Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association issued the following statement following Monday’s mass shooting at Virginia Tech:

Graham said: “My heart is heavy with the tragic news of the deadliest school shooting incident in American history and our prayers are with the dozens of victims and their families during this horrible time. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) has offered the resources of our Rapid Response Team, which sends chaplains trained in crisis counseling, to assist the Blacksburg community in the days ahead as we have done in many situations since 9/11 in New York City.

"Sadly, we have once again been reminded of the evil that people can perpetrate on others; and while many theories will surface in the coming days and weeks about how such a terrible act occurs, I believe what we’ve seen here is ultimately a reflection of the condition of the human heart."

Graham added: "Having traveled to disaster and war areas around the world, I am often asked why God would allow such acts of destruction or violence upon innocent people; and while I can’t know the whole mind of God I do know two things. First, God created us. Second, God loves us and desires that all would come to Him.

"My prayer in this time of tragedy is that it will pull us together as a nation and focus our attention on those families who have suffered great loss and turn our eyes to the Prince of all peace, Jesus Christ."

The BGEA has deployed more than 700 trained chaplains to the Gulf Coast region since August 2005 to assist with post-Katrina counseling and sent chaplains to the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota following a fatal high school shooting in 2005, among other crisis response efforts.

Before Monday, the deadliest school shootings came in 1966 and 1999.

In the former, Charles Joseph Whitman, a 25-year-old ex-Marine, killed 13 people on the University of Texas campus. He was killed by police.

In 1999, 17-year-old Dylan Klebold and 18-year-old Eric Harris -- armed with guns and pipe bombs -- killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.

© 2007 ASSIST News Service, used with permission

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