To the editor:

When senseless violence like the tragedy in Newtown, Conn. happens, the experts talk about issues like ineffective gun control, better mental health services, increasing violence found in realistic videos, and stronger security in schools.

But I do believe the most essential solution is being avoided.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor who died in a Nazi concentration camp, said it best when he stated that we as people of faith should oppose a culture “which is no longer based on natural law and the law of God.”

Secularism is becoming the false religion of our land, and we have sadly thrown God out of our lives. When the Christmas tree becomes the holiday tree, when shopping becomes the essence of Christmas, when people say “bless you” rather than “God bless you” after a sneeze, when the family is under attack, when abortion is so easy to access, and on and on, we have effectively eliminated God from our culture.

I am a Catholic Christian, and I stand right now and say that God matters to me.

When Pope John Paul II visited communist-ruled Poland in 1979, the people chanted in humble thunderous unity, “We want God! We want God!” America needs to do the same.

In 2 Chronicles 7:14 the Lord said to Solomon, “... if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

My brothers and sisters in America, I urge you to seek the face of God! God does not cause the violence in our land, but he is the only one who has the true and lasting power to heal our country of the senseless violence that happens time after time after time.

Sincerely,

Heidi M. Bailey

Bristol