There Is
a Cure for This Week's Workplace Violence:
But Are
We Willing to Administer It?
by
Minister Paul J. Bern
The
latest and ever more disturbing workplace shooting happened this past
week in Virginia Beach, Va., and it has come to my attention that
there is a lot more to these shootings than the evil deeds of some
lone, deranged gunman. To be sure, the majority of the responsibility
for this past week's Virginia carnage is the gunman's, who was killed
by the police. Here was a man who was eaten up with hate, anger and
bitterness to such an extreme that he killed or wounded 12 people
before being killed himself by law enforcement personnel. So today
I'm going to divide my message to you all, my dear readers and
viewers, into 2 parts. The first will be the main part, which is what
the Bible says about anger management and patience. The second will
be equally as important – what are the root causes of workplace
shootings, are why are they happening mostly in the United States?
To find these answers,
the first place we look to is the Bible – the owner's manual of
humanity which is none other than the Word of God. We can start by
finding the opposite, which is the complete absence of anger. “4)
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast,
it is not proud. 5) It does not dishonor others, it is not
self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of
wrongs.” (1Cor. 13: 4-5)
The lone gunmen in all workplace shootings had this very thing in
common – there was a complete absence of love within themselves. To
put it another way, these were individuals who were likely devoid of
love since long before these various mass shootings ever occurred.
They also had a propensity to keep score on their perceived enemies,
like a game of emotional tit-for-tat. This is probably what happened
this past week in Virginia, and it's precisely the opposite of what
verse 5 calls for.
God's
Word warns us against associating with those who are motivated by
hate and unfocused rage that storms within them like a category 5
hurricane, as it is written: “24)
Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with
one easily angered....”
If anyone is not currently making an effort to disassociate from all
hot-tempered people in their lives – and especially if it's a
spouse or parent – let today be the day you start. Violent people
are toxic people, and it is up to ourselves to eliminate toxicity and
toxic people from our lives. You can rest assured that there will be
no toxic people or personalities in heaven! His Word also states
quite clearly that righteous anger can only come from God. “For
his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”
(Psalms 30, verse 5) God can be stirred to irrevocable rage. Just ask
one of those who lived in Sodom or Gomorrah when God destroyed their
cities.
So
only God can take life, since it is he who created it. When people
take lives, they are playing god, and He holds in reserve the most
severe punishment for those individuals who presume to do so. Those
individuals who cannot, or who refuse to, keep their anger in check
are held in the lowest possible esteem by God, as it is written, “11)
Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the
end.” (Proverbs 29:11)
Mass shooters are stone fools and pathetic morons according to
Scripture. Those words were written roughly 3,000 years ago by King
Solomon, son of David, of Jerusalem. King Solomon was the wisest man
who ever lived according to the Bible. His words are to be taken very
seriously.
OK, now I want to
move on to my conclusion for today. The culpability of the Virginia
gunman is inescapable, and I would surmise that he is in an
impossibly horrible place right now. But aside from his own guilt,
what were, and what are, the root causes of workplace violence? For
the answers to this and other questions like it, we need only look at
American culture in the present. Everywhere we look on TV, the movies
and particularly certain video games, we find ourselves bombarded
with violent imagery that caters to our most basic instincts. Combine
that with marriages that never last, which results in families being
scattered all over the country and beyond. The twin safety nets of
family and job security are both gone forever. As a result, life here
in America can be downright terrifying at times. People are snapping
under the pressure.
And, you can be
fired for no reason if you're in what's called a 'right-to-work'
state like Virginia. My own state of Georgia is the same way.
According to Wikipedia, “In
the context of U.S.
labor politics, "right-to-work
laws" refers
to state laws that prohibit union
security agreements between companies and labor
unions. Under these laws, employees in unionized workplaces are
banned from negotiating contracts which require all members who
benefit from the union contract to contribute to the costs of union
representation.” To view
the entire page, click
here. Of course, the flip side of 'right-to-work' laws is that
wages are maintained at substandard levels in the absence of labor
unions. While our wages are kept at an artificially low level, the
American people find themselves boxed into student loans, mortgages
and car payments they can't afford. Actually, we can afford our
loans. It's the exorbitant compounded interest rates; that's what we
can no longer afford. And that very thing, this enforced inequality,
that we must rise up against as a united people, while we still have
time. And, that is what I have been trying to get people to do for
the last 8 years that I've been blogging and writing nonfiction
books.
Rise up against the
powers that enslave you! Work your way out of the traps you are
ensnared in – traps of the financial kind. Robots will be taking
all our jobs soon. When that happens, we will have no resources left
to fight with. Mass shootings solve nothing. These workplace
shootings – I addressed school shootings in a separate blog post
some time ago – are being perpetrated by deranged gunmen all right,
but there is a root cause – like a least common denominator – for
their rage to the point of insanity, even to the point of committing
mass murder. Besides the evil natures of many, that root cause is
America's gun culture and the capitalist economic system that feeds
this human craving for violence. Although I am still in favor of the
2nd
Amendment to the US Constitution that give us the “right to keep
and bear arms”, under no circumstances does the 2nd
Amendment give any American the right to gun people down ad lib. A
national gun licensing system similar to our current vehicle
registration system would work quite nicely. Gun owners would be
licensed too, concealed carry or not.
This latest episode
of violence in an American workplace shows the entire world what a
bunch of trigger-happy crazies we're all turning out to be. I say
this to America's shame! Stop watching TV, the programming is filled
with all kinds of subliminal messaging, especially the commercials.
If you're a parent, most of that subliminal messaging is aimed
directly at your children, and the networks don't care if you know
that fact or not. The TV networks are trying to brainwash your
children, and they are doing a frighteningly effective job. Stop
playing those ultra-violent video games, and stop giving them as
gifts. Looking at all those TV, computer and phone screens is hard on
your eyes. Try listening to an audio-book instead. I have 4 out, with
2 more slated for release later this year. To find out more, just
click
here. And, I hope I'll have something better to write about by
this time next week.
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