OCA Chancery
Syosset, New York
Beloved in Christ, dear brothers and sisters,
Christ is risen!
For weeks our sensibilities have been shocked by images of violence and death in the Balkans. On Tuesday, April 20, 1999—on the Orthodox Christian calendar, the “Day of Rejoicing” on which we commemorate the faithful departed—our sensibilities once again were shocked by new and equally disturbing images of violence and death, this time in our own land.
The senseless shooting and bombing at Littleton, Colorado’s Columbine High School, which left fifteen individuals, including the two troubled teenage perpetrators, dead and many others hospitalized, has stunned our nation. How could this happen? What have we done wrong? What can be done to assure that this painful tragedy is not repeated again?
Surely these questions are not new. They are the same questions we asked after the half-dozen similar school shootings which have occurred during the past two years. Sadly, the answers, which all too often focus on legislation rather than motivation, have been inadequate at best and downright wrong at worst. Endless debates on gun control have not stopped the violence. Calls for parental controls over children’s internet access have done little. Everything from rock lyrics to video games to television violence to a lack of metal detectors in school lobbies has been targeted as the root of the massacres in Littleton and elsewhere.
Despite demands for a return to “family values,” there are countless children in our society who have never been permitted to enjoy the delights of childhood. Many grow up alone, perhaps out of necessity, as their parents pursue careers and other quests. I recently read a disturbing article which reported that, in a survey of middle school children, nearly half said they would rather surf the internet than have a face-to-face conversation with another person. A culture which demands a renewed focus on the family while applauding the development of computer software for infants is a culture in trouble, a culture in which hearts have grown cold, a culture in which human relationships have been marginalized in the quest to give our children an “edge” on their peers, regardless of the cost.
Legislation may indeed help reduce the availability of guns or warn the public about violent and inappropriate visual and verbal images on television. But legislation is incapable of reaching deeper to the real crisis facing American young people: the need for loving adults who are willing to listen, to empathize, and to accept young people—adults who are willing to help them overcome the uncertainties and doubts, the anger and the fears, the disappointments and the cynicism that are a part of adolescence. The title of a song popular in the late 1960s, “All You Need Is Love,” may have been dismissed as naive and shallow; for those convinced, as the Evangelist John writes, that “God is Love,” I dare say it holds the only answer—and the only solution.
To the families of those who died in Littleton, Colorado, I write with deep sympathy and sorrow, offering our prayers and the comfort of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ. Your loss is our loss. Your pain is our pain. And your hope is our hope.
To all who would listen, I write with renewed fervor and conviction: Love your children. Accept them for who and what they are. Guide them in learning, in living and, above all, in loving. Talk less. Listen more. They are not our enemies, but the products of our love and a reflection of the Creator Himself. While preparing them for adult life, do not rob them of the joy and delight of childhood and adolescence. While keeping a watchful eye on them, resist the temptation to live their lives for them. Treasure your relationship with them, for it can never be recaptured at some later point in time. Nurture them in the Christian life, in the sacraments and worship of the Church, in forming loving relationships and friendships based on the God Who is Love Itself. Recognize that their spiritual thirst will remain with them long after they have lost interest in soccer and have grown bored with the internet. Be there for them as a loving presence in their lives, just as our loving Father in Heaven is there for us at all times. And above all, remember that it was Jesus Christ Himself Who told us that unless we become like little children we will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
With love in the Risen Christ,
+ THEODOSIUS
Archbishop of Washington,
Metropolitan of All America and Canada