David McElroy

Robert Aaron Long murdered eight people in Atlanta Tuesday. That’s what police tell us.

Why did he do it? Some people say it was a hate crime since most of the victims were Asian. Others say this introverted 21-year old is just crazy. And there are other wildly different explanations.

Those who knew him in high school in Woodstock, Ga., just a few years ago are shocked. They say the boy they knew was caring and kind. He was an active member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and he talked about wanting to share God’s love with others.

“From what I can remember he was a really smart kid,” a former student told Fox News. “He was really quiet and kept to himself the majority of the time.”

I’m not inside Long’s mind, so I can’t say exactly why a caring teen became a cold-blooded murderer just a few years later. But I’d like to suggest that you or I could have done something similar. The civilization we see all around us — with our outward calm and polite behavior — is a thin veneer over something far more savage.

At least a touch of hidden insanity is born into each one of us. The interesting question isn’t why Long suddenly murdered eight people — but rather why more people don’t act more like him.

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It’s just a tree, but for six years, it’s been my favorite tree. Tonight, half of it has been cut down — and the rest will be gone tomorrow.

When I moved into this house six years ago, this majestic old tree quickly became my favorite part of living here. Each time I’ve stepped out of my front door, this tree has been there to greet me. That tree came to symbolize the beauty of nature’s changing seasons for me.

Each spring, I had the joy of watching new buds spring out of these giant branches. By summer, it would form a massive canopy over my front yard. In the autumn, its leaves would fill my yard with delightful gold and brown leaves that crunched underneath my feet. And in winter, it always stood in silent majesty — as a silent promise that life would soon be reborn.

And now, the beautiful tree which I had come to love so much is gone — and I find myself mourning its loss just as I’ve mourned the deaths of two human neighbors lately.

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Liberated modern culture is awash in sex — but more and more people are starving for love and intimacy. What’s worse, most people seem to believe sex and intimacy are the same thing.

I feel increasingly hopeless about the direction of this culture. There was a time when I believed the worrisome things I was seeing were just minor excesses, but I’ve come to believe the culture is irredeemably dysfunctional.

As a result, most modern Americans are bumper to bumper on a highway toward metaphorical hell — and they’re willing to pay any price to get there, because they believe they’re heading toward a paradise of pleasure.

This is destroying lives. And it’s leaving confused people feeling empty as they find that the life of success and pleasure they were promised has turned into a living nightmare.

Three recent stories have me thinking about this tonight.

First, I saw a HuffPost article this week which was headlined “Here’s When We Can (Probably) Have Casual Sex Again.” It was all about when quarantine restrictions will be sufficiently lifted to allow “normal” people to once again resume having sex with complete strangers they randomly meet.

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