FAITH: Stoneman Douglas Arrives at Home

I have a long list of what ought to be. Everyone should be loved. Everyone should have someone to love. Loving one another is a good place to start a discussion about what ought to be. Concretely there is more. Everyone should have a place to call home. Everyone needs food, clothing, education, access to health care, and a satisfying vocation. In our own day I would add good mental health care.

On February 14, 2018, Nikolas Jacob Cruz shot and killed 17 persons at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. Clearly it was something that should NOT have happened. There will be many opinions about what went wrong in the life of Nikolas. There will be no shortage of opinions about what went wrong with all the systems that should have caught the emerging dynamic. All the opinions are welcome if the purpose of the discussions is the prevention of such incidents. However, if the purpose is to find someone or some agency to blame, I am not interested in the commentary. I AM interested in doing what I can to prevent further incidents as the one at Stoneman.

I was the pastor of churches for about 50 years. As a pastor I was given a not-too-well defined responsibility to facilitate the well-being of people. Much of my future work as a minister was never mentioned in seminary training. I now believe that ministers ought to do (and sometimes do) a lot more than preach, teach, visit the sick, marry, bury, and baptize. Much of my education for ministry has been “on the job” after seminary graduation. A lot of the work of a minister is outside the church walls and the church organizational structures.

As examples, I successfully sued the State of Alaska over the issue of prisoner rights. With others I successfully sued the local hospital over women’s rights. I have left in my wake hundreds of living units for people with special needs. I have been a leader in getting services for people with long-term mental illnesses. I have learned that hospitality is a key Christian virtue and a prime concern for church ministry. I have welcomed a wide variety of people into our home. I have encouraged adoptions and good quality foster care.

This is only a partial list. I did what I did as a Baptist pastor.

I write these things because I believe that what happened at Stoneman Douglas High School and what happened to Nikolas Jacob Cruz are the concern of every Christian church and every pastor of a church. Those closely involved with the tragedy are not a “them” or a “those” but a part of a “we” and an “us.” The mayhem at Stoneman Douglas is opportunity for Christ’s churches and followers to speak out and to act.

The first thing that jumped out at me, as I have read about Nikolas, was that he was a person on whom society had given up. His history is a nightmare. I know nothing of his birth parents. He was adopted at age two. His adoptive parents divorced. Nikolas was in a series of foster homes. Understandably his education as he moved from school to school was not stable. His behavior problems were not only at Stoneman Douglas but at other schools as well. While I know nothing of his possible mental health diagnosis, I suspect he suffered some sort of mental disease. Is the best we can do for him is expel him from school? His life was devoid of what ought to be. Christians ought to be reminded of the Christ standard of 70 x 7. Remember, Nikolas is family. He is neighbor. He is a child of God. The Christian church teaches that Christ died for Nikolas.

I had a younger sister. She married a wonderful man, and she and her husband had four children, quite close together. In her mid-20s, my sister had a schizophrenic break down. She became violent, destructive, and a danger to her children and to herself. My sister was institutionalized. This happened when little was understood about the disease. Then came a breakthrough in medication for those suffering from schizophrenia. My sister was stabilized on medication, returned to her family and finished her parenting journey with her kids and husband. This is a very short version of her story. The full story is heartbreaking and difficult but has a good ending.

My sister and Nikolas had much in common. Through no action or fault of their own, they both became mentally ill. Both became violent. There were also huge differences. My sister had a family that never abandoned her. Her husband is a true saint. She received the professional help when it became available. She had church, and her family maintained community. Without love and support she could have been another Nikolas story.

Much of the present commentary about Stoneman Douglas is irrelevant, bordering on stupidity. There are good answers for Nikolas, the families he brutalized, and the institutions that failed. However, nothing will work until we claim the responsibility “to be our brother’s keeper.” Nikolas is our kin! Punishment does not work! Love, kindness, forgiveness and patience are our best tools.

We live in a crazy individualistic society. People and institutions of good will, love, and community are the keys to a better life.

The End

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.