Dear Editor,

The year 2015 has been filled with tragedies that we don’t want to repeat in 2016. Foremost on the list is the shedding of innocent blood, particularly the blood of our children.

There’s a bitter lesson to be learned from the murder of six-year-old Daniel Anderson, as well as the two policemen in Poorman’s Corner, and it’s the lesson of communal responsibility.

Why is this important? Because God holds the community responsible for the shedding of innocent blood.

Leaders in Israel established their innocence before God and removed blood-guilt from the community by truthfully declaring they — and no one else in the community — had knowledge of who the perpetrator was in cases of unsolved murder; because hiding the truth about murder made them blood-guilty too. (Deuteronomy 21:1-10)

Jeremiah warned the people of Jerusalem that if they put him to death, innocent blood would be upon the head of his killers as well as upon the city’s inhabitants. (Jeremiah 26: 15)

Isaiah also made the case for communal responsibility in Isaiah 26:21. And after the death of King Manasseh: “…the [a]command of the Lord … came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done; and also for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and the Lord would not forgive. (2 Kings 24:3-4; NASB)

We all share communal blood-guilt. People rarely become murderers overnight. This period of development allows the community to intervene and help people who display violent tendencies before these tendencies get out of control. In the case of young Daniel’s death, a man who had previously attacked his mother and sister with a machete was held. Perhaps he is of unsound mind. But why allow a violent mad man to remain free to harm others? Why not commit him? Why allow him the opportunity to move from felonious wounding to murder?

In 2016, let’s not repeat the mistakes of 2015. Let’s remember, the sage advise of Ecclesiates 8: 11: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Let’s learn from the

Bible and take action to prevent hearts from becoming set in carrying out evil.

Novlette Myers

nhemyers@hotmail.com