by
James D. Veltmeyer, MD
The tragic surge of mass shootings across America is neither the result of
presidential rhetoric nor the result of lax gun laws. The Columbine massacre
occurred on Bill Clinton’s watch when the assault gun ban was in effect. Sandy
Hook happened during the Obama Presidency.
No, the continuing explosion in violence in America—which includes the daily
killing of innocents in large, Democrat-run cities like Chicago – is a consequence
of the progressive abandonment of religious values and moral principles that
are leading to societal collapse on a level not seen since the fall of the Roman
Empire. These values and principles, rooted in Biblical law and Christianity for
more than 2000 years, dictated a respect for the dignity of human life which
has all but disintegrated throughout the Western World over the last half-
century.
The embrace of a soulless secularism which can trace its origins at least to the
days of the French Revolution all the way through the godless communist
ideology of Marx in the mid-19th century to the Cultural Revolution of the
1960s has reaped a bloody harvest of death and destruction unparalleled in
human history.
The irony of this reality is that the agents of death and destruction are the very
ones who determined that God should be dethroned and Man raised in his place.
That the worship of God should be replaced with the Worship of Man. And, the
result of their efforts in the 20th century: Two of the worst wars in human
history, costing the lives of over 80 million people. The mass exterminations of
Hitler, Stalin and Mao which led to the deaths of over 100 million. Pol Pot’s
annihiliation of half of Cambodia’s population. Mass murder by totalitarian
regimes throughout Africa and on and on. All in the name of “progress” and
creating a “new man.” A “new man” without God.
This repudiation of the value of human life by the cultural Marxists and
secularists in American society is manifested by the murder of over 60 million
unborn babies since Roe v. Wade in 1973 – a holocaust of shame that
permanently disfigures the face of America. And, it is manifested by what we saw
happen recently in Gilroy, California, Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas. For if any
society can so callously and brutally destroy its most innocent and defenseless,
what message does that society transmit to others about the value of human life?
Can we be surprised when a hate-filled killer in Texas guns down people at Wal-
Mart when the sitting Governor of New York is given a standing ovation for
signing legislation permitting abortion to the moment of birth? Or the sitting
Governor of Virginia endorses abortion after birth?
The tragic truth is that these killers and mass shooters are products of a society
that has lost its soul. That has renounced its God. They are products of a public
school system where a handful of lawyers on the Supreme Court say it is a crime
to say a prayer. Where a Bible needs to be hidden on a school bus. Where explicit
and pornographic sex education courses undermine and degrade human dignity
and the moral standards parents try to inculcate in their children. Where
“tolerance” of everything is demanded, so why not tolerance of evil? Where
young people are even confused about their own gender! A government-run
public school system devoid of morality must be seen as an accomplice in the
acts of violence perpetrated by its charges.
If the public school system is to be blamed, so must the media—from Hollywood
movies to violent videos and music to Facebook. Day in and day out, the media
ridicules and denigrates traditional moral standards while idealizing the vulgar,
the violent and every vice known to man. One yearns for the day of the Catholic
Church’s Index and morality code for movies which forced producers to develop
clean and uplifting movies lest they suffer a boycott ordered by a tough Irish
priest at the altar.
Sadly, our churches too have succumbed to the cultural Marxists, infected by an
empty-headed liberalism that seeks to be in vogue with the modern world by
abandoning centuries-old traditions and even the very concept of sin.
So, what hope do these young killers have? They are not getting it in school.
Not from the mass media. Not even in their churches. And, in many cases,
their home lives have been ripped apart by divorce, drugs, and despair. In a sense,
they too are victims.
Victims of a society that no longer recognizes God. And, when society no longer
recognizes God, why should God still recognize society and protect us from the
evil that contaminates the world?
Sure, we can ban some categories of guns. Yet, the killer in Gilroy bought his gun
in Nevada and brought it into California.
Sure, we can strengthen background checks, but some of these killers had no
previous record of mental illness when they purchased their firearms.
Sure, we can tell the politicians to tamp down the hot rhetoric. Yet, does anyone
seriously believe a few less Tweets from the President would have caused these
mass murders to reconsider their heinous acts?
After each mass killing, we get the same old solutions offered by lawmakers who
refuse to deal with the root causes of the crisis. It’s just too uncomfortable and
politically incorrect to say that a return to religion in society might be the best
antidote to what is happening. Yet, as someone once said: “Religion is the basis
of morality and morality is the basis of law.” Or as Ronald Reagan once said,
man has created thousands of laws over time, but has never improved upon the
Ten Commandments. Maybe it’s time our leaders thought about that.
Dr. James Veltmeyer is a prominent La Jolla physician voted “Top Doctor” in San Diego County in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019. Dr. Veltmeyer can be reached at [email protected]
James D. Veltmeyer, MD
The tragic surge of mass shootings across America is neither the result of
presidential rhetoric nor the result of lax gun laws. The Columbine massacre
occurred on Bill Clinton’s watch when the assault gun ban was in effect. Sandy
Hook happened during the Obama Presidency.
No, the continuing explosion in violence in America—which includes the daily
killing of innocents in large, Democrat-run cities like Chicago – is a consequence
of the progressive abandonment of religious values and moral principles that
are leading to societal collapse on a level not seen since the fall of the Roman
Empire. These values and principles, rooted in Biblical law and Christianity for
more than 2000 years, dictated a respect for the dignity of human life which
has all but disintegrated throughout the Western World over the last half-
century.
The embrace of a soulless secularism which can trace its origins at least to the
days of the French Revolution all the way through the godless communist
ideology of Marx in the mid-19th century to the Cultural Revolution of the
1960s has reaped a bloody harvest of death and destruction unparalleled in
human history.
The irony of this reality is that the agents of death and destruction are the very
ones who determined that God should be dethroned and Man raised in his place.
That the worship of God should be replaced with the Worship of Man. And, the
result of their efforts in the 20th century: Two of the worst wars in human
history, costing the lives of over 80 million people. The mass exterminations of
Hitler, Stalin and Mao which led to the deaths of over 100 million. Pol Pot’s
annihiliation of half of Cambodia’s population. Mass murder by totalitarian
regimes throughout Africa and on and on. All in the name of “progress” and
creating a “new man.” A “new man” without God.
This repudiation of the value of human life by the cultural Marxists and
secularists in American society is manifested by the murder of over 60 million
unborn babies since Roe v. Wade in 1973 – a holocaust of shame that
permanently disfigures the face of America. And, it is manifested by what we saw
happen recently in Gilroy, California, Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas. For if any
society can so callously and brutally destroy its most innocent and defenseless,
what message does that society transmit to others about the value of human life?
Can we be surprised when a hate-filled killer in Texas guns down people at Wal-
Mart when the sitting Governor of New York is given a standing ovation for
signing legislation permitting abortion to the moment of birth? Or the sitting
Governor of Virginia endorses abortion after birth?
The tragic truth is that these killers and mass shooters are products of a society
that has lost its soul. That has renounced its God. They are products of a public
school system where a handful of lawyers on the Supreme Court say it is a crime
to say a prayer. Where a Bible needs to be hidden on a school bus. Where explicit
and pornographic sex education courses undermine and degrade human dignity
and the moral standards parents try to inculcate in their children. Where
“tolerance” of everything is demanded, so why not tolerance of evil? Where
young people are even confused about their own gender! A government-run
public school system devoid of morality must be seen as an accomplice in the
acts of violence perpetrated by its charges.
If the public school system is to be blamed, so must the media—from Hollywood
movies to violent videos and music to Facebook. Day in and day out, the media
ridicules and denigrates traditional moral standards while idealizing the vulgar,
the violent and every vice known to man. One yearns for the day of the Catholic
Church’s Index and morality code for movies which forced producers to develop
clean and uplifting movies lest they suffer a boycott ordered by a tough Irish
priest at the altar.
Sadly, our churches too have succumbed to the cultural Marxists, infected by an
empty-headed liberalism that seeks to be in vogue with the modern world by
abandoning centuries-old traditions and even the very concept of sin.
So, what hope do these young killers have? They are not getting it in school.
Not from the mass media. Not even in their churches. And, in many cases,
their home lives have been ripped apart by divorce, drugs, and despair. In a sense,
they too are victims.
Victims of a society that no longer recognizes God. And, when society no longer
recognizes God, why should God still recognize society and protect us from the
evil that contaminates the world?
Sure, we can ban some categories of guns. Yet, the killer in Gilroy bought his gun
in Nevada and brought it into California.
Sure, we can strengthen background checks, but some of these killers had no
previous record of mental illness when they purchased their firearms.
Sure, we can tell the politicians to tamp down the hot rhetoric. Yet, does anyone
seriously believe a few less Tweets from the President would have caused these
mass murders to reconsider their heinous acts?
After each mass killing, we get the same old solutions offered by lawmakers who
refuse to deal with the root causes of the crisis. It’s just too uncomfortable and
politically incorrect to say that a return to religion in society might be the best
antidote to what is happening. Yet, as someone once said: “Religion is the basis
of morality and morality is the basis of law.” Or as Ronald Reagan once said,
man has created thousands of laws over time, but has never improved upon the
Ten Commandments. Maybe it’s time our leaders thought about that.
Dr. James Veltmeyer is a prominent La Jolla physician voted “Top Doctor” in San Diego County in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019. Dr. Veltmeyer can be reached at [email protected]
