Topics:<\/b> Advice; Conscience; Consequences; Courage; Decisions; Friendship; Guilt; Heroes; Integrity; Outreach; Responsibility; Truth; Violence; Witnessing<\/p>\n
References:<\/b> Isaiah 59:1\u20134; Acts 24:16; James 4:17; 1 Peter 3:13\u201317<\/p>\n
In September 2006, Matt Atkinson\u2019s three friends told him they were plotting a Columbine-style attack on their school. They would ignite bombs near bathrooms, set fire to exits, then shoot any of the fifteen hundred students and staff they didn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n
Atkinson was torn. Though his friends\u2019 threats sounded serious, he wasn\u2019t certain they were genuine. Could he risk getting his friends into major trouble over what might turn out to be a joke? That night he talked to his mother.<\/p>\n
The following morning\u2014one day before his friends had scheduled their attack\u2014Atkinson followed his mother\u2019s advice and talked to the school\u2019s assistant principal. Law enforcement officials immediately intervened. After taking the three would-be attackers into custody, police searched their homes. They found shocking confirmation of the intended assault: suicide notes, a large cache of weapons, ammunition, camouflage clothing, helmets, and gas masks.<\/p>\n
When news of the foiled attack became public, Atkinson was lauded as a hero. \u201cDo the right thing,\u201d he said, downplaying the incident. \u201cThat\u2019s all I can say: do the right thing. There\u2019s no harm in telling somebody about it. I didn\u2019t do it for fame. I had fear for the life of my fellow students and staff at East High School.\u201d<\/p>\n
Atkinson did the right thing because he had a proper view of the consequences of his inaction\u2014not just for his fellow students, but also for the attackers and himself. \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t true,\u201d he said, \u201cat least they\u2019d get the help they needed. If I didn\u2019t go, and they were serious, I couldn\u2019t live with that on my conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Hugh Poland, \u201cCourageous Student Prevents School Shooting,\u201d PreachingToday.com; source: \u201cStudent Talks of Breaking Up Bomb Plot,\u201d MSNBC.com (September 21, 2006)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Topics: Advice; Conscience; Consequences; Courage; Decisions; Friendship; Guilt; Heroes; Integrity; Outreach; Responsibility; Truth; Violence; Witnessing References: Isaiah 59:1\u20134; Acts 24:16; James 4:17; 1 Peter 3:13\u201317 In September 2006, Matt Atkinson\u2019s three friends told him they were plotting a Columbine-style attack on their school. They would ignite bombs near bathrooms, set fire to exits, then shoot … Continue reading “DOING
\n THE RIGHT THING”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}