As the unspeakable evil of mass shootings continue to increase, each of us is trying to understand what could be driving these tragedies. There is no shortage of explanations being bandied about with absolute certainty, from ineffectual gun control laws, mental illness, peer bullying, first-person shooter video games, violence in movies and television shows, and growing personal anger and alienation. Fatherlessness has even been mentioned as a driver. Others strongly deny the linkage and blame guns.

Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, considered the role of family breakdown and fatherlessness in a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Lee said, “Every time one of these tragedies occurs, for too long we have failed to look back at the root causes of rampage violence. Why is our culture all of sudden producing so many young men who want to murder innocent people?” Lee continued, “It raises the question, could fatherlessness, the break-down of the family, isolation from civil society or the glorification of violence be contributing factors?”

The Senator is asking important questions. But others disagree.

A faculty member at the highly conservative Brigham Young University recently opined in the Mormon-owned Deseret News that “as a sociologist of family and fatherhood, I can tell you that the best available evidence suggests that neither is responsible for the increase in these horrific events.”

Two opinion pieces in the gay news outlet The Advocate demonstrate the contradictory, oxymoronic viewpoints presented by LGBT activists.

The first op-ed, “This Pride, the LGBTQ+ Community Is in Crisis,” was written by Joni Madison at the opening of “pride month,” when seemingly all of America is wrapped in the ever-expanding colors of the homosexual and transgender movement.

But no, not for Madison, the interim president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest LGBT activist organization in the U.S., with total 2021 revenue of $71 million.

For her, LGBT-folks are a perpetually victimized class. She writes about “millions of LGBTQ+ people whose rights and lives – right now – are under attack.”

She cites legislation that shields children and teens from being irrevocably damaged by drugs, hormones and surgeries – what she calls “medically necessary care” – and says, “These attacks are horrific.”

Efforts to protect privacy and safety in showers, restrooms and locker rooms mean, for Madison, “Our LGBTQ+ community is in crisis. We are living in a state of emergency.”

She references laws that protect parental rights and keep children from being sexualized and confused in schools.