In the wake of the shooting, Representative Andrew Ogles (R-TN), who represents Nashville thanks to redistricting by the Republican legislature that cut up a Democratic district, said he was “utterly heartbroken” by the shooting and offered “thoughts and prayers to the families of those lost.”
In 2021, Ogles, his wife, and two of his three children held guns as they posed for a Christmas card with a caption that read: “The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference—they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.”
(I checked out the accuracy of Richardson’s report as best I could, and believe she has it right. Strangely, the caption is sometimes attributed to George Washington, but likely erroneously.)
Christian friends: if you attend a church that believes that “firearms…deserve a place of honor with all that’s good” you need to find a new church.
If your church’s minister preaches that “firearms…deserve a place of honor with all that’s good” your church needs a new preacher.
If you think Jesus would agree that “firearms…deserve a place of honor with all that’s good” you need to read the gospels.
And if you cannot imagine a Jesus who wouldn’t honor guns, you need a new savior.
(BTW, even if it was George Washington who said that, it is just plain wrong.)
The Constitution itself holds a "place of honor" for firearms; namely, the Second Amendment (second only to the fundamental freedoms worth fighting for: Speech, religion, press, assembly, and redress). The police who responded to the emergency in Tennessee used their firearms to stop the killer. As for what Jesus would have said or done about armaments, look no further than his actions in the Temple with the money-changers and those who sold indulgences. See, e.g., John 15 ("Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple. . . ."). See also St. Augustine's The City of God (Just War theory). See generally, John Paul II in addressing a group of soldiers: ". . . [T]he Christian is aware that on earth a human society that is completely and always peaceful is, unfortunately, an utopia and that the ideologies which present it as easily attainable only nourish vain hopes. The cause of peace will not go forward by denying the possibility and the obligation to defend it."
ReplyDeleteThank you for responding. However, I do not think any of your comments is remotely related to the issue at hand: the ease with which private citizens can obtain and use weapons whose main purpose is to kill masses of other people.
DeleteMore to my point is the bogus moral/ethical/religious reasons people give to justify easy access to guns. For example, there is hardly any equivalency--moral and otherwise--between Jesus turning over the money changers' tables and the cold-blooded murder of human beings.
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