Ben Wyatt

Via a scoop from Tim, Jim Pace, a pastor at the GCM church in Blacksburg, VA was on Larry King Live Monday evening. As follows is the segment:

KING: Joining us now in Blacksburg, Virginia, Pastor Jim Pace, the New Life Christian Fellowship. He ministers to the campus of the Virginia Tech, and the community, as well.

And in Dallas, Texas, our old friend, Dr. Phil McGraw, the host of TV's "Dr. Phil" and "New York Times" best-selling author. He has a Ph.D. of course, in clinical psychology.

Pastor Pace, what's the church doing with -- in regard to today's events?

PASTOR JIM PACE, NEW LIFE CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP: Well, I'd say, Larry, we're just trying to get our feet under us a little bit, just like everybody else is. Every time we seem to turn on the TV it gets worse.

But we're just trying to focus on giving some people a variety of different ways they can deal with this. We have some larger group things for people that want to process this with lots of people. And then we've got some smaller things for people that want to hole up in their -- in their dorm or in their apartment and just kind of try to sort this out with a few friends.

We're just trying to be as many places as we can. [emphasis addded -ed] We're helping out with what the university is doing, as well, and just trying to lend our support there.

KING: Where were you when it happened, Jim?

PACE: I was about 200 yards away at a coffee shop watching the feed on CNN as it went down.

At which point the coverage turns to Dr. Phil. I find it amazing that one could invite a guest onto a show anfd ask them two questions, the second of which is a snoozer, but then I'm not a Larry King fan as it is. Dr Phil does return to some of Jim's thought later in the show:

And then, you know, the second thing that has to happen is they do have to talk about it. And God[sic] bless Pastor Pace for being on site and stepping up and providing a place for people to go to share their thoughts, share their feelings. You've got to give this a voice and get it out. But we cannot make hollow promises to the remaining students. And, you know, this happened at a wonderful institution, Virginia Tech. It didn't happen at Stanford or Texas Tech or the University of Miami.

Dennis Prager writes a strong article that seems to agree with Jim and Dr Phil's approach to the shooting, and has a few other reasonable points to make about media coverage and responses to the incident:

It is foolish because one does not speak about healing the same day (or week or perhaps even month) that one is traumatized -- especially by evil. One must be allowed time for anger and grief. To speak of healing and "closure" before one goes through those other emotions is to speak not of healing but of suppression.

Not to allow people time to experience their natural, and noble, instincts to feel rage and grief actually deprives them of the ability to heal in the long run. After all, if there is no rage and grief, what is there to heal from?

The Jewish tradition, still observed even by non-Orthodox Jews, is to sit "shiva" (seven) days and do nothing but mourn and receive visitors after the death of an immediate relative. One does not have to be a religious Jew or even a Jew to appreciate this ancient wisdom.

Here's where I make something resembling a confession. I'm fairly heavy into current events, not as much as some, but definitely more than most. At the same time, the only reason I know anything about this story is that it is everywhere. I will acknowledge that it is a terrible thing that (relatively) innocent people were murdered for no particularly good reason. Upon that acknowledgment, I think I lose interest in favor of more recent stories that are more indicative of future patterns and events. Does that make me weird?