Quiet Martyrs: The Oregon Shooting In Retrospect

By R. Brownell

“When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die” ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Victims of the Oregon shooting this past week chose to die.

“What the Hell?”, you’re probably asking…

The consensus of what occurred in the room where nine students were murdered is still in the wind in terms of the specifics, but what is known is who the shooter was looking for: Christians. There are enough eye witness reports to confirm that before he shot several of the victims point blank, he asked whether or not they were Christians. A younger version of me would have said “no” under the assumption it would increase my chances of survival, as students who said otherwise were shot in the leg or stomach. It wouldn’t have mattered if I said no and didn’t mean it; I’d rather have the chance of living than a bloody death. Courage is a word that doesn’t do the second person shot for saying “yes” justice. However, trying to justify lying about my faith in Christ is biblically worse than death, and knowing now what I do about my faith and relationship with God, I could not live with myself failing what is most likely the ultimate test of faith.

To be a Christian is not a convenient thing; it’s not easy, it’s not always fun, and it’s not always fair. The test of true Christianity is whether or not you really are a believer; denying yourself and living as Jesus lived. The thing is, we have too many cultural Christians, people who were given the Christian label by their parents but never delved into it. Maybe they even went to church a few times, but never let the word of the Gospel sink in. The Christian stereotype in America, sadly, is false piety, selfishness, and hypocrisy. Compare that image to the persecuted church or the thousands of underground congregations spanning the globe, sometimes jailed because of their inability to deny Christ as their savior.

Think of the Iraqi children murdered by ISIS in front of their screaming, crying father, mowed down by machine gun fire because they wouldn’t convert to Islam; because they wouldn’t stop saying “no, we love Jesus.” Think of the pro-democracy students in China, who ran when the authorities came with arms and tanks, and the one man that stood still in order to make his point heard around the world.

It’s easy to say we stand with something, and it’s easy to say we belong to something, yet it’s an entirely different thing to carry though, to internalize, and then, finally, to act when the chips are down and the odds are against you. Something I have learned over time watching massacre after massacre on the nightly news is that, whenever the subject of God interjects in order to soften the blow to the victims involved, the usual response is, “where was God when my brother was killed? When my daughter was raped and murdered? When my father was shot over the cash in his wallet?”

The answer is simple…

God was in the same exact place He was when His son died, and the pain you feel now, and the anguish you will never be able to shed is what He carries every second of existence. The Christian martyrs in Oregon did something a good majority of Christians would probably fail; something I would have failed before I encountered Christ. They put their faith in their savior and stood in the same position He did when the ultimate question was asked, and like Christ himself, these students were killed because they spoke truth. They knew that faith, religion, and conviction is absolutely worthless if it is not taken into action. These terrible events happen not because God tolerates evil, or because he is evil, but because he is a steward of evil. The root of evil is sin, and the root of sin is humanity. Because God promised never to wipe out humanity as he did with the flood, He allowed His son to be sacrificed so that each individual could know salvation. As any Christian can tell you, we all fall short in the glory of God.

Regardless of your belief in Heaven, the question should be internalized immediately while we are in a position of relative safety and peace. If someone stuck a gun to your head and asked if you were the prey they were hunting, what would your answer say about you?