On May 14th, around 2:30 p.m., Payton Gendron, age 18, entered the Tops Friendly Market grocery store in Buffalo, NY. He walked in armed to the teeth and wearing a bulletproof vest with the names of mass shooters etched into his gun. As he began shooting, he intentionally targeted African-Americans, killing ten and wounding three others. Were it not for the heroic actions of a security guard by the name of Aaron Salter, Jr. — a retired police officer who confronted him inside the store and was fatally wounded — this horrific tragedy would have been worse. Much worse. We’ve learned that Gendron intended to attack other targets that day.
Oh yeah, and he also live-streamed his murderous attack on the streaming service Twitch. How awful.
Days prior Gendron had outlined his reasons for the shooting in a 180-page manifesto which he posted on the internet. It’s full of hateful language, wild theories, and displays a complete and utter disdain for various racial and ethnic groups.
I cannot begin to understand why Gendron thinks the way that he does. His twisted ideas are completely foreign to me. They seem bizarre. You might as well say that Elvis is back and planning an upcoming tour. You might as well say that aliens have taken over our government and are about to destroy all food sources except asparagus. (My personal nightmare.) You might as well tell me the earth is flat and say, “Be careful not to sail too far past Key West because you’ll fall off the edge of the world!”
I seriously don’t get it. But there is a growing number of people in our world who think just like him.
An American University professor, Cynthia Miller-Idriss, noted that, once upon a time, you would have to go to the dark corners of the internet to find the types of fringe theories and conspiracies Gendron believes. Now they come to you, driven by algorithms that bring them into our social media feeds in the form of memes or tweets or linked videos in stories, posts and chats.
Our first thought as parents is to be vigilant and monitor what our kids are consuming on social media. Gendron’s parents thought they had done that. But he hid from them the fact that he regularly hung out in chat rooms full of radicalized people. He hid the fact that he was stockpiling weapons and ammunition. He hid the murderous spirit that was growing inside of him.
The reality is, if your kids want to hide from you what they're doing on the internet, they probably can — and will. We cannot be with our kids every moment of every day. We cannot control what they talk about with their friends. Nor can we completely shield them from every evil that exists in our world.
As parents, we feel helpless. As citizens, we feel distressed. As people of God, we are shocked and bewildered and, if we’re honest, sometimes full of despair.
But we are not helpless. We are not at the mercy of our culture. We can inoculate our kids against the disease of hate.
The reason Gendron’s ideas are so foreign to me is that my thinking is grounded in scripture. I have a Christian worldview. I believe God is sovereign and governs all human affairs (cf. Dan. 4:35). I believe every person on this planet is a creation of God and bears the image of God (Gen. 1:27) and should be treated with love, dignity and respect. I believe God wants us to value and protect all human life.
God told the people in Moses’ day:
“Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. {4} But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. {5} And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. {6} Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind” (Gen. 9:3-6).
Each life has value because all human beings bear the image of their Creator.
The Christian worldview is the antidote to racial and ethnic hate. And it is the mission of the church to promote this view and spread it throughout our world. Paul noted that the church is the “pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15).
If left unchecked, the views Gendron and others like him hold will lead many of this generation astray and rip our nation apart.
But we can inoculate our kids against hate! We have the antidote to racial and ethnic conflict: Jesus Christ! We must introduce the people around us to Jesus. For in Him — “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female. [We] are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
Remember those who died last week in Buffalo: Celestine Chaney, Roberta A. Drury, Andre Mackneil, Katherine Massey, Margus D. Morrison, Heyward Patterson, Aaron Salter, Jr., Geraldine Talley, Pearl Young, and Ruth Whitfield. Let’s grieve alongside their families. Let’s pray for their families as they come to terms with the loss of their loved ones. But let’s also work to remove from this world the disease of hate which led to their untimely demise.