going to bet 100 quatloos he is some type of ignorant militant hindu. I do love how he tries to claim how peaceful asian nations are when they happily built armies, etc.
the 1950s were an era of ignorance and racism.
Wow Elliott. You have absolutely NO CLUE how much shit you are full of.
Pretty much sure that Elliot, if not Christian, is of some ignorant religion with his prating. This is text book blaming everything but the real problem of a theist. And it’s hilarious to see Elliot buy into the lie that the 1950s were some “golden age”. That takes some willful ignorance and evidently a need to spread false information.
Ohhhh bruther….. dunno where to start! I wanna call a Poe on Elliot’s comments above.
He’s already been deep-sixed into the sea of Bruce Almighty’s forgetfulness, never to be seen or heard from again on this site.
😈😈😂😂
Thank god. I was starting to get pissed at his complete narrow-mindedness. Of course he likes the patriarchy! It gives him power and he can feel smug and warm. What an asshole.
Yeah. He’s so full of himself he probably screams his own name when he’s having sex.🤣🤣🤣
What really harmed the United States was the killings,targeted killings,of M.L.King and the Kennedy brothers. Until those events,there was hope in America. I remember how it was back 50- 60 years ago,and why,and the Neoliberal policies that have been in place have decimated the country. I watched Los Angeles become uninhabitable from 1980 to the present. Culture is a major part of it , and shady politics and dark money. Our jobs and manufacturing must be returned to us ! Opioids have filed the void
Elliot…the 50’s weren’t innocent like you believe…YOU were innocent! And if you live in S. Korea with a male dominated society (patriarchal), that means your women don’t have much of a say in any matters, correct? Let’s hear your wife’s opinion…
It’s so weird how God chooses not to visit school shootings on countries where there is little or no legal access to firearms and a reasonably thorough separation of religion & state within the school system. You’ve thought the consequences for them would have been an absolute bloodbath!
Dave–Great point. I think countries like Norway and France have had one or two (still too many, to be sure) mass shooting in the years since Columbine. In the US, we’ve had over 200.
Schad and Yulya–I agree with both of you. The ’50’s weren’t a golden age if you weren’t white, cisgender male, heteorosexual and Christian. But near the end, and in the early 60s, the Civil Rights movements brought at least some hope of justice. But while previously-marginalized people’s rights were codified, at least in theory, many couldn’t truly access them due to neoliberal policies. A trans woman I know told me that one supposedly-liberal professor told her she should’ve waited until she got tenure before affirming her gender identity.
Dave–Countries like Norway and France have had one or two (still too many, to be sure) mass shootings since the Columbine massacre of 1994. Since then, the US has experienced more than 200.
Schad and Yulya–I agree with both of you. The ’50’s weren’t such a great time if you weren’t a White cisgender heterosexual Christian male. But the Civil Rights movements that began late in that era offered hope of economic as well as other kinds of justice. But the assassinations of MLK, Malcolm X and the Kennedys dashed those hopes and set the stage for “law and order” politicians like Nixon whose agendae included neoliberal economic policies. (A basis of “broken windows” and other law enforcement policies is—if its proponents don’t say so out loud–is that poorer and darker people are more likely to be criminals. While it’s true that they’re arrested and convicted more often, such a policy doesn’t look at the causes.)
Again, most European countries are far more secular (less “Biblical foundation” and more people who accept evolution) than the US, but have far fewer mass shootings, even in countries where gun ownership is commonplace.
The only mass shootings or mass killings in France in recent years that I’m aware of were the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the 2015 Dá’ish (ISIL) attacks, which were committed by religious nuts.
I got some alert in my email Regarding a red flag for potential school shooters, is cruelty to animals in youth- which both recent shooters had in common. Pets, actually. Later on, it would be domestic violence charges in their past. No one in either category should be allowed near a gun !
I saw this go by on Facebook… “If Background checks and reflag laws would prevent you from obtaining a firearm…they would be working as intended” and the “You” here is indeed generic