This week a 15-year old Florida teenager was doused in alcohol and set on fire by five other boys. Here's part of the story about this atrocious crime that appeared in this week's L.A. Times:
The teenage squabble involved a video game and a bicycle. It blossomed into revenge during a chance encounter and ended in the near-fatal torching of a 15-year-old boy, the Broward County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday.
Some of the teens charged in the attack laughed when investigators confronted them, the sheriff's office said.
Four 15-year-old boys and one 13-year-old accosted Michael Brewer of Deerfield Beach, Fla., accusing him of being a snitch for calling the cops on their leader, whom the sheriff's office identified as the local bully.
Brewer tried to leave, but the gang doused him with alcohol and set him on fire, authorities said. Flames burned 80% of his body, especially his torso and arms, and seared off much of his hair, including his eyebrows, family members said.
According to investigators, Matthew Bent, 15, whom they identified as the organizer of the attack, shouted, "Pour it on him!" as other splashed the victim with alcohol.
Brewer tore off his shirt and jumped into an apartment complex pool. He later was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital's burn center, where he is listed in critical condition with mostly second-degree burns, officials said.
"This is just an incredibly cruel thing, that anybody could have possibly done this to another human being," said Dr. Nicholas Namias, director of the University of Miami-Jackson Memorial Burn Center.
One thing is clear for those of us who follow Christ and believe the Bible is a lamp and guide for our journey here on earth. As despicable as this crime is it can be reduced to one thing: humans are depraved and sin-filled. Lurking within each of us is the capacity for such evil. Humanity is addicted to sin. Only the grace of God can keep us from similar acts of evil. Only the grace of God can change a soul that's so filled with hate for self and others that it would perpetrate such tragedy. The Apostle Paul put it this way in Romans 8 (bold emphasis mine):
1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Stories like this provokes righteous anger. It makes me wonder and ask questions like:
"What happened to these boys?"
"What church or Christ-follower missed an opportunity to minister to them?"
"Did we fail to demonstrate and show the love and peace of Christ?"
"What if....."
It becomes incredibly apparent to me that we (Christ-followers and the church) must be more vigilant than ever in sharing the hope of Christ with the world. You can't police the heart. Jesus Christ is indeed the only hope for a world where kids burn another child. I pray justice will do her work in this case, but I also pray these boys will know the hope of Christ so He can salvage and transform their hearts. If he could do that for me, he can do that for anyone!
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