Real-life Bart Simpsons

OK, so it’s not school violence on the level of the Virginia Tech murders a year ago. But that doesn’t make this story less shocking.

A group of third-graders (8- and 9- year olds) in Waycross, Georgia (note: not in a place like crime-ridden Detroit where one could blame the poor environment) devised a sophisticated plot to murder their teacher because she had the audacity to scold a little girl for standing on her chair. One child was to crack the teacher’s skull with a glass paperweight while others used duct tape to secure her mouth and handcuffs to bind her arms, while another would do the stabbing as another kept a lookout and another got ready to clean up.

Sounds like they got an “A” in cooperative learning.

The offenders will be punished, of course. Some will receive suspension or expulsion from school, and the ringleader (a girl, FYI) may face charges of attempted murder or conspiracy to commit aggravated assault.

Society’s experts are baffled at this behavior. Aren’t children supposed to be pure and innocent?

• This writer says, “What do you expect when they receive so much violent stimuli in media and video games?”
• This writer not only blames the poor and disrespectful attitude of parents, but finds it possible to blame President Bush and all who complain about public schools.
• This one says that children really don’t realize the consequences of their actions and probably figured that, like cartoon figures, you can drop an anvil on them and they get up and walk away unharmed.
• This one figures that they were just showing off and would never have carried out their plan.

What is perplexing to me is that so many people do not grasp the fact that human beings are sinful from the moment of conception, and that the sin nature is capable of every manner of evil. John Calvin grasped it. The biblical principle of Total Depravity is one of the five pillars of Calvinism. The Bible tells us in Psalm 51:5, “Surely I was a sinner a birth; in sin did my mother conceive me.” Because of this, St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, chapter 2: “As for you, you were dead in trespasses and sin.” Furthermore, as Paul also wrote to the Romans, chapter 8: “The sinful mind is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”

The disrespectful little hellions in little old Waycross, Georgia, act that way because that is their natural impulse. Spend some time with a room of two-year-olds, and you will experience the unchecked and uncorrected selfish and defiant urges of the sinful flesh. And we all know what happened to Charlie and his big brother...


Some of our country’s founders believed this to be true, because Calvinism was the predominant religious mindset in colonial times, and Thomas Hobbes’ political views echoed Calvin’s religious ones. This is why so many checks and balances were written into the constitution. This is why a Bill of Rights is necessary. It is because the founders sought to limit power and prevent its abuse in the hands of malevolent rulers. They recognized that human beings are congenitally evil. “They have all turned aside, they have together become wicked; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

On this day, Hollywood lost one of its legends. Actor Charlton Heston, perhaps best known to today’s younger audiences as Moses in “The Ten Commandments,” passed away at the age of 84. In 1998, Mr. Heston was elected as president of the National Rifle Association, and it was not uncommon during the Clinton-Lewinsky years to see bumper stickers on pickup trucks that said “My president is Charlton Heston.” Personally, I have no vested stake in gun rights. Most hunters or other gun-rights advocates will quote the second amendment and its stated “right to bear arms.” But those who wish to ban guns and limit the second amendment often reveal this naïveté about human nature. Weapons do not cause crime; they are a tool in the hands of criminals. And as we discussed earlier when the Colorado church was assaulted by a deranged killer, guns can also be a life-saver in the hands of those committed to defend and protect innocent life.

Can you guess where the presidential candidates stand on the issue of gun ownership or legislation banning or restricting guns? Even John Kerry (D-MA), the democratic nominee for president in 2004, made sure to have a photo-op with him hunting. (Of course, these photo-ops that try to prove that you’re a “regular guy” can backfire. As in, let’s go bowling and score a 37. ) Almost assuredly they will say that they support the second amendment but favor common-sense restrictions on gun ownership. That is to say, people like NRA members have no common sense, since they are opposed to such restrictions.

Aren’t we grateful to be part of a school that recognizes human nature for what it is, and applies the only life-changing remedy—the Gospel of Jesus Christ—and force—God’s Holy Spirit?