A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children and could not be comforted, because they were not. Jeremiah 31:15

This passage from the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled in the days of King Herod, when he had soldiers kill all the male children born in Bethlehem two years and younger. We all know the story. Herod was jealous and afraid because he heard that a child had been born (Jesus) who was to become king of the Jews. Herod felt threatened. Because he could not be sure which child it was, he ordered the killing of all the male babies. His rage and his frustration took the lives of many young children whose parents were left to weep and mourn, victims of his insecurity. Herod was mentally ill, deranged, narcissistic.

Today, in Tumbler Ridge, BC, there are aching hearts…parents, friends and siblings of children whose lives were taken suddenly and unexpectedly by the actions of a mentally ill young man. How he lost his bearings and what might have been done differently are worthwhile questions, and we will touch on them. All of us want to try to prevent future tragedies like this. All of us want to spare other parents, friends and siblings this type of searing pain in some other small town, in some other community.

But nothing we can do or say will bring these children back. The pain of loss is palpable and the hopes and dreams these families had for their children have been brutally taken away. At a time like this, we mourn with those families and pray that over time, they will be able to receive comfort from the Lord. We know that God is at work and offers healing even from this level of emotional trauma. Our prayers are for those who survived and for those trying to make sense of this senseless act.

We are living in an age of mental illness, of delusion and insanity. Every act of violence shakes our collective sense of reality. We didn’t think—nor did the good people of Tumbler Ridge—that a young man raised in their community would brutally lash out and randomly take the lives of precious young children and even his own mother and brother. Our common sense and shared values of fairness and decency cannot accept that this could happen in our town, our province, our country.

This is a wake-up call to a nation steeped in delusion and wallowing in self-inflicted fantasy. Proverbs 9:10 says that, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” But many in our country have allowed deluded voices to shape their thinking, their words and their behaviours. Romans, Ch.1 tells us that those who reject God will be given over to “. . . a reprobate mind, to do things that are not convenient . . .” (KJV) and that they will be filled with “. . . wickedness . . .maliciousness . . .envy, murder . . . deceit . . .”, that they will be “. . . inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without natural affection, implacable and unmerciful.”

This young man was raised in a home that rejected God’s design. As is now well known, he “. . . identified as a woman.” Gender dysphoria used to be treated as a mental illness, which it is. Today, many schools, police departments, medical professionals and social service workers embrace that form of mental illness as a legitimate lifestyle choice and go out of their way to facilitate the delusion, thus becoming partners in fantasy.

It’s fair to say that nobody really knows what was going on in the mind of that deranged young man when he killed his mother and brother and then continued to kill and maim at the school before taking his own life. But his history of mental illness was well known in his home and in his community. When we look at what could have been done that might have prevented this senseless slaughter, we have to look at the actions of the local police department, which—in spite of over 60 interactions with the killer prior to the killing spree(!)—returned confiscated guns to his mother...the guns that ultimately took the lives of eight others and the killer himself. What could have motivated trained police officers to presume that an angry young man with mental illness and a disregard for the law should be trusted with firearms?

In that regard, a full investigation is in order. Some have speculated, and perhaps with justification, that the police were reluctant to refuse to return his guns for fear of being accused of being “transphobic.” If that is the case, it’s more evidence that our whole society has chosen delusion. That’s political correctness on steroids. Refusing to deal with a known threat, a “clear and present danger”, while the federal government is right now seeking to take firearms away from experienced hunters and law-abiding citizens could almost be described as another form of mental illness.

The other angle on this case, the “elephant in the room”, is the complicity of teachers and doctors, under the tattered hubris of “human rights”, to facilitate so-called “gender transition” especially that of minors. The incidence of violence and self-harm among those who have taken cross-sex hormones or who have undergone irreversible gender mutilation is through the roof. This has been thoroughly documented, and even while the government-funded media screams that this is misinformation, only those who choose to remain ignorant will ignore the facts. Much more needs to be said about the connection between “gender re-assignment”, cross-sex hormones, mental illness and violence. We cannot change the past, but we must take responsibility for the future for our children.

We at CHP Canada mourn the loss of these precious lives and pray for the people of Tumbler Ridge in their time of grief. We call our nation to return to God and His wisdom to protect young people from the ravages of “wokeness” and delusion.