Tucson Tragedy and The Eve Mindset
Author: Dr. Leena Johns
Category: Popular Read
Publish Date: Jan 22, 2011
Views: 23433
I thought of Eve.
And the blame-game that started at the beginning of the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden.
Like most of us, I heard the breaking news of the Tucson shooting tragedy in Arizona, USA, where a deranged 24 year old Jared Loughner shot at Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford and then opened fire on innocent people who had gathered to interact with her with shock and dismay. And as the news slowly moved away from the victims and the heroes of the day- one of them even stemming the blood flow from Giffords head with his bare hands and the heroic few others who tackled the gunman to the ground as he took time to reload his weapon- to its political ramifications and how America went about to assimilate, analyze, cognize and present its stance to the world in the wake of this national tragedy, especially the results of the introspection of the plausible reasons behind the provocation- I watched in muted horror.
It was the Garden of Eden once again, with Adam blaming Eve and Eve blaming the serpent, all over again... And Ah! Well the serpentwell, he wasnt presented with an opportunity to blame anyone... But I can bet you my last penny, he would have blamed the woman and vice versa had the opportunity presented.
While the aim of this article is not to diagnose if Jared Loughner was politically motivated or if he was an insane schizophrenic, whose timing of the deplorable act so soon after the heated rhetoric by Sarah Palin was just a convenient happenstance for political PR machine and opportunists to piggyback on and begin their next round of punches, its in the interest of this article to understand how we as humans, have the Eve mindset when it comes to putting the blame elsewhere.
I do not intend to defend Sarah Palin nor hold her responsible for her intemperate political language that may or may not have stewed the brain of the already deranged individual held accountable for the tragic actions of the day. I do not know if Sarah Plains hyperbole or if her website that carried, in the run-up to last years mid-terms, a map of vulnerable Democrat-held seats, each marked with the cross-hairs of a gun-sight that one sees on a rifle target practice, including over the Arizona district is in, some convoluted way, a mockingbird call to a deranged mind to wield a gun on innocent people. But I do find it disturbing not to comment on how the political opportunists have reacted to assign blame -ELSEWHERE.
Although it wouldnt be beyond the scope of this article to point out here that both the left and the right wings, in the recent past have indulged in a fair share of political rhetoric that often bordered on a call to violence. One has often seen Right-wing radios and television routinely indulge in the language of armed resistance to the tyranny that resides in Washington DC as though Obama was a national foe or tyrant and not the elected President of a united country. Similarly the left have often projected numerous images of President Bush with a gun to his temple; or the T-shirt image of blood running down over the words, "Kill Bush." I also do remember in 2008 Barack Obama, said of Republicans, "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." He has also referred to them as the enemy. But that does not mean that they are the enemy that one has to annihilate literally, its just an analogy used in speech and nothing more. He was not instigating anyone to take a gun to the Republicans when he made that statement. This just goes to show that these imageries and heated rhetoric are but natural in a political arena anywhere in the world and not unique to just an American political stage. Rambunctious debate is central to Americas democracy and to any free and fair democratic country for that matter. Although such hyperbole may not be particularly clever or useful to swing voter sentiments, it is unjustified and even a careless and miscalculated leap to suggest that a 9 year old girl and 5 others who died in that attack are in such a state because of this.
Dont point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame! My complaint, you priests, is with you." Hosea 4:4 (NLT)
It is my personal opinion and one thats definitely shared by many across America and the world that its the gun laws that have to be blamed, if anything has to blamed at all in this tragedy. This is the only thing certain in this tragic aftermath. The causal relationship between vicious talk and violent action is far less certain. It is but an undeniable truth that in no other decent country could any civilian leave alone a deranged one with previous incidences of antisocial behavior could legally get his hands on a Glock semi automatic. More Americans were killed by guns in the 18 years between 1979 and 1997 than died in all of Americas foreign wars since its independence. Around 30,000 people a year are killed by one of the almost 300 million guns in Americaalmost one for every citizen. Those deaths are not just murders and suicides: some are accidents, often involving children. We blame the individuals, not the guns. Its like blaming a 2 year old baby for reaching out for a kitchen knife that has been carelessly left within his reach.
Without taking political sides, or even beseeching Christian ideologies into deciding political loyalty, maybe its time to open ones eyes and realize that America has the developed worlds highest murder rate and easiest access to guns, so violent political rhetoric that paints government as an enemy is certainly us stopping to hoodwink others and ourselves by ignoring the real reasons and playing the blame-game.
As human beings its within our nature, since the inaugural first round of the blame-game started in the Garden of Eden, to be blame-shifters. We blame tobacco companies and sue them for giving us cancer; we blame the church for our lack of spiritual growth. We blame God for the poor choices we make in our lives.
In Exodus 32:1-8, 19-24 we read about blame-shifter Aaron. While Adam and Eve, to their credit, were at least telling the truth despite the overt blame shifting they were resorting to with Adam blaming the woman who gave him the fruit and the woman-Eve blaming the serpent, here we see Aaron actually concocting a lie to hide his sin. He not only shifts the blame on the people, saying that it was them that wanted a God since the real God was up in the mountain all the while and therefore missing in action from their lives, he also says that he just threw gold in the fire and as if by magic, a calf came out. When a blame shift alone does not seem to work, we tend to invoke, its next of kin- lies to fortify our argument, just like in Aarons case. We tend to add up sin after sin. Our wheels getting more stuck in the pit we have dug.
Oftentimes, we blame circumstances and people around us for the way we behave or have become. An easy target is often our home and our upbringing, or our culture.
As a doctor of medicine I have had the opportunity to read long discourses by Freud the father of modern Psychology and its many interpretations. Of particular interest to me was Freuds model of Consciences that humans adopt to absolve themselves of any responsibility in the choices that we make. We try to appease and pour water over our burning sense of guilt and shame at being caught doing the wrong act by incorporating Freuds model of Conscience that we are somehow not to blame for the choices we make-that its our upbringing or our conditioning that determines or influences our actions and choices. This way of thinking, absolves us of individual accountability and challenges the Christian understanding that conscience is an innate or intuitive sense and the ultimate moral decision maker, placed within us by God.
Paul taught that conscience was an awareness of what is good and bad, valuing it as a measure of the pureness of our motives. In 2 Corinthians 1: 12, Paul states: "for this is what we boast about: our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world with pure and good motives and godly sincerity, without earthly wisdom but with God's grace." For Paul, conscience lay at the centre of our being and was something that all humans have, irrespective of faith. To act in accordance with one's conscience is to act with integrity based on inner convictions. However, in Romans 7 Paul acknowledges that the conscience can be weak or mistaken, it can even be misled by others: "I do the very thing I hate...I can will what is right but I cannot do it." Being true to ourselves can involve struggle and conflict within, sometimes producing feelings of guilt, inadequacy and powerlessness.
Although there is no doubt in my mind that each of us have had things happen to us in the past that were beyond our control, where someone else was to blame, this doesnt give us a license to make poor choices today.
James 1:13-16., it says: When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
The verse clarifies that we have no one to blame except ourselves for the choices we make. It is not even Satans fault. Its our evil desire that allows us to be dragged away and enticed.
Instead of blaming God for allowing evil, our attitude should be thanking Him that the situation has not gotten much worse. When God allowed Satan to go after Job, he allowed him to go only so far. In the first verse of the book it says that Job was blameless and upright. It says he feared God and shunned evil. Yet his whole world came crashing down when he lost his kids and his livestock. Job says in 1:21,Naked I came into the world, naked I will depart. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. May the name of the Lord be praised. It says that in all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. And in the end, God blessed Job with twice as much as he had before.
So how do we overcome our Eve mindset and move towards being individuals with accountability?
Phil. 1:9-11 says: And this is my prayer: that your LOVE may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the FRUIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS that comes through Jesus Christto the glory and praise of God.
Phil. 2:1-5, 12-16- accounts HUMILITY with INTEGRITY, OBEDIENCE and REVERENCE as pre requisites for a blameless living. We often dont realize that when we blame others and do not take accountability for our actions we give up our power to change. We take away from ourselves our atonement, our only way of putting our mishap well and truly behind us, our way to redemption and freedom from the guilt since when we blame others, we justify to others and to ourselves that we dont need to change and that it was someone elses fault. Acknowledging our fault is not without its consequences. Ability to accept both good and bad is something that we all need practice with in our lives. Jobs response when he was afflicted is mentioned in 2:10, Shall we accept good from God and not trouble? The reason why we blame others is often driven by the fear of repercussion because taking accountability for our actions does come with its price. Fear of the repercussions is what motivates us to deflect, blame, rationalize or minimize our actions. Jonah rebelled against God by refusing to go to Nineveh. But, toward the end of his rebelliousness he takes responsibility for his disobedience, even though the repercussions were treacherous. Jonah 1:8.
While political violence in America has been mercifully a rare occurrence, the last killing of a member of Congress came in 1978, and that was in Guyana and the attempted assassination of a President-Ronald Reagan was 30 years ago, we do not know at this point if Mr. Loughners actions were politically motivated or it was a senseless act of a deranged mind.
But for the moment the indiscriminate carnage in Tucson looks more like the killings by a deranged student at Virginia Tech in 2007, or the schoolroom atrocity at Columbine in 1999, than the politically motivated assassinations of the Kennedys or Martin Luther King.
However way the post Tucson tragedy changes political perception, it is time to accept the real villain of the piece, the easy accessibility to guns, besides the killer himself. Sometimes its just not the winning one-liner to say that its the people that kill and not guns. We need to keep sharp objects and weapons of harm well and truly far away from the reach of babies.
And the blame-game that started at the beginning of the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden.
Like most of us, I heard the breaking news of the Tucson shooting tragedy in Arizona, USA, where a deranged 24 year old Jared Loughner shot at Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford and then opened fire on innocent people who had gathered to interact with her with shock and dismay. And as the news slowly moved away from the victims and the heroes of the day- one of them even stemming the blood flow from Giffords head with his bare hands and the heroic few others who tackled the gunman to the ground as he took time to reload his weapon- to its political ramifications and how America went about to assimilate, analyze, cognize and present its stance to the world in the wake of this national tragedy, especially the results of the introspection of the plausible reasons behind the provocation- I watched in muted horror.
It was the Garden of Eden once again, with Adam blaming Eve and Eve blaming the serpent, all over again... And Ah! Well the serpentwell, he wasnt presented with an opportunity to blame anyone... But I can bet you my last penny, he would have blamed the woman and vice versa had the opportunity presented.
While the aim of this article is not to diagnose if Jared Loughner was politically motivated or if he was an insane schizophrenic, whose timing of the deplorable act so soon after the heated rhetoric by Sarah Palin was just a convenient happenstance for political PR machine and opportunists to piggyback on and begin their next round of punches, its in the interest of this article to understand how we as humans, have the Eve mindset when it comes to putting the blame elsewhere.
I do not intend to defend Sarah Palin nor hold her responsible for her intemperate political language that may or may not have stewed the brain of the already deranged individual held accountable for the tragic actions of the day. I do not know if Sarah Plains hyperbole or if her website that carried, in the run-up to last years mid-terms, a map of vulnerable Democrat-held seats, each marked with the cross-hairs of a gun-sight that one sees on a rifle target practice, including over the Arizona district is in, some convoluted way, a mockingbird call to a deranged mind to wield a gun on innocent people. But I do find it disturbing not to comment on how the political opportunists have reacted to assign blame -ELSEWHERE.
Although it wouldnt be beyond the scope of this article to point out here that both the left and the right wings, in the recent past have indulged in a fair share of political rhetoric that often bordered on a call to violence. One has often seen Right-wing radios and television routinely indulge in the language of armed resistance to the tyranny that resides in Washington DC as though Obama was a national foe or tyrant and not the elected President of a united country. Similarly the left have often projected numerous images of President Bush with a gun to his temple; or the T-shirt image of blood running down over the words, "Kill Bush." I also do remember in 2008 Barack Obama, said of Republicans, "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." He has also referred to them as the enemy. But that does not mean that they are the enemy that one has to annihilate literally, its just an analogy used in speech and nothing more. He was not instigating anyone to take a gun to the Republicans when he made that statement. This just goes to show that these imageries and heated rhetoric are but natural in a political arena anywhere in the world and not unique to just an American political stage. Rambunctious debate is central to Americas democracy and to any free and fair democratic country for that matter. Although such hyperbole may not be particularly clever or useful to swing voter sentiments, it is unjustified and even a careless and miscalculated leap to suggest that a 9 year old girl and 5 others who died in that attack are in such a state because of this.
Dont point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame! My complaint, you priests, is with you." Hosea 4:4 (NLT)
It is my personal opinion and one thats definitely shared by many across America and the world that its the gun laws that have to be blamed, if anything has to blamed at all in this tragedy. This is the only thing certain in this tragic aftermath. The causal relationship between vicious talk and violent action is far less certain. It is but an undeniable truth that in no other decent country could any civilian leave alone a deranged one with previous incidences of antisocial behavior could legally get his hands on a Glock semi automatic. More Americans were killed by guns in the 18 years between 1979 and 1997 than died in all of Americas foreign wars since its independence. Around 30,000 people a year are killed by one of the almost 300 million guns in Americaalmost one for every citizen. Those deaths are not just murders and suicides: some are accidents, often involving children. We blame the individuals, not the guns. Its like blaming a 2 year old baby for reaching out for a kitchen knife that has been carelessly left within his reach.
Without taking political sides, or even beseeching Christian ideologies into deciding political loyalty, maybe its time to open ones eyes and realize that America has the developed worlds highest murder rate and easiest access to guns, so violent political rhetoric that paints government as an enemy is certainly us stopping to hoodwink others and ourselves by ignoring the real reasons and playing the blame-game.
As human beings its within our nature, since the inaugural first round of the blame-game started in the Garden of Eden, to be blame-shifters. We blame tobacco companies and sue them for giving us cancer; we blame the church for our lack of spiritual growth. We blame God for the poor choices we make in our lives.
In Exodus 32:1-8, 19-24 we read about blame-shifter Aaron. While Adam and Eve, to their credit, were at least telling the truth despite the overt blame shifting they were resorting to with Adam blaming the woman who gave him the fruit and the woman-Eve blaming the serpent, here we see Aaron actually concocting a lie to hide his sin. He not only shifts the blame on the people, saying that it was them that wanted a God since the real God was up in the mountain all the while and therefore missing in action from their lives, he also says that he just threw gold in the fire and as if by magic, a calf came out. When a blame shift alone does not seem to work, we tend to invoke, its next of kin- lies to fortify our argument, just like in Aarons case. We tend to add up sin after sin. Our wheels getting more stuck in the pit we have dug.
Oftentimes, we blame circumstances and people around us for the way we behave or have become. An easy target is often our home and our upbringing, or our culture.
As a doctor of medicine I have had the opportunity to read long discourses by Freud the father of modern Psychology and its many interpretations. Of particular interest to me was Freuds model of Consciences that humans adopt to absolve themselves of any responsibility in the choices that we make. We try to appease and pour water over our burning sense of guilt and shame at being caught doing the wrong act by incorporating Freuds model of Conscience that we are somehow not to blame for the choices we make-that its our upbringing or our conditioning that determines or influences our actions and choices. This way of thinking, absolves us of individual accountability and challenges the Christian understanding that conscience is an innate or intuitive sense and the ultimate moral decision maker, placed within us by God.
Paul taught that conscience was an awareness of what is good and bad, valuing it as a measure of the pureness of our motives. In 2 Corinthians 1: 12, Paul states: "for this is what we boast about: our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world with pure and good motives and godly sincerity, without earthly wisdom but with God's grace." For Paul, conscience lay at the centre of our being and was something that all humans have, irrespective of faith. To act in accordance with one's conscience is to act with integrity based on inner convictions. However, in Romans 7 Paul acknowledges that the conscience can be weak or mistaken, it can even be misled by others: "I do the very thing I hate...I can will what is right but I cannot do it." Being true to ourselves can involve struggle and conflict within, sometimes producing feelings of guilt, inadequacy and powerlessness.
Although there is no doubt in my mind that each of us have had things happen to us in the past that were beyond our control, where someone else was to blame, this doesnt give us a license to make poor choices today.
James 1:13-16., it says: When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
The verse clarifies that we have no one to blame except ourselves for the choices we make. It is not even Satans fault. Its our evil desire that allows us to be dragged away and enticed.
Instead of blaming God for allowing evil, our attitude should be thanking Him that the situation has not gotten much worse. When God allowed Satan to go after Job, he allowed him to go only so far. In the first verse of the book it says that Job was blameless and upright. It says he feared God and shunned evil. Yet his whole world came crashing down when he lost his kids and his livestock. Job says in 1:21,Naked I came into the world, naked I will depart. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. May the name of the Lord be praised. It says that in all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. And in the end, God blessed Job with twice as much as he had before.
So how do we overcome our Eve mindset and move towards being individuals with accountability?
Phil. 1:9-11 says: And this is my prayer: that your LOVE may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the FRUIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS that comes through Jesus Christto the glory and praise of God.
Phil. 2:1-5, 12-16- accounts HUMILITY with INTEGRITY, OBEDIENCE and REVERENCE as pre requisites for a blameless living. We often dont realize that when we blame others and do not take accountability for our actions we give up our power to change. We take away from ourselves our atonement, our only way of putting our mishap well and truly behind us, our way to redemption and freedom from the guilt since when we blame others, we justify to others and to ourselves that we dont need to change and that it was someone elses fault. Acknowledging our fault is not without its consequences. Ability to accept both good and bad is something that we all need practice with in our lives. Jobs response when he was afflicted is mentioned in 2:10, Shall we accept good from God and not trouble? The reason why we blame others is often driven by the fear of repercussion because taking accountability for our actions does come with its price. Fear of the repercussions is what motivates us to deflect, blame, rationalize or minimize our actions. Jonah rebelled against God by refusing to go to Nineveh. But, toward the end of his rebelliousness he takes responsibility for his disobedience, even though the repercussions were treacherous. Jonah 1:8.
While political violence in America has been mercifully a rare occurrence, the last killing of a member of Congress came in 1978, and that was in Guyana and the attempted assassination of a President-Ronald Reagan was 30 years ago, we do not know at this point if Mr. Loughners actions were politically motivated or it was a senseless act of a deranged mind.
But for the moment the indiscriminate carnage in Tucson looks more like the killings by a deranged student at Virginia Tech in 2007, or the schoolroom atrocity at Columbine in 1999, than the politically motivated assassinations of the Kennedys or Martin Luther King.
However way the post Tucson tragedy changes political perception, it is time to accept the real villain of the piece, the easy accessibility to guns, besides the killer himself. Sometimes its just not the winning one-liner to say that its the people that kill and not guns. We need to keep sharp objects and weapons of harm well and truly far away from the reach of babies.
Displaying 4 Comments
The views and opinions expressed in the comment section are strictly those of the comment authors alone and do not necessarily reflect and represent the views and opinions of Believer's Journal.
Bindu Rajendran (January 26, 2011)
What a beautiful article Leena! Deep thoughts so beautifully presented...
What a beautiful article Leena! Deep thoughts so beautifully presented...
+3
George Benson (January 24, 2011)
More Americans were killed by guns in the 18 years between 1979 and 1997 than died in all of America's foreign wars since its independence. Around 30,000 people a year are killed by one of the almost 300 million guns in America almost one for every citizen. Those deaths are not just murders and suicides: some are accidents, often involving children. We blame the individuals not the guns.
Those are shocking statistics especially when America has entered into so many wars outside.
Good research and thought provoking reading.
More Americans were killed by guns in the 18 years between 1979 and 1997 than died in all of America's foreign wars since its independence. Around 30,000 people a year are killed by one of the almost 300 million guns in America almost one for every citizen. Those deaths are not just murders and suicides: some are accidents, often involving children. We blame the individuals not the guns.
Those are shocking statistics especially when America has entered into so many wars outside.
Good research and thought provoking reading.
+3
Chacko George (January 24, 2011)
Amazing ! Excited to read all your works !
Blessings!!!!
Biju
Amazing ! Excited to read all your works !
Blessings!!!!
Biju
+3
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Magnificent Article Dr. Leena. While going through any hard situation we always choose the easiest way to get away from the situation / problem by putting on the blame upon the others involved. We might be successful in doing so, though not always. This article has helped me enormously to stand by my ethics and not to run away from any difficult situation though the consequences might be worse; God is always by our side to help us and guide us.