[WashingtonPost] In the United States, evangelicals are among the biggest supporters of gun rights. They are the major religious group least likely to support stricter laws. Evangelical Larry Pratt, who directs Gun Owners of America, even argues that all Christians should be armed.
For most of my adult life, I agreed. I believed that we had a God-given right to defend ourselves. I also believed that the Second Amendment guarantees a right to bear arms, and that anyone should be able to obtain a gun.
So far, so good...
Then, I saw the after-effects of gun violence firsthand. In Pennsylvania, I visited the families of five murdered Amish schoolgirls, as well as the family of the shooter. And I watched as a mass shooting unfolded at the Washington Navy Yard, across from where I lived at the time. These experiences, followed by careful theological and moral reflection, left me convinced that my family of faith is wrong on guns.
Those incidents did not involve defending one's own with a gun. Those were criminal acts committed by criminals against unarmed or unprepared individuals, not Christians defending themselves and their families with guns. This massively twists Biblical admonitions on dealing with evil through deadly force.
This isn’t easy for me to say. Forty-one years ago, I accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior under the preaching of an evangelical pastor. I attended an evangelical college and seminary, was ordained an evangelical minister, and now chair the Evangelical Church Alliance, one of America’s oldest associations of evangelical clergy. My Christian identity is solidly evangelical.
Credentials.
I read a news report from a woman who said she was pro 2nd Amendment listing all of her qualifications: instructor, etc, and most of them state sanctioned. The woman was, in my view a statist in love with state imposed fees and requirements to obtain those qualifications. Credentials impress me very little.
But I disagree with my community’s wholesale embrace of the idea that anyone should be able to buy a gun. For one thing, our commitment to the sanctity of human life demands that we err on the side of reducing threats to human life. And our belief in the basic sinfulness of humankind should make us skeptical of the NRA’s slogan, “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.” The Bible indicates that we are all bad guys sometimes.
Not all of us seek to shoot people for no reason whatsoever.
Additionally, anyone using a gun for defense must be ready to kill. Such a posture is antithetical to the term “evangelical,” which refers to the “evangel,” or gospel. The gospel begins with God’s love for every human, and calls on Christians to be more Christ-like. At no time did Jesus use deadly force. Although he once allowed his disciples to defend themselves with “a sword,” that permission came with a limitation on the number of weapons they could possess. Numerous Bible passages, such as Exodus 22:2-3, strictly limit the use of deadly force.
The referenced passage makes an absurd restriction of the use of deadly force. The passage refers to killing a thief, when in fact the issue is breaking into a residence, which in some states is cause for use of deadly force.
Unfortunately, too many evangelicals ignore this. Instead, they jump on a secular bandwagon of fear mongering, contempt and bravado to gin up support for gun rights. Evangelical Sen. Ted Cruz, who I’ve prayed with several times, has said, “You don’t get rid of the bad guys by getting rid of our guns. You get rid of the bad guys by using our guns.” Sarah Palin, who I know and once supported, told an annual meeting of NRA members, “Nowadays, ammo is expensive. Don’t waste a bullet on a warning shot.” And Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University (one of the largest evangelical institutions in the world), called on his students to arm themselves in the wake of terrorist shootings. He joked about carrying a gun in his back pocket and made light of killing Muslims. (He later said he meant only Muslim terrorists, but his comments received lots of whoops and applause.)
As well they should have. In the DC enclave, you are extremely likely to ignore the existential threat Islam poses to Liberty in the US, especially if our own politicians, policy makers and journalists are, as I believe they have been, receiving monies from foreign sources to destroy religious and civil liberties, and aid in the imposition of a hostile foreign religion.
To me, turning from Christian to secular sources on a paramount moral question indicates a failure in faith. The words of Cruz, Palin and Falwell seem to contradict those of Jesus Christ, who commands believers to “bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”
Good Biblical sentiment, lousy public policy.
The response to my public comments on this spiritual crisis has, at times, been fiercely negative. Some have accused me of “siding with the enemy” or even aiding those that are annihilating Christians in the Middle East. A former supporter suggested that I’d been “bought” by George Soros, who has never offered me money. I wouldn’t take it if he had. In fact, airing my concern has only cost my organization financial support.
Good.
Despite this criticism, I won’t be silent on this issue. The Christian gospel should quell our fears and remind us of our Christ-like obligation to love all people, even those who intend us harm. This generous view of the world calls us to demonstrate God’s love toward others, regardless of who they are, where they come from or what religion they practice. Assuming a permanently defensive posture against others, especially when it includes a willingness to kill, is inimical to a life of faith.
If my pastor to told me to love and accept a religion or an individual that unabashedly advocates not just my own personal demise and the destruction of the social institutions that preserve and advance religious and civil liberties, but those of people I am sworn to protect, I would have to find another pastor.
The impulse to protect oneself is natural, especially after terrorist attacks. But evangelicals must be careful that the noble language of self-defense is not used to cloak a more insidious lust for revenge. St. Paul wrote to persecuted Christians, “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay.’” We must turn away from our fears, base human instincts and prejudices, and turn toward the example of Jesus in word and deed.
Not revenge. Retribution.
| The Devil can quote Scripture for his own ends, 'tis said. |
|
[NYPOST] Becki Falwell claimed Tuesday that she and the husband she cheated on, evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr., are "more in love than ever" — and insists he never watched her have sex with her much younger lover."We have the strongest relationship, and Jerry is the most forgiving person I’ve ever met," said Becki, 53, who began an extramarital affair with a Miami pool boy around 2012 — trysts that allegedly excited her spying evangelical hubby.
However, since he began to the think about running for President, and once he announced, he has walked mostly with people from the right-of-center, from Senator Jeff Sessions, to 