What do humans do when they discover – albeit subconsciously – that everything they've believed in is wrong – is, in fact, evil?  Are folks likely to do a face-palm; shake their heads; and say, "Can't believe I bought into such stupidity!"?  Sometimes the truly honest among us will do that, but it doesn't happen often.  When the ground shakes under us, we are more likely to just mindlessly grab for the nearest support.

If we grew up certain:

• that God is just a convenient fairy tale;
• that the government's purpose is to take the place of indulgent parents;
• that sexual desires, all sexual desires should be fulfilled ASAP;
• that people are just the evolutionary top of the food chain;
• and are merely animals and therefore expendable;
• that drugs are enlightening;
• that truth is nonexistent;
• and that, most important of all, utopia is within our reach because we know better than God how to organize a nation,

...then what do we do when we see even our most important leaders functioning as if there is no moral code?  What do we think when the people we see as special turn out to be sexual predators?  How are we to understand our misery when our children OD on opioids, kill themselves over Facebook bullying, or kill others just because they are angry or want to be famous?  How do we handle it when we pray to the God we no longer believe in and get no response at all?

What do we do?  Most people look around desperately for someone else to blame, or even better, some inanimate object to hold accountable.  Ban guns!  It takes no moral courage to blame a thing, but it takes massive internal fortitude to look in the mirror and blame the unsustainable ideas we've held dear now for several generations.

It's hard to look at the slaughter of our children in a schoolyard, but we are still willing to kill them by the thousands in an abortion facility.  It's horrifying to see the damage wrought by social media, but we don't have the stomach to face down our spoiled children and deny them access.  It makes us sick to see the sexualization of our young children, but we're too spoiled ourselves to limit our own indulgence in nearly pornographic television.  We don't seem to have the national backbone to admit our part in the destruction of our offspring.

So we demand the banning of guns. We don't fall on our knees and confess our faithlessness to the God who made us free and prosperous.  We don't change our own behavior, vow to make a go of our marriages, and raise our children with both love and discipline.  We don't look with a more critical eye at the policies that contributed to our fractured families; our failing schools; our angry, drug-addled youths.  No.  We scream, "Ban guns!"  Maybe if we scream it loudly enough, the guilt will go away.

And the screamers don't follow up their hollering with careful thinking about what taking guns out of our society would look like.  There are over 300 million privately owned firearms in this country.  We understand – those of us who know anything about history – how important it is that we keep them.  We know that all our other rights rest on the right to defend ourselves against tyranny.  I'm not giving up mine without a fight, and I don't think I'm alone in that.  The confiscation of guns in America will be a bloodbath that makes Parkland look insignificant.

But the deep panic that the unwitting left feels at the blatant, obvious, horrifying evidence that all their most prideful beliefs are bogus is not going to allow any self-searching.  Will there be curriculum meetings sprouting up all over the country to determine if we're teaching only what's truly wholesome and productive?  I don't see that happening.  Will Congress take a fresh look at how welfare policies affect family structure?  Not likely, and if they did, where would we find the strong, stalwart men to step up and become great fathers?  We are training our young men to be women, so how is that going to work?  Are we likely, as an entire culture, to realize that law and a godless moral code can't protect us from evil?  It's easier to ban guns, or at least to vociferously demand that.  I'm not sure the reality really matters to the screamers.

I take heart in knowing that a society can be swayed by only a small percentage of us thinking clearly.  I am reassured when I remember Abraham bargaining with God over Sodom; God agreed to save it if only 10% were good, God-fearing people.  I take heart in our current administration; Trump seems to be thinking clearly and several steps ahead of his opponents.  His Cabinet appears to understand what is at stake here.

It was Jesus Christ who said, "And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free."  The truth isn't always comfortable, or flattering, and when ignored long enough, it can be excruciating when finally acknowledged.  Therefore, truth is under attack today, but it is still readily available; if we want truth, we can still get it, though it wouldn't be surprising to find that after they ban guns, the Bible will be next.

Not a day goes by anymore that we don't come face to face with the evidence that our progressive worldview stands on a weak and crumbling foundation.  Science is dealing blow after blow to godless evolutionary theories.  Our liberal educational ideas are proving counterproductive.  Our laissez-faire childrearing practices are evidently inadequate.  The way we care for our poor causes more problems than it solves.  We don't want to control our own behavior, but we resent the police who then have to do it for us.

The Parkland shooting proves that our culture is a disaster, not that our gun policies are.  We need to be able to face that fact, or there will be hell to pay.

Deana Chadwell blogs at www.ASingleWindow.com.  She is also an adjunct professor and department head at Pacific Bible College in southern Oregon.  She teaches writing and public speaking.