WHAT WAS HE THINKIN'?

In the aftermath of the horrific event in Las Vegas, one of the recurring questions by law enforcement and the general public is "What was he thinking?" Ironically, a country song by Dierks Bentley refrains the question "What was I thinkin'? He tells the story about getting carried away by his lustful desires which led to problems. At one point he says, I know what I was feelin' But what was I thinkin'? (Dierks Bentley, 2003, Capitol Records) When our children were young and would do something not so smart I often asked them, "What were you thinking?" 

It appears the gunman left no overt clues as to why he decided to kill and wound so many people. On the news today, it was revealed this was not the first time he had rented rooms in a hotel overlooking an outside musical venue. It is obvious from his planning and preparation that he was not stupid. He had reconnoitered the venue; booked a two-bedroom suite giving him two angles of fire; laid in a cache of weapons and ammunition; and set up cameras which would give him a view of the hallway outside his closed door. Still, we question, "what was he thinkin'?" Another way of asking the question is "what was his state of mind?" We may never know for sure. 

With any mass slaughter and wounding of innocents, we look for explanations. We knee-jerk to blaming the instrument of the slaughter, in this case, guns. In Rwanda it was machetes. In Germany, it was gas chambers. In other places, it was chemical weapons. We want rational answers for the irrational. The history of our country contains many instances when otherwise "good people" have been involved in mass shootings which have taken many lives. People of the First Nation and African-Americans have been killed in great numbers just because they were not white descendants of Europeans. In the last few decades, the mass killings have continued, even of those of European descent. 

I think there is only one explanation. In the perpetrators of mass killing and wounding we see evil enfleshed. In our rational, scientific world we seldom use the reasoning for hideous actions as the personification of evil. The Apostle writes, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12, NIV, http://biblehub.com/ephesians/6-12.htm)