America Gives New Meaning to ‘Suffer the Children’

Jesus said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me.” Here in America, awash in firearms and an epidemic of mental illness, too often it’s the little children who suffer.  

Three 9-year-old children and three adult teachers are dead after yet another school shooting, this time at the church-affiliated Covenant School in Nashville. We ache for this broken community and these shattered families, and we commit them all to God’s loving embrace.

Our children are paying the price for our politicians’ refusal to stop the flow of assault weapons. Newtown wasn’t enough. Parkland wasn’t enough. Uvalde wasn’t enough. How many children have to die before we take weapons of war off our streets?

With each shooting, words alone fail to comfort. When children are gunned down, our hearts are broken. When our schools become killing fields, we fail yet another generation.

Forgive us, Lord, for we know exactly what we do. And what we do … is nothing.