Active shooters are shot full of seething, engrossed with evil, and driven by demons. However, a climate of courageous and compassionate kindness can curtail violence. Humans are attracted to violence, watching it for entertainment, playing violent games, threatening it, boasting of it, doing it.

When a culture continually undermines people’s conscience and progressively promotes permissiveness, violence will be a big problem. Stop the postnatal and prenatal carnage. It’s time to respect the image of God in all human life.

Violence is cruelty, sometimes done for a cause, sometimes on evil impulse. It blasts bodies, hardens hearts, and molests minds. Most people think they are better people than the people that they advocate violence against.

Violence is the ultimate attempt to impose your will on others. A win-lose mentality that wants its way no matter what, opens the door to violence.

Easily taking offense obstructs your vision of what is really going on, causing you to misjudge people and situations. Insults are “fake power” thrown around by those who are trying to keep their opponents from seeing their inner insecurities. Ignore them!

Unkind words can provoke violence. Verbal punches can trigger physical punches and sadly, sometimes shots ring out.

If you feel like you have to insult the people who disagree with you, then you must be afraid of them and their beliefs. People who are frequently unkind to other people haven’t learned how to appreciate life and its many blessings. Truth can hurt people and needs to be spoken with compassion and love — not used as a weapon to get your way.

To attack human life (in any stage) is to attack the image of God. Life is the bequest of God, but any fool can take it away.

If you won’t respect all people, at least respect the image of God that they are made in.

Christianity teaches that all humans are created in God’s image. Thus Christians insult their own faith when they insult or bully people.