The news is drenched in blood. Images of the dying, the weeping, the grieving stream across our screens. We all know the stories of the gunman coming into the classroom, ordering everyone on the ground, and killing nine of his classmates. Police in military-grade uniforms descended upon the college, trying desperately to save those who could be saved. Witnesses, with tear-streaked faces, told reporters about the war zone that was their school.
The one fact that most stories have forgotten, or simply removed from the retellings, is one of the reasons those fearless nine students died--they were Christians. Witnesses reported that the gunman, a man that the Oregon community refuses to call by name to prevent giving him any attention for such a heinous crime, forced his classmates onto the ground. He asked them one question.
"Are you a Christian?"
If they answered yes, they were executed. If they answered no or did not answer, they were shot in the leg or back. Nine people were killed for their faith that day. Nine.
The media barely mentioned this fact.
Our Constitution, the very basis for America as a nation and a leading power, grants us, the people, freedom of religion. It gives us the freedom to believe in whatever God we choose, follow whatever ideology we choose, and worship whatever deity we choose. Our forefathers gave us that right for a reason. They had seen the harsh persecutions of their own faiths and did not want anyone to have to go through that pain in this new land. This is America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, not the land of blood and the home of the martyrs. Our founders called for peace, for understanding, everything they had not received because of their faiths. And yet here we are, glossing over the fact that blood has been spilled in a religious war on American soil.
Why are we not hearing about this? Why is our government treating this tragedy as a segue to gun control instead of the outright defiance of our founding beliefs? The leader we elected, the leader we chose to guide our nation, is calling for gun reform, not for the tolerance and acceptance of faith. We are ignoring the real issue at hand for the advancement of a political controversy.
What breaks my heart is that this is not the first time. In 1999, Columbine High School was the sight of a tragedy that rocked the nation. 15 were left dead and 24 were injured. Accounts dispute whether or not shooters asked those around them if they were Christians, and that if the answer was yes, they were killed. Others died for other reasons, including race and social standing. That's what the media reported on, not the alleged execution of students for their faith, but for their social standings. Gun control was ramped up shortly after, of course with the best intentions, but ignoring one of the most glaring realities of the situation.
However, guns are not the problem. Hitler murdered thousands with gas chambers, disease, torture, and overwork throughout the holocaust. The Romans' favorite method of execution was crucifixion. Followers of the French Revolution made use of the guillotine. There are hundreds of ways to execute many people at a time. The problem is in our society itself.
My fellow Americans, we claim to be striving for a free and accepting nation. We claim to uphold the basic rights of freedom and justice yet we refuse to allow justice where it is needed most. We refuse to portray every belief equally. Muslims are killed on a campus in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and every paper in the nation calls is a "hate crime" and a "religious killing." But when Christians are killed under similar circumstances, the headline reads "Nine Students Shot On Campus." We claim to be a nation of equality and freedom, yet in the face of this disaster we turn away from our most prized beliefs to argue over political standings. Have we really fallen so far from the very roots of our nation, the very Constitution that our country was founded upon?
No one deserves to die for what God they believe in. No one deserves a bullet in the head for claiming their faith. No one deserves an execution on the soil of the land of freedom because they had the audacity to accept that freedom as their own. Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, and Buddhist alike. We are humans with certain unquestionable and unalienable rights. We are equals.
So let's treat each other as such.
