Is God’s Narcissism Responsible For Mass Shootings?
His blessings and curses on the ancient Israelites suggest some psychological issues. And he’s a terrible model of behavior for His followers.
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Do the perpetrators of mass shootings have some kind of God complex? I’m starting to wonder.
As I write this, it is two days after yet another mass shooting in the United States. This one was at Michigan State University, so it was close to my heart as I live in Michigan. At this moment, there have been 63 mass shootings in the United States this year. But the number always increases weekly. By the time you read this, there might have been several more.
On Monday, February 13, 2023, a 42-year-old man walked onto the Michigan State University campus and started shooting in Berkey Hall. He shot a few students and then went on to another building called the Union, where students gather to socialize, and shot a few more. He left the campus and was traced to another location. When police confronted him, he killed himself with the gun he had used on the innocent students. So far, no one knows the motive for his horrific crime and senseless suicide.
Three of the students he shot are dead. Five more are in critical condition at the local hospital.
Is it insanity or narcissism? Or both?
The man was known to New Jersey police and reportedly suffered from severe mental health issues. But I always wonder if these mass shooters, even if they are insane, are also narcissists. After all, not all people with psychotic personality disorders commit murders. Even fewer of them commit mass murders.
I was discussing this recent massacre with a friend from my synagogue, and he asked rhetorically, “Why don’t these angry people just commit suicide and call it a day? Why do they need to take their problems out on others?”
Naturally, I had no answer to his question. We were both attending a healing service at a local synagogue in our town to help people deal with the carnage that just happened in our state.
