Jen Wilkin Who is Affiliated with The Village Church and Who Once Claimed that She Has Hurt People Just as the Sandy Hook Shooter is Scheduled to Speak at McLean Bible

Jen Wilkins is scheduled to speak at McLean Bible on February 8, 2020. Jen, who is a part of The Village Church in Dallas, Texas is active in publishing and speaking in the Neo-Calvinist movement. After the Sandyhook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012 Jen Wilkin wrote a troubling article at The Gospel Coalition in regards to the mass shooting. In that post Jen writes about how she has hurt people just like Adam Lanza and that while he is dead, she lives to harm other people again. 

“It is by suffering that human beings become angels.”

Victor Hugo 

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

Galatians 5:16 NLT

Sandyhook shooter Adam Lanza

December 14, 2012 was a dark day in American history. On that day one of the most horrific school shootings took place. At an elementary school at Newtown, Connecticut Adam Lanza engaged on a murderous rampage. The morning started out with Adam killing his mother at home in bed as she slept. Then he headed off to Sandyhook to participate in a most troubling school shooting. After 9:30 a.m. the mentally disturbed 20 year old shot through a plate-glass window to break into the school.  Hearing the noise the school principal and school psychologist went to investigate the they were killed by Lanza. Lanza according to my research carried multiple weapons but killed mostly with an AR-15. After shooting two more school employees he went into the first-grade classrooms and shot two teachers and 15 students in one room and five in the other. In the end 12 girls and 8 boys of the ages of 6 and 7 were murdered in cold blood. Twelve first grades ended up surviving. As police were closing in around 9:40 Adam went into another classroom and committed suicide. 

The scene of the shooting was horrific and as the day unfolded and more Americans learned the news many were filled with shock. Mothers and fathers of Newtown gathered in a firehouse waiting and desperate to find out the if their children survived. As the media broke the news as it was learned later on President Obama spoke about the tragedy and was moved to tears. While all this played out Jen Wilkin who is affiliated with Matt Chandler’s The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas sat down and composed what I would consider to be a disturbing post at The Gospel Coalition. 

 

Who is Jen Wilkin? 

In the Neo-Calvinist world, Jen Wilkin is well known for writing to women about faith related issues. Jenn calls The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas her home. She has taught there and also in parachurch ministries. The mother of four is a regular writer at The Gospel Coalition and she had published a number of books and Bible studies for women through Crossway. Some of the books she has published include, “Women of the Word: How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds” , “Better – Bible Study Book: A Study of Hebrews“, “In His Image: 10 Ways God Calls Us to Reflect His Character” , “1 Peter: A Living Hope in Christ – Bible Study Book (Gospel Coalition)” , “None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different from Us (and Why That’s a Good Thing)” , “God of Covenant – Bible Study Book: A Study of Genesis 12-50” , “God of Creation – Bible Study Book: A Study of Genesis 1-11” , “The Sermon on the Mount – Bible Study Book”  and “Women of the Word (Foreword by Matt Chandler): How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds.” Jen is active on Twitter. 

 

“A Day for Hatred” at The Gospel Coalition 

As America reacted to the news out of Connecticut, Jen Wilkin wrote a post at The Gospel Coalition that was troubling. The post starts out well as Jen describes the shooting.

“As I write this article, the death count stands at 20 children. Twenty. Twenty babies who got on a bus or walked out a door or stepped out of a car at the drop-off curb and are never coming home. Father in heaven, their lunchboxes still hold uneaten sandwiches, unread love notes scrawled on napkins.

For 20 families, the worst fear a parent can know was waiting at the other end of a phone line today. Eleven days before Christmas, no less. Those children and teachers who survived will carry in their heads sights and sounds that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.And what comfort is there to offer them? What words are there to speak? A parent takes every measure possible to protect a child, though we know full well the world is not safe. But this?

There is no spin to put on a story like this. Yes, we will hear stories of heroism begin to emerge over the next hours, and they are stories we will need to hear. But there is no way to soften the blow. Nor should we want to.

As a mother watching someone else’s horror play out on a screen, I want to feel this to the core of my being. I want it to inform my thoughts and actions in a way that leaves me changed. Because on days like today we learn just how broken sin has left us, just how bleak is our landscape without a Savior.”

Jen then continues and writes about how Christians should be filled with rage. Christians should hate sin. She continues with, 

“Days like today give us no choice but to hate. They leave us only with a choice of where that hatred will land: Will we hate God, or will we hate sin?”

Then she continues to talk about how Christians should hate sin. And then toward the bottom of the paragraph she says something that is most troubling. Note as to how I have it underlined and in red. 

“I choose to hate sin. On days like today I will reflect again on the ravaging effects of rebellion against God, multiplied across millennia, manifested in a freshly printed headline. The more shocking the headline, the more I must come to grips with my minimized reckoning of the severity of sin. With Nehemiah I will cry out, “I and my fathers have sinned,” freshly grieved over the sins of others—-yes—-but freshly grieved over my own sin as well. I have not pulled a trigger, but I have harmed my share of victims. The killer lies dead, but I live on to harm again. On days like today I will renew my resolve not to participate in tearing down what God pronounced good at the dawn of human existence.”

Wilkin then finishes out the post in one more paragraph. I would encourage you to read it in, “A Day for Hatred.” 

 

Analysis and if Jen Wilkin is Capable of Hurting People Like Adam Lanza? Then Jen Wilkins Should Surrender to the Dallas Police 

Here is the problem with Jen’s post. You had a situation in which a mentally ill gunman broke into an elementary school and gunned down and murdered 20 children and six adults. Events like that are horrific and deeply troubling. Yet Jen Wilkin states in her post at The Gospel Coalition that while she has not pulled the trigger she has hurt her share of victims and that she lives to harm again. This blog would like to ask Jen a question. Has she hurt people in a like-minded manner? Is Jen Wilkin capable of a mass shooting? Or is she capable of something worse? Why would someone like Jen draw parallels between herself and the mass shooter of an elementary school? Honestly who does that? Jen’s post does a good job at showing how Neo-Calvinist theology normalizes and levels sin. Regardless as to what the issue is in the end its all the same. After all in this case killing 26 people can be just as sinful as shoplifting candy from a 7-11. This is one of the flaws of Neo-Calvinist theology and why I could not be reformed in my thinking. As I wind this post down let me make a plea to Jen Wilkin. If your sin is as capable as Adam Lanza then the responsible thing to do is to surrender to the Dallas Police Department. Make sure you turn yourself in so that we can prevent another mass shooting. 

 

Jen Wilkin is Speaking at McLean Bible on February 8, 2020

Jen Wilkin is scheduled to speak at McLean Bible at Tysons at February 8, 2020. She is the keynote speaker of the Word Filled Women event. This event lasts all day and will cost you $25.00. While there are a number of issues that could have been written about this older article at The Gospel Coalition is one that I wanted to explore.