LETTERS: SCHOOL VIOLENCE HAS SPIRITUAL CAUSE

To the Editor:

Talking about what happened in Littleton, Colo., and what schools can do to prevent it from happening here, I saw a headline that said "They are praying now." And there was a lot of prayer the day the tragedy happened and since then. I also heard some speak of the teen-agers as being spiritually empty.

I believe the violence that we have seen in schools of late has a spiritual cause. I believe it is directly related to the fact that our culture has forgotten God and went its own way as if it did not need God. God made us as spiritual beings and he wants to be involved in our lives. He gave us his word to tell us how to live.

Spiritual training is mostly the work of the church and family but schools can be involved in teaching children the right way to live. I am not talking about prayer in schools. I am talking about something more fundamental and basic. I am talking about teaching children about creation and that we are the work of a creator who has a right to tell us what is right and what is wrong. I am talking about acknowledging that there is a God.

Schools could let the Ten Commandments hang on the school walls to remind children about God's laws.

Human beings are limited in their knowledge. Their knowledge is not the highest knowledge in the world. And they need limits put on their behavior. We are fallen beings capable of much evil as witnessed by what has happened in recent weeks. Children need to realize that there is a higher being and that there are consequences for breaking the laws of God.

Neoma Counts

Farmington