“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

–Mordecai, speaking to Esther (Esther 4:14; NIV)

When this posts, I’ll be away at a writers conference, so I was going to explain why I write; however, that topic sank in importance at such a time as this.

On the heels of the Buffalo shooting earlier this month, last week we witnessed the massacre at a Texas elementary school. Currently, the death toll stands at twenty-one, with nineteen of the victims grade school age. I imagine we all responded viscerally. For my wife and me, it was literally gut-wrenching.

Nineteen families will bury their dear children. If you’ve never lost a child, be eternally grateful. If you have, well…there simply are no words.

Per usual, common concerns are repeated: better school security, reasonable gun legislation, rapid response times, inadequate mental health care, red flag awareness, and the tragedy of it all. A few days later, life’s back to normal…well, not for everyone. These families are forever scarred.

And, of course, politicians publicly pontificate their soundbites, but then fail to sit down with one another and hammer out legislation.

Addressing the issues just mentioned might help to lessen the damage or reduce the number of events, but I would suggest by the time a shooter arrives on a campus, in a store, at a church, on a subway, or wherever, the root cause of the impending crisis is akin to closing the door after the horse has left the barn. Something’s been missed.

More times than not, the perpetrators of these horrific events are teenage boys. What drives them to such a thing, and how can  it be avoided? How on Earth can aberrant behavior, social media postings, emails, etc. be missed?

I’m no sociologist, but my best take on this is the family, or lack thereof. These shooters are often from broken or dysfunctional homes, and lack the parental oversight of, and involvement in, their children’s activities, interests, and internet footprint.

Today, family members don’t eat together, play games together, and sometimes don’t even talk with one another. Often, a screen substitutes for parental involvement. Instead of parents recognizing their children’s problems, the kids are online, where they are often ignored, or sometimes encouraged, when they post dark thoughts. Think about it: there’s almost always chatter on the internet that preceded and predicted these heinous acts.

Look at the games kids now play online. We’ve morphed from a futuristic Pac-Man game, where a yellow dot gobbles up silly little figures, to violent games in which life-like people get shot and killed. Harmless? Not if that virtual reality transitions to the real world. And without fully developed pre-frontal cortical function, teens are at heightened risk of just that.

As stated, these shooters are invariably males. Boys in homes with no adult male presence are more likely to lose their way. They need male role models. When their dad’s absent, boys need granddads, uncles, coaches, Scout leaders, ministers, Big Brothers, or teachers to fill that void.

But above all else, all of us need God back in our lives. As a society, we’ve eschewed the faith-based principles on which this country was founded. When parents practice their faith, whatever that might be, their children are more likely to do the same. Faith can serve as an anchor in children’s lives, keeping them from drifting in directions they shouldn’t go, doing things they shouldn’t do.

It’s high time people of faith step up and speak out, inculcating our religious beliefs back into a Godless society that’s lost its way. As Christians, I and other believers do our best to emulate the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Of course, we usually come up short. But try anything less and we abdicate our responsibility to follow His example.

Your religious beliefs may differ. That’s fine, then just teach your children the tenets of your faith. We may disagree on our religious views, but can anyone seriously advocate for maintaining the status quo?

Mordecai had no way to know his admonition to Esther would apply not just to people of Jewish faith in that day, but to people of all faiths, some 2,500 years later.

At such a time as this, it’s time we all speak up. We can no longer afford not to.