Senator Mike Lee is joining a chorus of other leaders beginning to ask the right questions about the massacres of innocent people: “Why is our culture suddenly producing so many young men who want to murder innocent people? Could fatherlessness, the breakdown of families, isolation from civil society, or the glorification of violence be contributing factors?”

Of course, these are only symptoms of the most basic of causes, loss of fellowship with our Creator. But this disconnect has some very specific features that could be corrected if there was a will. Lynne Marie Kohm, family law professor at Regent University, lays out five factors for us to consider:

1. Very little parental involvement. Kohm points to the fact that these boys had little attention from their parents, particularly fathers. Statistics indicate that over 70 percent of the recent shooters were from fatherless homes. They were not involved with the boys in sports, schoolwork, church, or other activities. “Just not involved in the child’s life,” she says. The child learns to distrust the parents and guidance is lost.

2. Some kind of stress on the child. In a stress-filled world, children are not equipped to handle social conflicts like bullying, teasing and the cruelty of other children —or even adults. Techniques of managing it must come from good parenting.

3. A whole lot of time alone.
With the whole society basically shut down for the last two years, this has been a challenge even for good parents. Single mothers with rambunctious boys are at a serious disadvantage. The fallback position has been to video games, TV, and social media, creating an atmosphere of radical ideologies and sinful suggestions. Even church no longer plays a significant role in most families. Up until the last couple of generations, society generally worked with parents to raise good citizens and responsible adults.

4. Loss of a sense of truth and morality.
The culture, and often the schools, promote the idea that everyone can have their own truth. Evolution has become the national religion, eliminating all accountability to God or His Truth. This becomes a wide-open door for Satan to marinate the culture with his lies. Since death is his goal, Uvalde is his delight. Of course this leads to an…

5. Incredible lack of remorse.
1 Timothy 4:2 speaks of those whose conscience is “seared with a hot iron.” While there is some debate about the nature of our conscience, there is no doubt that it is influenced by our early life. And only a well-functioning family can provide the best influence in the formation of a conscience. The men involved in these massacres uniformly displayed little remorse.

These five factors demonstrate how far we have strayed from God’s plan.

In several places where the Old Testament prophets pronounce judgement on Israel for their sin, they describe a combination of sword, famine, and pestilence. But these did not come without warning. Years earlier, lonely voices would raise a concern of the direction the culture was taking.

Can we, today, afford to ignore this same warning? The sword was a very effective instrument of war in that day. Today, the power of our instruments of war is beyond comprehension, as the pictures of the splintered cities in Ukraine graphically testify.

Some are claiming that global famine is on its way. And the COVID-19 season we are in certainly qualifies as a pestilence.

Now, more than ever, God’s people need to speak up for God’s way. Many are attempting to do that. We need to join them, and no-nonsense gospel tracts are a powerful way to do it.