At the Door

What goes on in the mind of a person who takes the life of another - certainly, it is an act of unspeakable evil and can be driven by any number of emotions. In Genesis 4, we find the interplay between brothers Abel and Cain and God:
4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering,
5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.
6 So the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."
8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

Sin lies at the door.  Think about that - the power of evil, a power to which we are all vulnerable. 

One cannot say what was in the heart of Matthew Crooks when he methodically climbed on top of a building in Butler, Pennsylvania Saturday afternoon and fired multiple shots at the former President of the United States, bringing Donald Trump within millimeters of losing his life.  One individual attending the rally lost his life as he protected his family. Mr. Crooks, in fact, did lose his life at the hands of a government sharpshooter.  There has been much speculation about how Crooks breached a perimeter around the stage and why his presence was not addressed sooner.  Authorities are questioning motive.  And, when you begin to consider what might have been going on inside the heart and mind of this young man, you discover more about the sinister nature of the enemy of our souls. 

Plenty has emerged about someone else who was determined to take life - at a school in Nashville last year.  And, not only have materials from her diary been published, but the shooter, Audrey Hale, had undergone psychological treatment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.  The Tennessee Star related:

The Star contacted VUMC about what actions it may have taken to address possible legal liability after publishing the MNPD document, “Vandy Psych,” which contains notes written by an MNPD investigator who secured at least 75 pages of documents about Hale’s treatment at VUMC after obtaining a search warrant.

According to the document, Hale expressed suicidal and homicidal ideation while at VUMC, and specifically revealed her thoughts about killing her father and “going into a school and shooting a bunch of people.”

The investigator additionally wrote that Hale expressed “Homicidal thoughts with a plan,” and that she expressed feeling “[m]isunderstood and felt like she needed to prove a point.”

He additionally wrote, apparently paraphrasing Hale’s words to someone at VUMC, “I have violent fantasies but wouldn’t do anything.”

In the “Vandy Psych” document, the investigator additionally wrote that Hale later told someone at VUMC she “[h]as fantasies of being a school shooter,” thought “about jumping off a bridge,” and “[w]rapped a cord around her neck.”

The Star also acquired pictures of Hale's journal. The Daily Citizen relates how anger, mixed with harmful gender ideology, contributed to Hale's state of mind:

The journal obtained by the Star begins in January 2023 and continues to the day of Hale’s attack. What we know of her writing articulates a worldview filled with anger and self-hatred — a toxic mixture she seems to have stewed in daily for years.

In an undated entry titled “My Brain…This Life,” Hale herself writes:

I have no one to talk to. I talk to myself. I’m with myself all the time.

Gender ideology seemed to sustain — if not inspire — this noxious narrative, coloring her view of herself, her family, her country and even her relationship with God.

The article goes on to say:

Critics have long argued that publishing Audrey Hale’s writings would only sensationalize the unspeakable evil she committed in her last moments on Earth. But her journal, and the MNPD’s investigation, don’t simply confirm what the public already knew — that she was a deeply-disturbed individual.

It illustrates the power of an idea to flip a person’s world upside down.

As the Daily Citizen has long reported, gender ideology is about far more than gender — it raises fundamental questions about reality and objective truth. The longer Hale wallowed in the idea that she had been created wrong, the more she struggled to see the world, and the people who loved her, clearly.

God, in his infinite love, warns us repeatedly of the power of bad ideas.

Bad. Ideas.  The world is full of them, and the Bible provides the antidote of good, godly, God-inspired ideas that can set a person free.  Audrey Hale rejected Biblical truth and became consumed with doing harm.  Obviously, Matthew Crooks made an ill-informed, evil-inspired decision that resulted in the loss of his own life. 

It's incumbent upon each of us to learn to govern and filter the thoughts that come into our minds. We are living in an age of enhanced mental health challenges, and we know that the Bible provides the principles upon which we can build our lives, the power to reverse wrong thinking, and the practicality of making right decisions and exercising sound wisdom.  

We have to also recognize that there are spiritual dynamics that are present when dealing with outright acts of evil - that's why prayer is so important in these days.  We need the power and wisdom of Almighty God that is activated by individual and corporate prayer in order to see real change.