|
|
4/20/2004
Revealing Columbine
 Five years ago today, a great spiritual attack was launched on high school campuses around the nation. I'll never forget watching the news that morning as I always had prior to leaving for school. I was a Junior at the time, and I think I was late for school that day. The media coverage was incessant. Most morning shows had been pre-empted for coverage on the school shooting at Columbine High School. What was taking place in Littleton, Colorado that morning was horrifying to everyone who watched. The media sensationalized it. They trailed the clip of that boy hanging from the broken window, bloody, wounded, about 90,000 times that day. No one questioned whether or not it was tragic, most discussions centered around the "why" question and wondering who was to blame. Not long after most of the funeral services for the 13 victims, the vultures thought it a good platform to push the gun-control debate and start pointing the finger at social problems.
About my freshman year in college I took great interest in not only what took place at Columbine High School, but also the other seven plus school shootings that took place in that year and the years prior at high schools around the nation. I began researching. This wasn't some sick sadistic project, this was a burning in my gut. I began reading books, journals of the victims, news articles, watching videos, interviews, and anything I could get my hands on to push past the news reports and fully understand what had really taken place. I became completely disgusted with much of what I found and not for reasons most would imagine.
 The journal of Rachel Scott, one of the victims, revealed a very candid and typical teenager struggling with issues of identity and peer pressure. Her journal also revealed a young lady who was hungry for a deeper relationship with God. This was also a young lady who prophesied her own death. She wrote almost to the day that it happened in her journal, "this will be the year that I die". I remember sitting on the ground at one of the bookstores in the mall, skimming through the book Rachel's Tears, a book which incorporates clippings from her diary, when I read this. My hands started to shake as I turned the pages and I was completely taken back by the power in the words of this modern-day martyr.
In my research about different school shootings there were certain consistencies that were failed to be mentioned by the media. The majority, if not all of the victims were Christians. Not only were they Christians, but they were "out" so to speak. They were the ones who led campus Bible studies and prayer circles before and after school. Many were faithful attendees at their local churches and youth groups. They were the ones everybody knew were Christians. They weren't the "closet Christians" so many of us are. That fact didn't really get much press. The school shooting that took place at Heath High School in west Paducah, Kentucky specifically targeted the group of Christians that met every morning to pray in the hall. In fact, the student charged actually opened fire on the prayer circle. It was an event he had planned for weeks. It was a pastor's son who stopped the shooter from taking any more victims.
In the case of Columbine, suspicion around why Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris targeted the victims they did involved a lot of smokescreening by the media. Meanwhile, countless believers who reached out to the Littleton community, and personally spent time with the victims' families can testify to the fact that the majority of the Columbine martyrs were in fact Christian, and Klebold and Harris were very specific in who they wanted dead. This was clearly a spiritual attack. When we seek to understand things in the natural, we often come up short and must rely on hypothesis and rough theory. The reality is, there is evil on this Earth and there is an enemy who is threatened by representatives of the Gospel of Jesus. Intimidation is a weapon that can be used to hinder the effectiveness of believers on this Earth. So why did they do it? Could we have done some pychological profiling? No. I have not a single doubt in my mind that Klebold and Harris were operating under the complete and total authority of the devil. He seeks to kill, steal and destroy. And where did this rampage lead the two? To death. Everything about this event and others like it smacks of demonic principalities and wickeness.
Major media conglomerates may have muffled the truth, but the reality of what was taking place on these campuses was apparent to the Christians there. It was a clear and definite effort to tear down the work that God was doing on many of these campuses. Fear was placed in the hearts of many believers. Fear to preach the truth. Fear to pray in public. Fear to carry a Bible to school. Fear is not of God. Fear opposes God. I believe the truth of Columbine and the other school shootings was not preached for a number of reasons. One, because many did not understand what was happening spiritually, two because the reality of anti-Christ sentiment in the United States would have to be acknowledged, discussed, and addressed, and three, because the revelation of the truth would mean people would have to deal with themselves and their own sinfulness and could not lay blame on Smith & Weston, K-Mart, the NRA, the Republican Party, or conservatives. Yet we still ask, "what Liberal media?" Our failure to recognize what really happened is truly in dishonor of those who died and I think it's disgusting. It certainly wasn't for the namesake of Michael Moore's half-truth telling documentary.
The fact that many of these young people died is not tragic in my opinion--not if they were believers. Death is not sad. Christ conquered death on our behalf a long time ago and believe me when I say they are in a much better place. The tragedy was that so many were unable to see the spiritual ramifications, the wickedness of the media, and the false reality that is still being preached regarding this event. These deaths were not in vain.
For more information on the truth of Columbine, and the ministries that have been birthed out of this spiritual attack, see the below resources:
Columbine Redemption
Rachel's Challenge
ChristianityToday.com - Videos of Hate
Atheists.org Decry Reality of Columbine
Truth About Bowling for Columbine
posted by ambra at 4/20/2004 01:33:03 AM | link to this entry |
|
|
|
|
|
