A guest column
By Rev. Timothy J. Wolf
It took about 15 minutes for TV news pundits to start politicizing the horrific murders of 20 school children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. There were no real facts and I was still deciding whether I should be angry, scared, heartbroken or completely overwhelmed. I sat at my desk crying, wondering why we were again rushing to judgment, why we couldn’t let the people of Newtown mourn without turning their tragedy into a sound bite.
Everyone has their opinion about the source of the problem — from guns, to mental illness, the economy, or… fill in the blank. Our knee-jerk, emotional reactions to horrifying and difficult situations are understandable but rarely productive in solving the actual problem. There are always things we can do better; however, we live under the delusion that politics can solve all of our problems and create some sort of societal utopia. We can’t control or ban enough “things” so that we are always safe or unoffended. It has never happened and never will because the real problem is not objects or policies. The real problem is that the heart of humanity is not good, it is evil and we can’t ban evil.
Humanity has a heart and soul problem. Many believe that mankind is basically good, but that flies in the face of thousands of years of history and our personal experience. Have you ever lied, cheated or stolen just a little?
What is the answer to the problem of evil? What can help the families in Newtown and other suffering, broken people around the world, who will never have another “normal” Christmas? The answer is Christmas.
Not the pretty bows and ribbons Christmas, but the Christmas of the Bible. The first Christmas was filled with trials, tragedies and death; it changed the course of the world so that we celebrate that God was born into human flesh and lived a sinless life so we can understand His love for us. Jesus did not come into the world so we could be happy, rich or beautiful. He came to make the perfect payment for the problem of evil, our transgressions, so that when we accept His free offer of salvation our sins will be forgiven and we will know Him. He came so we will have HOPE. If the Bible is fantasy then we have no real hope; if it is true, then we need to better understand the Jesus of Christmas.
We can’t protect our children from everything. The best we can do is to teach them the true meaning of Christmas. So, this is Christmas, “The Light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5)
The Rev. Wolf, M.A., is pastor of New Horizon Christian Fellowship in Hillsborough.

