Packing In The Pews: The Connection Between God And Guns
BY Herschel Smith
7 years ago
“I think gun control proponents are misguided in trying to persuade others of their position in the way they usually go about it,” said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, in The Washington Post.
“There are not two sides here about whether shootings should be stopped, laws enforced, and criminality punished, but rather two sides about whether gun control is a prudent way to carry out those common goals.”
Earlier research by PRRI showed that evangelicals were the only religious group “in which a plurality (40%) say that putting more emphasis on God and morality in school and society is the most important thing that could be done to prevent future mass shootings.”
Evangelical leaders have stronger feelings about addressing gun violence through legislation, according to a survey released by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in August. Most denominational heads and ministry presidents surveyed own a firearm themselves, but 55 percent agreed gun laws should be stricter.
“Evangelical leaders have nuanced views on guns,” said NAE president Leith Anderson. “They accept the Second Amendment, but also deeply grieve when weapons are used to take innocent lives.”
Moore told Religion News Service (RNS):
I don’t think that any gun control measure that I’ve seen would be effective in addressing these issues.
I hold to conservative views on the Second Amendment, but I don’t hold to my views here in the way that I would something clearly revealed in Scriptures. I certainly don’t hold to those things the way that I would the fundamentals of Christian doctrine and ethics, which is why I have very close co-laborers in Christ who are proponents of gun control. They haven’t persuaded me of that, but I don’t see them as being on another “side.” We both are looking toward the same goal.
No, No, NO, NO and a thousand times NO!! We are NOT working towards the same goal and we are not on the same side.
One side wants to enable people to perform their God-given duty of self defense and defense of loved ones, neighbors and family, and the other side wants to turn to the state, the usurper of God’s providence, for cradle-to-grave protection and security.
I saw the ridiculous statement from the NAE (National Association of Evangelicals), which is anything but evangelical, when it first came out, and I thought it was so stupid that I didn’t bother with it.
And yet for some reason I simply don’t understand, they apparently think they represent evangelicals in America and get press accordingly. From nuclear weapons disassembly to being pro-immigration and pro-redistribution of wealth, and being anti-gun, the NAE is a shill organization, worthless in every way, a mouthpiece for collectivist thinking draped in clerical accoutrements. With the world collapsing around them, the best they can come up with is to have a “racial reconciliation Sunday.”
Ignore them. And carry a gun at all times.
On December 1, 2017 at 10:13 am, Fred said:
These people deny the plain meaning of scripture and deny His natural law, they deny God. They are agents of The State, specifically the IRS, under the 501(c)3 IRC.
Judgment starts in the house of God. 60 million dead babies and counting…tic toc…tic toc…
On December 1, 2017 at 3:00 pm, Pat Hines said:
I view my duty as God demanded, not given. The Scriptures are clear on that.
I’ve spoken with my Greek Orthodox priest about “Blessing the weapons” prior to any exercise, training or other reasons, he fully supports that activity. My priest has two sons, one is a cop in Greenville, the other is a Navy SEAL. He has no problem with guns.
On the other hand, Russell Moore is a well known heretic who spouts blasphemy on an almost daily basis.
Russell Moore is a symptom of why I left SBC and converted to Orthodoxy, which has existed since 33AD.
On December 1, 2017 at 10:11 pm, TheAlaskan said:
“Ignore them. And carry a gun at all times.”
I carry a gun, because a Cop is too heavy.
On December 2, 2017 at 8:57 am, Carl B. said:
No one pays any attention any more to the Southern Baptist Convention. Especially Southern Baptists.
On December 2, 2017 at 1:22 pm, Ed said:
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QXtEgNfoarY/WiIk9ax-3rI/AAAAAAACtpY/wVILPonzfG8MJd2NGoq9e8T8YSF3oYiVwCLcBGAs/s640/christmas_2017__marian_kamensky.jpeg
a relevant cartoon
On December 3, 2017 at 8:41 am, MamaLiberty said:
In all of this, remember that the desire/compulsion to control the lives and property of others is the ROOT of all evil.
Think about it.
On December 4, 2017 at 11:30 am, Herschel Smith said:
@Pat,
You’ve used that word before here (heretic) and I do not think you understand what it means. I have a few suggestions for you. You can take them or leave them.
It would make this a much too complicated post to include a full analysis of Roman Catholicism, so I’ll leave that out for the time being. Perhaps I will go back later and include something on RC, although it would be out of character for this web site to go into such detail on something theological.
I’ll also leave out consideration of Jehovah’s Witness and LDS, although I could roll back around and include something on them later. I’ll briefly state that since they have a wrong view of God (they both reject the doctrine of the trinity and deity of Christ) their soteriology is also wrong. I don’t consider them Christian, so technically they would not be included in this discussion.
As to your own Eastern church, I know all about how they developed, their following the Alexandrian school, the slightly to moderately different view of the trinity they have, and how that affects everything else. It would make this conversation FAR too complicated to include an analysis of your own faith.
As to the word “heretic,” you really must learn not to use hyperbole and exaggeration to make your points. I might lament the evolution of the Baptists away from the Philadelphia Confession (that was more Calvinistic except for the sacraments), towards Free Will Armenianism, but it is what it is. That doesn’t make them heretics.
I don’t know anything about Russell Moore and really don’t follow the SBC, but historically and to be technically accurate, for someone to be a heretic, s/he must reject sound, orthodox, historically accepted principles of theology, like the deity of Christ, the historicity of miracles, the inerrancy of the Scriptures, the trinity, and the vicarious atonement. To the best of my knowledge, the SBC has rejected none of those doctrines.
You must accept the councils of the church, such as Nicea, Chalcedon, and Orange. I go further and fully accept what I believe to be the pinnacle of theology, the Westminster Confession of Faith. But if my SBC brethren or my Church of God brethren or so on and so forth, do not follow me to the WCF, that doesn’t make them heretics.
You don’t get to pronounce someone who doesn’t accept ALL of your articles of faith a heretic, or pronounce someone who isn’t Eastern like you, a heretic because s/he isn’t part of your specific brand of faith. That’s too easy and it doesn’t work that way. I reject such labels from you just as I reject the RC calling me a heretic because I’m a Calvinist. And BTW, I couldn’t care less what the RCC says anyway.
Now, it may be that you aren’t using hyperbole and exaggerating and you think that everyone who isn’t Eastern is a heretic. That’s your prerogative, but it’s both wrong and ahistorical. And intellectually immature. That’s not how the phrase or idea has been used down through Christendom, except by the RCC, which I consider to be … okay, well, I’ll stop there since I wasn’t going to roll in anything else to the conversation.