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To the Editor:
Every day we have people murdered in our American big cities. We have even had 22 murders in Knoxville so far this year. However, Memphis is the most dangerous place to live in Tennessee. Memphis has the eighth-highest murder rate in America so far in 2021. St. Louis, MO had more than double the murder rate of Memphis and is number one in America for murder so far in 2021. Many people are wisely moving to upper East Tennessee where the crime rate is low and taxes are low. A friend of mine just sold his house in Johnson City for $15,000 more than he asked to someone from California. Buyers were fighting over his house. Sadly I have heard of people renting who were kicked out so the owner could sell the property at a high price. It’s wise to move from California which in my opinion is one of the most evil states which will increasingly get God’s judgment. Almost all of California and other western states are now in one of the worst droughts ever, which means they will soon see record wildfires. Upper East Tennessee is blessed to have beautiful lakes and rivers. I am surprised no company is bottling our water.
Instead of focusing on fixing the blame for increasing murder rates on a government leader or the need for more gun control. We should study the causes or reasons to fix the problem. Dennis Prager at www.prageru.com list four reasons for the increase in shootings. Reason one is the decline of religion. Religion provides a needed community. Churchgoers don’t do mass shootings. Reason two is decline in marriage. Marriage matures men. Married men don’t do mass shootings. Reason three is decline of positive male role models. Less fathers raising their children than ever before. Reason four is liberal (left) encourages grievance and victim mentality causing evil. I would add more reasons. Reason five is legal and taxpayer funded abortion has devalued life. Reason six is violent video games and movies have caused a lack of empathy for others and a death culture celebrating violence. Reason seven is America has rejected Jesus and has chosen self-worship and God gave self-worshipers over to a reprobate mind as Romans 1 says. Without Jesus people are filled with selfishness and hopelessness. Sadly a new survey reveals that 43 percent of young American millennials born from 1984 to 2002 say they, “don’t know, care, or believe God exists.”
Pastor Geoffrey Grider at www.nowtheendbegins.com said, “Just as prohibition didn’t stop anyone from drinking alcohol, just as the war on drugs didn’t stop anyone from buying, selling or taking drugs, any and all efforts to ban guns will also likewise fail. All these terrible things in America are not happening because we need new laws, different laws or stronger laws. They are happening because we, as a nation, have rejected the Lawgiver(Jesus) who created us, and His judgment is the result!”

D.D. Nave
Elizabethton