Free No More Bullies by Frank Peretti Page B

all theirs, and all the kids lived and behaved according to what felt right to them.
    When the first real fight broke out and Tracy Sorenson beat the living tar out of Stevie Boland, the kids watched and debated what may have caused such a fight, but none of them could say it was anybody’s fault. Nor did anyone say that it was wrong.
    Since nothing was wrong or anybody’s fault, every kid soon felt entitled to have or do anything, by any means. Since there were no rules and reasoning was inconvenient, the kids resorted to hitting, shoving, fighting, spitting, and chasing. The jump ropes, balls, bats, and other playground equipment became plunder to be captured, always going to the strongest kid or the biggest gang. Sharing came only with a price, and as for taking turns, the next turn always went to the toughest kid.
    The playground fell into chaos. The big rubber balls didn’t go boing, boing, boing anymore, and there were no more baseball games—no one wanted to play by the rules, and most denied there were any rules at all, so no one played.
    A few, unwritten rules did crop up eventually, dictated by the toughest, meanest, strongest kids and very easy to demonstrate: Might Makes Right. Survival of the Fittest. Natural Selection.
    Jordan Smith liked those rules because he was tough.
    Unfortunately for Jordan, Tracy Sorenson was tougher. He beat the living tar out of Jordan Smith and established his reputation as the toughest, meanest, strongest kid on the playground.
    Now it was forbidden to speak of the old authority the children had once known, and the memory of Mrs. Kravitz quickly faded. The playground rules were gone, not only from the old wooden sign, but also from the minds and hearts of the children.
    Tracy’s will was now law. He controlled all the bats, balls, and jump ropes, and he decided who could play with them and when. He had a gang of tough boys and girls around him who enforced his will upon all the others through sheer brutality. There were no rules except his.
    There was no longer any fun either.
    The playground parable illustrates a familiar, historical pattern that is really no more complicated than the downward spiral we just traced on the playground. When we consider Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, or the killing fields of Cambodia under Pol Pot, we see clear examples of what happens when man cuts away his moorings in God. At first, he thinks he is free, but then he realizes he is actually adrift, without a moral compass, in dangerous waters, where only the big fish win.
    And the big fish can be horrendously mean to all the little fish when they have no absolute authority to whom they are accountable.
    The Scripture records numerous times in the history of God’s people when the majority of the population rejected God’s revealed Word to them, and hence, God’s authority. In describing one such period, one of the saddest, most poignant refrains in the Bible states flatly, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 21:25 NASB). While at first glance that seems to imply that the Hebrew people enjoyed enormous freedom and autonomy, the exact opposite was true. The Book of Judges records a time of rampant immorality and chaos, with horrendous crimes against humanity. Predictably, the people fell into bondage to one tyrant after another, and God had to raise up a series of judges to deliver them.
    In America, we haven’t fallen under the heel of a ruthless dictator—at least, not yet. But we might ask ourselves: What point in the playground parable describes where we are today as a society? Here’s a sobering hint, excerpted from the Eric Harris autopsy report:
    HISTORY: This is the case of an 18-year-old, white male who was the alleged victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head that occurred in the Columbine High School library on 04/20/99. No other history is available at the