• Resources for Your Church
  • Christian Formation Resources
  • NetsforLife® Inspiration Fund
  • Special Church Campaigns
  • US Disaster Resources
  • Online Store
  • Worship Resources
  • Request a Speaker
  • Newsletters
  • Stories from the Field
  • Episcopal Media Center
• Christian Formation Programs
• Volunteer Opportunities
• Link to Us
• Lent

Do You Believe In God: School Shootings in Minnesota

by The Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton

4/3/2005

Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. -- John 20:29

We don't know much of what the boy on the Red Lake Indian Reservation had seen of Jesus, and he is no longer here to tell us. We did hear that he demanded of one of his victims "Do you believe in God?" right before shooting her -- exactly what one of the Columbine killers did. This lonely boy wanted to be famous, like those boys, wanted to be a desperado, wanted power and felt he had none, wanted revenge for years of bullying, wanted payback for a short life that had seen more than its share of pain and betrayal.

Do you believe in God? I imagine the victim stammered out a "yes," realizing that her life was about to end. And God, who believed in her, believed in both of them, all of them has taken them home to himself -- young lives cheated of their full length: children, victims and killer alike.

Our Church was there. All of us were there, in a more immediate way than just watching the aftermath of the tragedy on television. Seven Episcopal clergy were the only clergy present at the memorial at Red Lake Elementary School on Wednesday morning. They noted an amazing degree of forgiveness and understanding in the Chippewa community for the young man who pulled the trigger, as well as for his victims. And Episcopal Relief and Development, working with the Diocese of Minnesota, has provided emergency help for the families of the victims - burial expenses, counseling services for them and for the children in the school.

There is nothing good about the tragedy at Red Lake except the love that has poured out among the people in its aftermath. Now is the time for the tightly knit Chippewa community to rally around its children and its own bereavement and heal. Dignified burial, quietly available clergy and lay counselors, and the passing of time, by God's grace, will begin the long work of healing. In the course of that work, they will see Jesus somewhere in it. As they heal, they will recognize him.