by Charles Barnard
Below is a list of mass shootings listed in the New York Times that have taken place since January 1, 2022. It may well be incomplete.
May 15: Houston
Two men were shot dead and three were critically wounded by gunfire at a shooting at an open-air flea market in Houston. The shooting arose from a fight involving the five men, and no bystanders were injured, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said.
MAY 15: LAGUNA WOODS, CALIF.
A gunman killed one person and critically wounded four other members of the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, Calif.
MAY 14: BUFFALO
A gunman armed with an assault weapon shot 13 people, almost all of whom were Black, at a Tops supermarket in east Buffalo, the authorities said. Ten people died.
May 13: Milwaukee
At least 21 people were wounded in a series of shootings in downtown Milwaukee, in a popular nightlife area blocks from the arena where an N.B.A. playoff game ended hours earlier, the police said.
April 27: Biloxi, Miss.
The owner and two employees of the Broadway Inn Express motel in Biloxi, Miss., were fatally shot, and another person was also shot dead during a carjacking. The suspect, Jeremy Alesunder Reynolds, 32, was later found dead, CBS News reported.
April 3: Sacramento
As revelers spilled out of nightclubs in a two-square-block area of downtown Sacramento, a barrage of gunfire killed six people and wounded 12, the authorities said.
MARCH 19: DUMAS, ARK.
Two people engaged in a gunfight and sprayed a crowd with gunfire, killing one bystander and injuring 27 other people, including six children, at a community event and car show in the small Arkansas farming community.
Jan. 23: Milwaukee
Law enforcement officers were called to a Milwaukee home for a welfare check, and found six people who had been fatally shot. The victims — five men and one woman — had been shot, the police said, and evidence early in the investigation suggested that the killings had been targeted.
Beliefs, values and morality
Regardless of the completeness of the above list, we certainly should be asking ourselves some important questions such as what is going on in our country? How did we get here? Is this really the direction we want to go in? If not, how can we change course?
Nationally, there was an unprecedented spike in murders in 2020. 2020 saw the largest single-year increase ever recorded in the United States. In major cities across the United States in 2021 murders rose another 5% over 2020. 2022 doesn’t seem to be reversing that trend. Clearly, we are moving in the wrong direction.
Reforming the criminal justice system is long overdue, but this article won’t address that topic. It, of course, will be related to mindset. Because beliefs and values – and their influence on morality – is at the heart of a mindset, the article will be focused on shaping beliefs and values, particularly the beliefs and values governing what is right and wrong.
Mental Health and Morality
What are the beliefs and values and what is the thinking process that allows for the carnage recorded above to occur? Any discussion around this topic will undoubtedly have to at some level address mental health. Learning the extent that genetics play in mental health is important research and those who seek to identify genetic “causes” to mental health and the behavior it manifests have a long road ahead of them.
There will also be significant moral and ethical implications if we do identify specific genes as causal for mental health that is attributed to high risk for societally deemed “immoral” or “dangerous” behavior.
The Buffalo shooter over the weekend had some clearly dangerous ideas and beliefs and values that played a significant role in the shooting. Was he mentally ill? Does it matter? If you read much about other mass murderers you will see similar beliefs and values.
Do a thought experiment for a moment. Write down what values and beliefs a person would have to have to not commit these heinous crimes. In other words, what values and beliefs would have to permeate a person’s mindset to prevent them from acting out violently or criminally in any capacity? Now, what values and beliefs would a person have to have to commit these heinous crimes?
As we begin to answer those questions doesn’t the importance and influence of a mindset on behavior become highlighted? In fact, your mindset drives behavior. If we as a society believe that certain beliefs and values are essential for a functioning and civil society, we must work hard to ensure those values permeate the culture. They used to.
Societal Morality and Individual Mindset
There was at one time “traditional American values” which were traditional “Judeo-Christian” values or moral code that permeated our culture. When John Adams wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other,”[1]he was referring to Christian religion and morality. It was not by any means a radical view at that time. The attempt was to not only codify this morality into law but to imbed the beliefs and values behind it into our cultural institutions.
The family, the churches, public education, the courts, the legislature, literature and the arts were all supposed to be supportive of these beliefs and values which would at the same time ensure and encourage individualism and a protection of individual rights. There was clear understanding of what would be considered moral behavior within families, churches, schools, court houses, legislature and the like, which is not to say these institutions lived up to those standards or what was considered the target – the ideal.
The claim is not that the United States has been morally upright with no history of violence, murder, mayhem, or corruption before now. That would be a blatantly false claim. The point is there was a recognition that if American society as a whole rejected these moral beliefs and values and adopted other beliefs and values our society under our constitution would fail.
For probably a hundred years if not longer this Judeo-Christian moral underpinning as been under assault and even led President Obama to say, “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation – at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.” The assault has come from changing beliefs and values brought about from other world views – whether that is Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, or Atheistic among others. Our culture is changing because the beliefs and values that drive the behavior of Americans is changing and what was once considered morally wrong is now considered morally acceptable. Included in this change we are seeing is lack of respect for legitimate authority, property, and life itself.
Change Begins with the Individual
Change begins locally. It begins with individuals and individual families. A recognition that the two most powerful influencers of values outside of the family are public education and the entertainment industry would be a starting place for any parent who wants to make changes. Parents with young children cannot stick their head in the sand and think that they can expose their children to all forms of electronic entertainment without being vigilant in monitoring and controlling what is available for them to see.
Parents have to make informed decisions on how far they go with that by understanding that the first seven years of a child’s life is crucial in developing the core values and beliefs that will shape them. Parents have a responsibility to be aware of the beliefs and values being taught directly or indirectly by commission or omission, especially in public schools and television. The more you expose them to someone else’s values in relation to the values you want them to have the more likely those values will become core values and beliefs over the ones you want them to have. If your values are aligned with the values being taught by these institutions, your job was just made easier. If not, beware.
The next six or seven years of a child’s life will either begin to strengthen those values and moral beliefs or may begin to erode them. Again, as children become older they will be and need to be exposed to more ideas and beliefs and values. Parents must remain vigilant.
The final stage brings the person into adulthood and hopefully with a firm foundation they will be able to maintain the mindset you have helped them establish, even amidst institutions that may not be delivering the messages you want. Parents cannot let up even in this final stage of development.
Education and Entertainment, The Two Most Powerful Influences on Mindset and Morality Outside the Family
In our free society, the most powerful way you will be able change the two major moral mindset influencers outside of the family will be to opt out. Is that possible? Yes. Is it easy? No. The real question is how important is it to you?
If you complain about music videos, music lyrics, movies, television shows, video games, social media, school curriculum, school behavior codes, and any other significant mindset influencers, but don’t change your own actions, which drives all the things you might complain about, things won’t change. If you have made the changes, you can begin to work with other like-minded people to take the idea and turn it into a movement.
It begins at home with you applying HEAT (habit, emotion, attitude, training) to your own life so you can solidify your own values and beliefs and emotional management. You can then influence those in your circle of influence by being congruent in your actions and beliefs and with love casting out fear to take a moral stand for whatever belief and value it is you believe your community needs to adopt or reject.
During the civil rights movement in the sixties there were competing groups all acting out on their beliefs. The radical black militants acted out on their beliefs and values, the KKK and white supremacist groups acted out on their beliefs and values, the group led by Martin Luther King acted out on their beliefs and values. Most in our society were moved by the more peaceful actions of Martin Luther King and his movement, which eventually won the day. Changing society requires a clear moral vision which is found in a clarity of your beliefs and values, and having the courage and clarity to take a moral stand for what you believe is right.
As the news continues to get bad socially, economically, geo-politically, it will behoove all of us to take a close look at our beliefs and values – our different mindsets. What do we believe? What do we stand for? Is it in line with what is being promoted institutionally? If not what can I do about it? If so, how can I make sure we conserve that?
One thing is clear – our cultural values have changed significantly. Birth control, divorce, sex between an unmarried man and woman, gambling, death penalty, and homosexuality among other things is now considered largely acceptable by Americans. Our views on crime are even changing as district attorneys shape what crimes get prosecuted and which ones don’t. Individual Americans who believe we are on the wrong track must make changes in themselves if they are going to influence societal change. We have gotten these changes in our culture because Americans adopted those beliefs and values and changed their behavior.
The Great Challenge: Being Congruent
As long as those in control of our cultural institutions – including parents – promote and or simply live out the beliefs and values that are behind the public policy initiates that promote through commission or omission the beliefs and values that leads to the cultural maladies many are becoming increasingly concerned about, we will continue to see American culture head down the current track it is running on. Understanding the source of your moral beliefs, your values, is essential – why is something right or wrong? Why is that belief beneficial? Why is that value beneficial?
There are beliefs we hold that are not strictly moral – I can achieve anything that I desire – and then there are those that are clearly moral – cheating on my partner is wrong. Everyone is moral, meaning everyone follows their code of what they consider right or wrong in the context of the situation. Society may not agree. We need to be very clear on what beliefs and values are most conducive to a stable, well-functioning society. Christianity provided that for western culture in general and the United States in particular. It no longer does.
Whether you choose to worship Jehovah, or Christ, is an individual decision and can only be an individual decision. You cannot force true worship. Worshiping is not the same as choosing the essential moral teachings of Jehovah and Christ as the bedrock beliefs and values for society.
All law is moral law and is based on the beliefs around what we should value and what is right and wrong. What were the essential values you listed that would prevent someone from committing those heinous crimes? How many of those would be considered “traditional American” or “traditional Christian” values? If we Americans continue to ignore the roughly six thousand year history of human civilization, and continue to reject the essential Judeo-Christian moral teachings we once accepted as good and right, whether we all followed them or not, we will continue to reap what we sow. No civilization in human history who has rejected those core teachings as a society has survived. America won’t be the first to do so.
[1] “From John Adams to Massachusetts Militia, 11 October 1798,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed Feb. 28, 2020, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102.
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