Who bears the guilt for the shooting in Tucson?

We’re living in a time of shift concerning the notion of free speech. That’s partly because the State is increasingly in bed with the wealthy and the powerful, who have no obligation to honor the Bill of Right since they are not state actors but private citizens and corporations.

So, for instance, they can use their draconian power to crush free speech for the Manhattan Declaration. Then they can use it to promote mockery of the sacrament of reconciliation. The state can’t do that (yet), but rich guys and corporations can. And if you want to complain, they can see to it that you have your access to their means of communication cut off.

As the US political culture becomes more and more fused with the demands of fewer and fewer extremely wealthy people, it will be harder and harder to protest when these rich men decide to tell us what we can and cannot say and think, since they are not bound by the Bill of Rights. You will be able (for the time being) to speak freely in private. But one by one, our access routes to speaking in the public square will be cut off while the thoughts we think will be subjected to more and more regulation from the state. That’s why Obama and the Feds want to get their mitts on the Internet and reinstitute the “Fairness Doctrine”. It will all be covered by “national security” and “hate speech” regulation, of course. Say and refrain from saying what the wealthy and powerful demand or the terrorists will have won.

This will, in turn, result in a reaction of irresponsible political speech from people who will overreact to the Thought Police. The mark of a culture that is no longer Christian is that it finds it increasingly difficult to maintain, not merely the theological virtues, but the cardinal ones too. So one excess leads to a reactionary excess and so forth.

That, in part, is the little drama being played out by the advocates of Thought Police on the Left (who are hypocritically exploiting the Tucson shooting to shout down their political opponents, despite the Left’s bumper crop of crazy, violent discourse) and the paladins of irresponsible political discourse on the Right who are making their own excuses for glorifying violence, bringing guns to political rallies, and even recommending “second amendment remedies” to elections that don’t go their way. The simple fact is, American culture is full of the glorification of violence on all sides.

So does that mean “we all shot those people in Tuscon”?

No. It mean something far worse: we all crucified Jesus Christ.

The good news of the Catholic faith is that Christ has chosen to take upon himself the guilt and sin, not only for his own murder, but for the murder and suffering of those poor folks in Tuscon. The lunatic who pulled the trigger in Tuscon bears his responsibility for his act of pounding the nails through the hands and feet of Christ. But rather than making cynical political capital out of his act by blaming Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin, Lefties would be better employed contemplating their own contributions to the miasma of violent rhetoric they so swiftly blame on others. Likewise, rather than pretending that the doctrine of rugged individualism insulates them from the taint of participation in the fallen and violent race they too have helped to encourage, righties might rethink their own glorifications of violence.

Ultimately, the only person in this tragic affair who is without sin is Jesus Christ–and He became sin and chose to bear the guilt of Jared Loughner and the rest of us that we might become the righteousness of God.

Asking who bears the guilt for what happened on Tucson is another way of asking “What’s Wrong with the World?” Answer: I am. My dismissive and abusive tongue helped hell here. My flippancy and contempt helped damage respect for other people and encourage people like Loughner to embrace complete contempt. My anger at people helped encourage the Loughners of the world in theirs. My sins against Christian liberty will make it easier for those who seek to destroy that liberty to do so.

The doctrine of solidarity means not, “let’s be socialist” but that we are all in Adam (and Christians are in Christ) for good and for ill. My sins hurt you and your acts of obedience help me. For the love of God, may we stop the finger-pointing, forgive those who hypocritically accuse others, and pray.