NFL star Benjamin Watson offered up some wise and thought-provoking words this week following the tragic school shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
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Watson, who appeared on Fox News this week, broke down the real issues that he believes are at the heart of such horrific massacres. While he said the gunman clearly must be held accountable, the outspoken Christian also pointed to some cultural problems that must be confronted.
“Every time there’s an instance like this, something really horrific, we talk about respecting life, and while that’s very important, we have to look at our culture as a whole,” he said. “We incarcerate our young men at alarming rates, we vote for things that create the disintegration of the family, we murder 60 million of our unborn since Roe v. Wade; we’re a culture that really gravitates toward violence.”
Watson said that society must step back and take a deep look at what parents are teaching their kids and how culture, as a whole, is functioning. And, from there, he encouraged action. After figuring out “where we’ve gone wrong,” he said society must have the “courage to fix it.”
“When you take faith out of the public arena, when you take God out of there, people suffer,” he said, adding that people should also take the time to pay attention to those around them who might be suffering. “The way you treat people is very, very important.”
Watson also lamented the ways in which he believes society have pushed God out of schools and other venues, explaining that he believes some in culture have a misunderstanding of how to treat prayer and God.
“We can’t come to God as if he’s some sort of cosmic vending machine,” he said. “Whenever we have a problem, we just reach out to him.”
Instead, Watson said God should be invoked on a daily basis, with each individual asking where the Lord wants him or her and how he or she can help positively impact other people.