Closer Than He Realizes

Surprisingly, David Von Drehle comes closer to the truth than most people realize, and perhaps even he himself realizes, in his Time Article It’s All About Him published this week post Virginia Tech. It is almost sickening how quickly the media, politicians, and various gun control groups fell on the Virginia Tech Incident and proceeded to hurl blame in all ways but one. It is heartbreaking that the very day that everyone began to hear about the killings, people were calling for “healing”. I don’t stand on any side in gun control issues and I think that an eventual call to healing would have been called for. But I always get so frustrated when popular media and people in general forget the one thing I said they failed to mention above, human nature.

Like I said, David Von Drehle almost gets it. He says, probably echoing hundreds,

I’ve lost interest in the cracks, chips, and holes and broken places in the lives of men like Cho Seung-Hui, the mass murderer of Virginia Tech. The pain, grievances, and self-pity of mass killers are only symptoms of the real explanation...They are raging Narcissists.

That is surprisingly clear, and while I’m not sure that David Von Drehle gets exactly to the heart of the issue he comes startlingly close. Killers are self centered, self, gratifying, self worshiping, self pitying maniacs who fulfill their need for further self worship by mercilessly murdering as many as they can. Video games? Sure. Bullying? Sure. Poor Security? Sure, but what is the real problem? Drehle puts it well,

Psychologists from South Africa to Chicago have begun to recognize that extreme self-centeredness is the forest in these stories, and all other things – guns, games, lyrics, pornography – are just trees.

Drehle is saying, essentially, that narcissism is “the problem”. Further,

Only a narcissist could decide that his alienation should be underlined in the blood of strangers. The flamboyant nature of these crimes is like a neon sign pointing to the truth. Charles Whitman playing God in his Texas clock tower, James Huberty spraying lead in a California restaurant, Harris and Klebold in their theatrical trench coats – they’re all stars in the cinema of their self absorbed minds.

I find it somewhat humorous, and also sad, that everyone is trying so hard to nail down the “motive”. What is the “motive”? We get closer and closer in Drehle’s article to what the actual “motive” is,

Earnestly and honestly, detectives and journalists dig up apparent clues and weave them into a sort of explanation. In the days after Columbine, for example, Harris and Klebold emerged as alienated misfits in the jock culture of their suburban high school. We learned about their morbid taste in music and their violent video games. Largely missing, though, was the proper frame around the picture: the extreme Narcissism that licensed these boys, in their minds, to murder their teachers and their classmates.

Going on,

[W]e must stop explaining killers on their terms. Minus the clear context of Narcissism, the biographical details of these men can begin to look like a plausible chain of cause and effect – especially to other Narcissists.

Drehle ends exactly how I would,

The real problem can be found in the killer’s mirror.

Now that sounds closer to a plausible answer then I have found anywhere heretofore. Write it down, put it in a book, use it as a proverb, the real problem friends is not with the guns, porn, video games, or TVs, though those all play a gigantic role in bringing these men and boys to Narcissism. And that is where I part ways with Mr. Drehle, maybe. I say maybe because Drehle doesn’t actually state anything other than a vague “self-centeredness” to the actual problem. Or necessarily even put himself in front of the mirror. I would say that what is called for here is, yes put the proper frame of Narcissism around the picture, but we need to, I dare say, we must, see what the frame is made of. We absolutely are forced to examine what the trees and dirt in the forest are made of.

What I am saying is this, the real problem with the whole world can be found in my mirror and in the mirrors of all living. The real problem is human sin. As humans we are infected (as Augustine would imply) because of what our representative Adam did in the Garden if Eden (as most Protestants would imply). I mix these two views because I personally feel a little of both, I feel infected even if in correct interpretation and theological terms I am not infected I have only been represented by Adam, who failed. Read Romans 5:12

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…

Death came through Adam because of the sin of Adam and we all die because we sin. Well we have not all sinned exactly as Adam did, and we weren’t biologically there while Adam was sinning, and Adam wasn’t just a great example for us not to follow but Adam did represent us there in that garden and when God tested Him he tested the whole race, and Adam failed and died; as a consequence in his representation of us we failed, and die though we did not sin exactly like Adam.

We know this, all in Adam die. That’s us. We are the problem because we are inherently sinful and guilty, and as such we are condemned. We should turn our eyes for minute away from Cho Seung-Hui and look in the mirror and see that we aren’t very good people. In fact, we’re inherently depraved and sinful and by ourselves will most definitely die roasting in eternal deserved torment for our sin nature.

I say praise God. Why? Why on earth can anyone say praise God after what I just said. Because of the rest of the portion of Romans 5:12-19

If many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift of Jesus Christ abounded for many…if because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

I must stress this point, and this is why I emphasized it above, this is not talking about universalism. The all is not “all men everywhere no matter what” it is all in Christ. Look at the phrase, “those who receive” and you will see that this is not universalism. But what I am stressing is this, all men in Adam die, all men in Christ live.

Mass murderers need to look in their mirrors, but friends, we need to look in our mirrors too. I hope that David Von Drehle isn’t saying that if anyone looks in a mirror he is a narcissist, but I agree that if anyone looks to long in the mirror he is a narcissist. We need to look in the mirror, see that in Adam all die, and that that sin is inherent in ourselves, and understand that as such we deserve condemnation.

Do you know what we need to do after that? We need to look at Christ, God, Almighty, “through whom are all things and through whom we exist”. Because friends, if you or I receive the “abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness [found in Christ]” we will, “reign in life through the one man, Christ Jesus”. Receive Jesus who paid the penalty for your sins, Amen.

Being Changed From One Degree of Glory To Another by My Glorious Savior’s Face,

R.D. Thompson