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Where Was God?
Question hangs for some after school massacre
By Bill McAllister
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ANCHORAGE - It’s a central tenet of the Christian faith that this is a fallen world, in which rebellion against God has allowed evil to affect our lives.
Still, with something this big and dark, some are no doubt asking, where was God this morning?
As news of the shootings spread, Christian clergy were among those wondering if a similar crime could happen here.
"People tend to forget Bethel, and [the] Bethel shooting,” said police Chaplain Bert McQueen. “Commonplace, they refer to Columbine as the school shooting that kind of started a lot of this nationwide. Bethel was before that."
"Yeah, and you know we're all concerned about it maybe happening right here,” said Reverend Jerry Prevo of Anchorage Baptist Temple. “I know we are here at our school are thinking about what can we further do to protect our students."
"Even though it happened thousands of miles away, it feels like it could happen right here in our city, in our home, with our families or friends," said Reverend Richard Irwin of Anchorage City Church.
As to why this happened, the ministers say it's a result of humanity's fallen nature.
"God is certainly on His throne,” Prevo said. “This is not God's fault. This is man's fault. Man has refused to accept God as God and submit to God and God's laws and God's ways, which is thou shalt not murder."
"I can't come back and answer for God,” Irwin said. “God has to speak for himself in these things. But i do have confidence in him, that if we pray, he hears us when we pray."
Irwin says this is a time for people to reach out to each other and to ministers and mental health professionals.
"We are getting better all the time at treating these things. And as these things continue to happen, we must get better at it."
It happened on the opposite coast, but we're feeling it here.
And of course the clergymen said they are praying for the families and friends of those affected by the tragedy in Connecticut.
