Criminal behavior is nothing new. Since Cain used a rock to bash in his brother’s skull, the criminal element has been a constant. Until Jesus comes it will not go away. Certainly America has had more than its fair share of vicious hard cases. From the outlaws of the old west, such as John Wesley Hardin to the likes of Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, the cold-blooded mass murderer is hardly a new monstrosity.
There is however a chilling new development in America that may reveal something just as concerning, in its own way, as the cannibalism of a necrophiliac like Jeffrey Dahmer. The mass murderer, as horrific as he is, does not really represent, or does not necessarily represent a change in the culture in which he lives. He is an aberration. He is apart from the culture he lives in, is hated by it, feared by it and is ultimately punished by it.
Contrast that with Nazi Germany. In the World War II era, Germany was a sociopathic state, a culture of murder. Having successfully brainwashed itself into conscienceless mass murder, Germany killed those it considered less than human. Jews, of course, headed the list, but there were plenty of others including Gypsies, the mentally retarded and those whom the Nazis considered social and political enemies, such as communists and homosexuals. The greater horror however was that it was official government policy, not the actions of a crazed gunman hopped up on drugs. It was mass murder as national loyalty, as patriotism condoned, not censured by its surrounding culture. The commandants of SS murder squads and the guards at concentration camps were given medals, not sent to prison.
There is no such thing as a culture without virtue. Every culture has qualities it considers virtuous and it lauds those who act consistent with those virtues. A society does not become sociopathic because it has no virtues but because those virtues are changed. When courage is redefined as the ability to murder the weak and defenseless without hesitation, the culture produced is sociopathic by definition.
Of course, not every German was in agreement. It might be argued that the Nazis were a subculture that had highjacked Germany rather than a reflection of its true heart. Even if that dubious argument was to be accepted, it must be also said that there was no prevailing cultural devotion to true courage, at least not enough to stop the Nazis. To put it bluntly, there was no clear German cultural commitment to the sanctity of life. Where that is missing a sociopathic culture is inevitable.
Years ago I debated on the radio with a “pro-choice” rabbi. I asked him if he believed in the absolute value of human life and he brazenly said no. He said, “I believe in the quality of life.”
I was horrified and I said so. “Look,” I said, “That is the very argument the Nazi judges used to allow forced sterilization of the mentally retarded and finally extermination of the Jewish people.”
“Are you calling me a Nazi?” he shouted.
“No,” I said, “I’m just saying the world is upside down when rabbis think like Nazis.”
He was so angry that the moderator had to stop the debate. The great truth of the absolute sanctity of life, irrespective of its apparent “quality” or productiveness or any other variable, is what keeps a culture or a subculture from descending into sociopathy. If life, any life, is not sacred then murder quickly becomes virtue.
There is a new “game” now hitting the streets of America. Knockout. It means what it says. Someone steps out of a group; it never happens alone, and without warning or provocation attempts to knock out a bystander with one punch. It has caused death and injury in multiple places and seems to be growing in popularity. It is a way for a member of the pack to demonstrate his “virtue” of violent disregard for the personhood of another. It is quintessential sociopathy. Violent, remorseless, conscienceless and lacking in the ability to see the value of someone else.
One teenaged girl asked about the death of a homeless man by such an act said it was “playing that got out of control.” She did not mention the life lost. Only the “stupidity” of the game. Horrible.
This sociopathic subculture was inevitable, in my opinion, and my sad prediction is that it is not the end of horrors but the very beginning. When unborn babies mean nothing, who does? Soon the homeless, the poor, the weak, the elderly and the defenseless mean nothing. Will the knockout game soon give way to the murder game? God forbid. I hope not, but I do not really see what will keep it from happening. If young thugs can punch an old man on the street for fun, why isn’t the next step to kill one for even more fun? Nazis. They are sociopathic Nazis that are the bitter fruit of a culture gradually shrinking its concept of life’s inherent value.
After the murder of a young girl in his high school, a principal made the statement that it was a tragedy for such a promising and lovely girl to be killed so senselessly. That statement misses the point entirely. Would it have been less tragic if she had been slow, or crippled, or ugly or anything? Her death was not tragic because she was promising but because she was a person. Her murderer’s remorselessness is tragedy upon tragedy.
If the unborn are just fetuses, then why aren’t the elderly just targets? Nazis in the streets are at the end of that line of thought. Our hope is to guard the value of every life: born, unborn, feeble, sick, disagreeable, inconvenient or unproductive. Life is what the Nazis devalued. They made murder the business of government. Is that any worse than making murder a game?
America, particularly the American church must teach about life, its value, its hope, its purpose and its sanctity. The issue is not just anti-abortion, or anti-anything. Not really. It is the value of life. All life.
