Letter - God-free and moral-free zones put most vulnerable victims at risk

To the editor:

The sign read: “Sandy Hook Elementary School...Visitors Welcome.” Clearly, the visitor who arrived armed to the teeth and bent on destroying as many lives as possible before ending his own was not a welcome visitor. But as I contemplate this horrific act of merciless violence, I cannot help but reflect on the welcome we have extended as a culture and society to visitors whose appearance is often less threatening but whose effect is just as dangerous. We have put out the welcome mat for a relativistic, it’s not my fault, I can do what I please, don’t shove your old-fashioned morality down my throat attitude, and it has carved out a permanent niche in our cultural, philosophic and political discourse.

The irony that the schools in which these mass killings took place were all Gun Free Zones is not lost on the observer. But consider that for more than three decades our schools have become essentially God and moral free zones. The Ten Commandments have been banned from such places of learning because they have religious connotations and convey a moral narrowness that might make students and faculty uncomfortable. Clearly, a Ten Commandment billboard and praying students would have made no difference to Adam Lanza, but Adam Lanza was not always a 20-year-old cold blooded killer. He was once a child and he grew up in the culture and society I have just described.

Events like these should lead us as a nation to do some real soul searching concerning who we are welcoming and who we are showing the door. When we create God Free and Moral Free zones, the most vulnerable victims are our children.

Pastor David Wallin

Kensington Covenant Church

Kensington Lutheran LCMC

Tags: opinion, letters