Ray, are we to understand from your link that you prefer the slaughter of innocents to the death of a murderer?

“I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.” – Charles Babbage

Okay, then God should be able to stop each and every person from committing any immoral act.

Well, the theology is that choosing to commit a sin is a sin, even if circumstances prevent you from actually being able to carry it out. So sin would still be possible even if we lived in the universe of Jacques Clouseau, and people routinely survived attacks by improbable luck.

As a parent, I’ve sometimes allowed a kid to mistreat and break one of their toys, as a way of helping them learn some responsibility. But I don’t allow one kid to break another’s toys if I can see it coming – let alone break one of their siblings. That’s an odd way to parent.

If even one person at that school had been armed, the tragedy might have been limited to one deranged and tortured soul.

http://thismodernworld.com/archives/7617

If even one person at that school had been armed, the tragedy might have been limited to one deranged and tortured soul.

How does evil justify making it harder for good people to resist evil?

I think there is an adequate answer. God did not create puppets. Human beings all have free will, the freedom to choose minute by minute, day by day, every action we take both trivial and vital.

Adam Lanza chose actions that led to a final horrific evil act. Each choice he made up to that murderous morning was his to make. Did he choose not to take medication? Not to admit to out of control thoughts and seek therapeutic help? Who knows (we likely never will know) what steps throughout his sorry life he chose to take and not to take, but again, each choice was his.

The consequences of Lanza’s choices are horrific. What would you have God do though? Stop him? Okay, then God should be able to stop each and every person from committing any immoral act. He should stop people from choosing adultery, divorce, abortion, pick any choice that is less than “good,” and have God pull the puppet strings to prevent it.

He doesn’t control us like that. It doesn’t mean though, that He doesn’t weep at the horrible choices some people make, and the tragedies that result.

The recognition that humans can and do choose evil is not cause to disbelieve in God, it is cause to closely examine our own choices.

You say this chaplet with a normal rosary or on your fingertips, and the central prayer on the 10 beads (instead of hail Mary’s) is:

“For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us, and on the whole world.”

And on the big beads, separating the 10′s, you say:

“Eternal Father, we offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, of your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ – In atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.”