The Orlando Shooting - we are the ones . . .

The Orlando Shooting.

There are so many things wrong in our culture that come from the Orlando shooting.  Gun violence.  Radicalized religious nutjobs.  Fear-based responses to violence.  Downplaying radical Muslim violence.  Politicking in the days that followed such tragic loss.  Hatred in any form.

And we all get on social media and push our myopic perspectives.  Here is the 'hard to hear' truth:  No gun ban, no law would have kept this guy from killing fifty people.  Violence is in the heart, not the hand.  Proposing that we ban all Muslims would do nothing either.  The guy was born and raised in America.  There are no walls that keep out hatred.

What we keep coming back to is violence.

Seriously people, how can we attend peace vigils and then throw on Walking Dead on Netflix and not see a problem?  Assassin's Creed.  Grand Theft.  How can we not see that we are creating a culture of great violence and indiscriminate bloodthirst?

I once sat with a Muslim in Africa at a cafe.  He began our conversation with the words, "the reason your culture has fallen is . . ."  He went on to describe the pornography that pours out of our country all over the world. He talked about the dissolution of our families.  The selfishness that we exude.  The violence that we export through our entertainment.

So you can ban guns.

You can ban Muslims.

But you will never touch the problem until we have leaders who see a need for a new set of morals and ethics.  We need cultural leaders that show us a new way to look at life and people and relationships.  We need a country that would wince at the violence portrayed in our homes and theaters and quickly turn it off.  As it is now we are our own worst enemies.  Violence has visited us because it comes from us.

Think about it.  Gruesome depictions of hatred and annihilation is our entertainment.

That is sick.

So enough with the bans of people and weapons.  Let's start a new culture of life.