One of the most important and helpful statements made in the aftermath of the recent horrific mass shootings came by way of the Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal.

The article is entitled, “The Killers in Our Midst.” The shootings, they write: “are horrifying assaults on peaceful communities by disturbed young men. American politics will try to simplify these events into a debate about guns or political rhetoric, but the common theme of these killings is the social alienation of young men that will be harder to address.”

They point to the fact that this is not a new reality, it is not a reality now that spans several presidential administrations, including presidents of both parties. The motivations of the killers, they observe, are “often too convoluted to sort into any clear ideology.”

So what we’re facing is a cultural crisis, a spiritual crisis, and it begins, as we know, in the human heart.