Part II in a series of God: Cry Repentance

Today I will try to appeal to anyone who may be tempted to tell the world our erroneous ways are the cause of calamity.

As I addressed yesterday, I understand how crying repentance to God's children at a time like this is natural. But I think we'd be wise if we pause for one moment and think about the approaches we can take.

We can either, as many have done, tell the unbelievers that the best way to ensure God will protect us, is to stop having so many gays in our society. If we'd just make abortions illegal, God wouldn't let bad things happen. If we forced our children to read from the Bible and say group prayers, God would protect our schools.

Those may not be the exact words Mike Huckabee, Westboro Baptists, and some of my LDS friends have spoken, but that is how they are interpreted by many unbelievers and believers alike. 

And yes, it may be the unbelievers fault for not trying hard enough to really understand what our cries of repentance mean, but I feel there is a far better approach -- one that leaves little room for misinterpretation. 

I found, as a missionary, that the most successful way to cry repentance is to remind God's children that He loves them. All of them!

God didn't just weep over the loss of Emilie Parker's life, or Victoria Sotos, but he also wept over the loss of Adam Lanaza's.

Christ didn't just suffer the pains Emilie and Victoria must have felt last Friday morning, but He also suffered the pains Adam Lanaza must have been burdened with through out his entire life. Christ suffered it all, so that we might not have to suffer.  But God, being just, leaves us with our own agency.  Simply learning of God isn't enough to stop evil. Forcing God into the public isn't enough to stop evil. 

Surely Cain was taught of God. Surely Cain learned to pray to God.  And Cain committed the same crime Lanaza did. Terror in our public elementary schools didn't begin after the 1962 Supreme Court decision.  The most horrific incident to ever take place in an elementary school happened in Bath Township Michigan, 1927. Yes, even during a day and age when school teachers were allowed to preach the Bible and children were forced to recite prayers, terror struck an elementary school and 38 children were killed, 45 people total.  One cannot read the account of Andrew Kehoe's life and think that Adam Lanaza is the worst vilan to ever harm our school children.

One should not read the account of Christ's suffering and think that the best way to recruit non-believers is to tell them we must stop tolerating same gender attraction. We must stop tolerating abortions. We must allow our children to pray in school (which by the way, they are legally allowed to do -- we just can't force them to pray). Our message to the nonbelievers must be that through all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. 

Evil has always been in the world, but because of the atonement of Christ all can be made whole. Because of the example of Christ, Love can have a more lasting impact than evil. God has not taken away His hand.