Sunday, April 14, 2013

CHRISTIANS AND GUNS - WEIGHING IN ON THE GUN DEBATE…

As usual, when the sinfulness of mankind rears it ugly head that results in a “national” tragedy, the left leaning politicians, pundits and news media jump at the opportunity to push their agenda in the name of trying to prevent more evil and tragedy.  They always attack the symptoms or the actions but never address the real cause.  They always want to throw money and meaningless laws at the problems but want to ignore the issues that help to create the problems.  Guns, they say, are the problem and the solution is less freedom and more government control.  Never do they acknowledge the problem of human sinfulness or the loss of respect for human life and accountability to God perpetuated by a denial of any divine authority and the demeaning of human life through the promotion of humanism, evolution, a-morality and abortion, or the violence perpetuated by the sub-culture of rappers, rockers, video games, movies, etc.  They fight to promote all these things while pretending to try to solve the problems that these things promote and perpetuate.

If the truth be told, the ultimate goal and hidden agenda of the left is not to solve society’s problems but to use them as a means to create class warfare, overthrow a society built on traditional Judeo-Christian values and usher in a brave new world of Marxist-socialism based on the worship of man and science.  They are haters of the idea of any ultimate authority or accountability above man.

BUT NEITHER DO I AGREE WITH THE CONSERVATIVE RIGHT.   While I would not want to be associated or identified with the likes of the Obamas, Clintons, Polosis, Feinsteins, Shumers, Michael Moores, Al Gores or Jesse Jacksons (to mention a few), neither do I identify with those who are on a campaign to promote guns and arm everyone for self-defense against the government.  I am especially perplexed that so many of these are Christians.  

The idea that I should arm myself to fight against the government because the government threatens to limit my freedoms or to persecute me is contrary to the Gospel teachings of Christ and the examples of millions of saints and martyrs through the ages.  It’s as though professing Christians ignore the clear teachings of Christ and the examples of the saints of Christ.   What did the Saviour do when the government infringed on his freedom and persecuted him and led him to execution?  When he was falsely accused and unjustly treated he opened not his mouth.  He turned the other check.  He humbled himself and endured all things.  When St. Peter drew his sword to defend him from the government, he rebuked Peter reminding him that his kingdom is not of this world.  Christ taught his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount to turn the other cheek, resist not evil and if someone takes your coat let him have your cloak also.   St. Paul tells us that we should cultivate the mind of Christ who when he was reviled, reviled not again.” Are these words of Holy Scripture no longer relevant for Christians?  How can we follow Christ while doing the opposite of his teachings?  Did not his apostles follow in his footsteps?  Which one of them took up arms against a cruel and unjust government?  They did not resist.  They did not expect good from the godless. They submitted to torture, imprisonment and death.  What did the countless martyrs do?  Take up arms?  No, they followed the example of their master clearly understanding this world was not their home or their place of true citizenship.  They did not trust in princes or governments or hope in human justice or worldly kingdoms.  Their hope and trust was in the Kingdom of God - the peace, righteousness and mercy of Christ in his Church, and the Kingdom of Heaven to come that would overthrow all the kingdoms of this world.   They knew that this present world is under the control of the god of this world and no friend of God.  They knew that all the kingdoms of this world are judgment bound and not a place for Christians to find hope or place their devotions. Why has all of this been forgotten or ignored?  Could it be that America’s founding spirit of rebellion and the false notion of manifest destiny ultimately gave birth to the same deceptions in American Protestantism and Evangelicalism that now refuses to believe that the America once known is no more, or that with guns it can be created again?  Or perhaps it simply reflects the disconnect from the Church and the loss of communion with the saints that no longer honors, commemorates or reads the lives of the saints and martyrs.

And by the way, has everyone forgotten what happened to the people who had guns to defend themselves against the government at Waco?