5Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
There's more...8But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.9Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,10and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him...
There's the answer - we are all born with a propensity to sin, and the sum total of our lives proceeds from that propensity + influences we encounter + the choices we make. But...the whole equation is transformed by the reliance on the power of Christ - if we are followers of Him, then our salvation results in a changed heart, a new life. While influences from the culture will still be there, we can develop a greater immunity to being seized by them, and we'll make correct choices, resulting in a life that glorifies God and produces fruit for Him. The power of the gospel can reverse a negative sum total for our lives.
Jesus taught His disciples in Matthew chapter 15 about the inward forces that defile individuals:
18But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.19For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.20These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man."
Ultimately, there is one man responsible for taking the lives of 6 people in Santa Barbara, California over the weekend.
But, who knows what influences could have contributed to his demise.
According to a comprehensive piece by Dan Wooding on the ASSISTNews.com website, Elliot Rodger, this troubled 22-year-old man who carried out his sinister plan on what he had threatened to be a "day of retribution," was the son of "Hunger Games" assistant director Peter Rodger, whose IMDB page shows that he had divorced Elliot's mother and remarried.
Reports say that by the ninth grade, Rodger was “increasingly bullied” and he stated that he “cried by myself at school every day.” In 2012, Rodger stated that the “one friend I had in the whole world who truly understood” him “blatantly said he didn't want to be friends anymore,” without offering him a reason for abandoning the friendship. He was described as “a serial killer in the making” by users of a bodybuilding online forum of which Rodger was a registered member.
According to the Rodger family's attorney, Rodger saw multiple therapists and was a student at Santa Barbara City College, although the school later claimed he was no longer taking classes. The lawyer also claims that Rodger was diagnosed with “highly functional Asperger syndrome” as a child. Prior to attending Santa Barbara City College, Rodger attended Crespi Carmelite High School, an all-male Catholic high school, but left before graduating. He had a YouTube account, a Facebook account, and a blog titled Elliot Rodger's Official Blog, all of which contained posts expressing loneliness and rejection. His 141-page manifesto mentioned a number of drugs that he was prescribed to use, although how long he was being treated with them and the identity of the drugs currently remain unknown.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown, Jr., son of Bill Brown, formerly the head of Billy Graham's World Wide Pictures, told Face the Nation on CBS that deputies from his department first interacted with Rodger in April after a relative expressed concern about his well-being. Brown said that Rodger told "a very convincing story" to the deputies to make him believe he wasn't going to hurt himself or someone else, and he didn't meet the criteria for further intervention at that point.
The sheriff also stated, "Obviously, looking back on this, it's a very tragic situation, and we certainly wish that we could turn the clock back and maybe change some things...It's very apparent that he was able to convince many people for many years that he didn't have this deep, underlying obvious mental illness that also manifested itself in this terrible tragedy." Sheriff Brown stated that his officials were unaware of the disturbing videos that Rodger had produced until after the tragedy.
Wooding quotes Michelle Moons, writing for the Brietbart California web site, who wrote that David Guzik, Pastor of the local Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara, talked about the murder in his Sunday message, saying, “Our community was touched, impacted… wounded.”
Guzik went on to say, “We don’t short sell the presence of evil in this world,” and he continued, “It also tells us something about the courage and the great work of our first responders.”
Guzik further said, “It tells us something about our culture and how the idols of our culture work destruction in the lives of troubled people.”
ChristianNews.net reports on Rodger's final video:
“You girls have never been attracted to me. I don’t know why you girls aren’t attracted to me. But I will punish you all for it,” he stated, followed by dark, maniacal laughter. “It’s an injustice, a crime. Because I don’t know what you don’t see in me. I’m the perfect guy. And yet you throw yourselves at all these obnoxious men, instead of me, the supreme gentleman. I will punish you all for it.”
He reportedly declared, "I’ll be a god exacting my retribution on all those who deserve it...Just for the crime of living a better life than me.”
Two comments from the pastor in Santa Barbara that I want to seize on: “We don’t short sell the presence of evil in this world," and “It tells us something about our culture and how the idols of our culture work destruction in the lives of troubled people.”
Elliot Rodger was responsible. But, the end result of his life was determined by the influences upon him and the choices he made. His mental illness was a huge factor, of course. But there are scores of people who are mentally ill that don't stoop to this level: You factor in wrong ideas and bad choices and you have the making of a troubled individual who obviously thought that violence was the ultimate revenge for the way he had been mistreated. A Washington Post film reviewer has suggested that entertainment culture was an influence, propping up a false idea of what it truly means to be a man - I do believe that our entertainment choices shape our worldview, and I don't doubt that they would contribute to propelling someone to commit violence...could or could not be a factor.
Elliot's father has a light resume which includes his work on "The Hunger Games" and his production and narration of a documentary called "Oh My God," which is summed up, according to Movieguide, by answering the question that there is some kind of God and all forms lead there – whether it’s pantheism, Christianity, Islam or any other religion. He states that man needs to create religion and that we all have different names for God. Peter sees that religion has led to wars as being evidence that religion is not the answer. Tim Lahaye, Walid Shoebat, Hugh Jackman, Bob Geldof, and other are all featured. So, there is evidence this child was not brought up in a home environment where the Scriptures were taught and revered.
I do believe that the culture and its extreme influences can contribute to the degradation of individuals, to the extent that they would commit murder or take their own lives. As the pastor said, there is evil in this word, and the idols of our culture work destruction in the lives of troubled people. The warning signs were everywhere concerning Elliot, and he was seeing therapists - obviously the steps taken were insufficient.
This tragic incident can highlight for us the opportunity for the church. We realize that evil is prevalent in this world, and people are making the choice to reject the ways of Christ. Mental illness will cloud the thinking of many, and fortunately, even within the past few years, churches are taking steps to remove the stigma of mental illness and reach out to try to provide Biblically-based help for those who struggle in that area. We have to be dedicated to continuing to shine the light of God's truth into a culture that accepts so many ideas that contradict the Scriptures. And, we have to be sensitive and discerning in order to extend compassion toward those who struggle. The presence of Jesus can transform a life that is headed for destruction - He has the power to undo the patterns of sin in all of our lives.
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