Sunday Reflections: The Aurora Shooting

By Dai Morgan of Living Spirit Ministries in Swissvale

At this point, everyone knows about the shooting that took place shortly after midnight, Thursday, July 20, in Aurora, Colorado.

24-year-old James Holmes entered a theater where the premiere of the movie “The Dark Knight Rises” was being shown and opened fire on the audience. At the time of this writing, it has been reported that 12 individuals have been killed and 59 wounded. The majority of people attending this eagerly-awaited event appear to have been young adults and children.

As soon as the story became public, politicians and public figures began releasing statements of sympathy. They almost all included expressions of prayer. I hope that these claims and promises to pray will be fulfilled. I believe in the efficacy of prayer. However, I fear that the words “you are in our prayers” or “we’ll be praying for you” have become perfunctory, similar to “have a nice day.” The offer to pray is an extraordinary sentiment. I hope that my concerns are misdirected.

A willingness to pray assumes that there is someone to whom to pray: a greater power, an ultimate source, a universal spirit, God! The onset of a tragic event will often cause one’s thoughts to turn to God. Maybe this is the natural human desire to find causation, especially in the face of chaos or the unexplainable. For some people, this can even result in anger and blaming God—which is not necessarily a bad thing, if it leads to spiritual growth (in Hasidic Jewish tradition, for example, questioning and calling God to task is not unusual).

For those who profess a religious faith, an encounter with tragedy can lead to a deepening reliance and appreciation of one’s faith—something I’ve already heard expressed by individuals affected by the Aurora shootings. However, for others, the experience can create hostility toward God. This reaction is often expressed in the form of a question, “How can God allow this terrible thing to happen?” In this case, why did God allow Mr. Holmes to harm those innocent people in that theater? As a highly trained Christian clergyman and theologian, I will give you the answer!—I DON’T KNOW. I am not God.  

Though I don’t have an answer, I will make one short observation: The shootings at Aurora were perpetrated by a human being. Our environment, the earth, is not a safe place. We are subject to the laws of physics, the power of the natural world and the behavioral choices of our fellow human beings. Let me repeat that last item. We must live with the actions of people—even the best of whom have moments of selfishness, ill will and carelessness. Need I say more? 

Many Christians would describe this condition as living under the “permissive will” of God. The Judeo-Christian belief is that there will come a time of reckoning, when God’s will for peace, love and (to use an old word) righteousness shall be accomplished. But, that time is not yet here. Today, we must cope with an imperfect world. God permits it. We are in transition (which also means that it is our task to participate in making the world a better place). However, there is the recognition that all things, even tragedy, will result in the accomplishment of God’s will.  

Certainly, there are some folks who find is easy to get mad at God when life doesn’t go the way that they want—in other words, when they think that they know better than God. And so, we hear the question, “How can God allow this terrible thing to happen?” In fact, why doesn’t God make my bed, hand-feed me grapes and allow me to have a restart button, like in video games? Well again, I DON’T KNOW. 

However, there is another belief of the Judeo-Christian tradition that understands that God is not aloof from the world—in other words, God can and will act in the affairs of humankind. I suspect that we rarely recognize God’s workings (“blessings” as some call them). But, we accept that God’s hand is present in history. And this brings us back around to the concept of prayer.

We Christians find prayer to be a gift of God’s grace and source of divine connection. It makes us a part of God’s movement in the world. Admittedly, prayer is a subjective experience. Those who do not practice it can be flippant when talking about prayer. However, it is hard to be critical toward anyone who expresses a willingness to pray. It is not my place to be concerned about the genuineness of the many public statements, mentioned above. I have to welcome them as attempts to connect with God and others, in the face of a tragic event.  

In fact, whatever opportunities any of us might have to help those who have suffered because of the shootings in Aurora, Colorado, we can all start by praying.