The battle rages again. Every time we have a mass shooting in the United States, the ideologues on both sides get into their forts and begin to defend their ideology and take pot shots at the other various ideologies in their forts. Thus, we continue to fail to resolve the issue at hand, the violent use of military style weapons by mentally ill persons against are children and other citizens of the land.

I would argue that until we recognize that this is a complicated issue with disparate elements and tensions, we will can not enter into the necessary dialogue to solve this very real problem. And it will happen again, and again. We need to talk about mental illness, violence in various medias like video games and movies, the availability of weapons built not for hunting or protection, but for inflicting optimized damage to enemy troops, sufficient security at public venues, and most certainly to teach and live a moral law that recognizes the value of human life for every person and community.

I would also argue that those of the Christian community who decry the loss of prayer in our public schools are possibly barking up the wrong tree. I think we should begin with our own homes and hearts. What is the prayer life of your family? For if there is prayer in the heart of all Christians, then it will offset in lack of prayer in any public school or even government building. Prayer is that powerful and wonderful, especially when it is about communion with our God, rather than sticking it to those of other faiths, and non-believers.

So, I stand with the young people of Marjoie Stoneman Douglas High School. We need to leave our forts and the insane defense of ideologies and offer them the solutions they need to be assured they are persons of value to us.