Where Does This End?

Stressed?  Look at the kitten. LOOK AT HER!!!!

Among all the wonderful, magnificent aspects of Texas that are admirable, our sense of community is tops.  We are generally friendly and like a good party.  We love our sports, our barbecues, and our communities. A community becomes a tribe.  A clan.  A family.

And a great many of us, Texan or not, count our churches as part of that community.  In small towns, especially, a church becomes the heart of a community.  People come together in prayer, in fellowship, in sickness and in health. Young adults fall in love at church picnics, become a family, and they show up on Sundays with their children in tow.  Small towns have many faults, but their sense of community is not one of them. Which is why the news today, of a white man shooting up a small town church 30 miles southeast of me is so shocking.  The fact that the shooter apparently came from New Braunfels, a place I worked for twenty years, hits me in the gut.

A church is supposed to be a place of safety, of sanctuary.  Historically, people in Europe sought refuge in cathedrals, requesting sanctuary from persecution.  It was considered a grave sin to violate sanctuary, once given.  These days, we don't have the same concerns, but a church is still viewed as a place of refuge.  Safety.  Those who need help, who have nowhere else to go, find themselves at the doors of churches, seeking comfort.  And they usually get it.  Now that sense of peace, that sense of safety, is gone. All those people, raised in their faith to believe that their Lord would protect them from all evil, are feeling very afraid right now. If you can't find sanctuary in your church, your sense of community suffers. The heart is gone, replaced by what?

Where does this all end?  When do the NRA fanatics put aside their frenzied fight over their bastardization of the Second Amendment?  When do the "Liberal snowflakes" stop looking down on those who don't share their opinions?  Why are we even fighting about common sense gun control?  Why is this so difficult?  We are better than this.  We should all be able to be adults, come to the table and figure out what to do.

I wish that I could say that Texas was at the forefront of gun control legislation.  I wish that I could say the Lone Star state was committed to the safety of its citizens, and willing to listen to ideas and possible solutions.  I may not have any answers, but surely someone does.   But tomorrow, after all the empty platitudes about prayers being offered up for Sutherland Springs?  It will be business as usual, with the finger pointing and the blame being flung about. Nothing will happen to stop this from happening again, and again, and again.

Where does this all end?