The Lessons of Cho Seung-Hui Killings.

In the 48th comment on Joe Holman's satirical post about the Cho Seung-Hui killings, our own exapologist makes a very good point, one that I expressed to my wife last night, and one which is reminiscent of the Columbine shooters.

While many of us want to argue back and forth about the lessons learned from this killer for and against Christianity, exapologist wrote:

I'm worried about the extent to which this massacre is being used to make our pet points, without taking to heart what happened here.

There is a pattern. A kid, or group of kids, are picked on and alienated from their peers. I'm not talking about an occasional jab, but a systematic, coordinated rejection of a child as a non-person. The kid internalizes the message. It builds up until they can't take it any more, and so they explode -- with lethal consequences.

Why is it so hard to learn this lesson? This sort of systematic alienation is just too much for the human psyche. We're essentially social creatures, and can't survive this sort of global rejection. Can't schools, or at least parents, raise their kids well enough so that it would never occur to them to engage in this sort of bullshit?

Here are two links talking about the treatment Cho Seung-Hui suffered from people in general. See here, and here.

What is wrong with us that we cannot treat people who are different from us humanely and with some measure of respect?

God Loves Cho Seung-Hui

In trying times like these, when terrible crimes against humanity have been committed, like the recent murders of Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old South Korean man of Virginian Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia, we must be extra careful not to rush to judgment or let anger get the best of us! The world watched in horror on April 16, 2007, as Cho Seung-Hui made history by unleashing the worst school shooting rampage in U.S. history.

Cho Seung-Hui was described as a deeply troubled man, one who never smiled or greeted strangers, and always expressed deep-seated hatred of “rich kids,” and people who led lives of “debauchery.” He took antidepressants, and it is believed once set fire to a dormitory, stalked women, and wrote very disturbing pieces of literature. He was what many would call “a bad guy.”

Where is God when terrible things like this happen? What we must
remember is, God is there, even though it seems at times as though he isn’t. God loves us all, including those of us who have chosen the wrong path. God loves Cho Seung-Hui very much and looks down from heaven with compassion, despite his wreaking sheer havoc on an unsuspecting college campus, taking many innocent lives in the process.

Jesus was right there all the time, looking down with love as this
angry man premeditatedly sawed the serial numbers off the guns he used to blast screaming college kids into tomorrow. Jesus was watching as young people, with their lives still ahead of them, stood petrified with fear in those brief moments before their demise. Jesus was there, waiting in the wings to comfort those mourning families who lost their loved ones at the whim of a tarnished soul. Jesus was there, my friend, Jesus hasn’t forgotten! As the song goes, Jesus knows, Jesus cares!

There’s a lot of anger in the air because of this tragedy. The world is wishing this guy straight to Hell, thinking of how much people like Cho Seung-Hui deserve to suffer, but its times like these when we must try especially hard to think like Jesus. Its times like these when the grace of Jesus Christ our Lord shines out brighter than the sun. The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance! We should not wish evil on this disturbed and erring child of God, no matter how horrible and unsettling his deeds.

We should all aim never to be judgmental or hateful, and we must be careful where we place blame. People are quick to judge Cho Seung-Hui, but before they do, they should consider judging the people he executed first. They were college kids, most of them, and like the majority of young men and women today, probably experimented with premarital sex, smoked pot, and drank alcohol—not exactly followers of Christ! So we shouldn’t judge him too harshly.

Maybe, after this heartless berserker’s rage, when the traumatized halls of Virginia Tech were finally calmed, and 33 people (including the gunman himself) were dead, and 21 more seriously injured, just before Mr. Seung-Hui took a bullet from his own gun to the head, he repented. Yes, maybe, just before the blood-caked carpets of Virginia Tech were combed over by police, when only faint pleas for help could be heard from terrorized victims, curled up and quivering in the fetal position in the corners of classrooms and under desks, this furious killer genuinely repented. Perhaps just before that last bullet ravaged his brain, doing away with his thought processes, he muddled a prayer to God, asking for forgiveness of his sins and relief from the pain of life under which he snapped.

For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life! God loves Cho Seung-Hui, just like he loves you and me. He wants us to spend eternity in heaven together.

Maybe, even as I write this article, those slain men and women that
meet God at the pearly gates are in for a surprise! Singing hymns,
encircling the throne of God, listening to the lovely melody of harps, those murdered children of the almighty will be met by the very man who sent them there, and with forgiveness and beaming smiles of compassion and unfathomable joy, they will make that circle one soul larger! Cho Seung-Hui may not have been smiling much on earth, but he certainly will be in heaven as he, and all the redeemed, clasp hands and dance before the Lord on the streets of gold in that city foursquare!

(JH)

(JH)