God, Guns, Guts, Glory: Part 2...."GUNS"
With that in mind, would it be safe to put it out there the NRA is pretty much a lightning rod on the issues of gun violence and gun safety today? Kind of hit you between the eyes with that one, didn't I?
Their leadership have collectively taken a pretty consistent stand on the issue of guns every single time following high profile incidents beginning with Columbine and so many others following. In fact, I'm going to say right here and right now, too many.....WAY too many!
What does that have to do with Christian God, you ask? Let's take a look at some of the more famous, or should I say "infamous", things the NRA has espoused:
"The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun".
"Guns don't kill people - people kill people".
"An armed society is a polite society".
"Criminals don't obey laws anyway".
"Guns are only tools".
"I don't expect a fire, but I have a fire extinguisher".
"Responsible gun owners shouldn't be penalized".
"Law abiding gun owners shouldn't be penalized".
Oh, yeah, and one more very important one, at least in the context of this blog post:
"Owning guns is my God given right".
Seriously that is, in fact, a really, really important one. Why? Because guns didn't come into being until well after the Bible was even written.
So, the logical question would be if Christian-Muslim-Jewish God granted the right of anyone to own guns, where is that right actually written down by Christian-Muslim-Jewish God? Even if it's his word written by man? Where? The Bible, the Quran, or the Torah? Where? Where does Christian-Muslim-Jewish God say anything, anything at all, just one little tidbit will do, about him granting a right to anyone anywhere to own a gun? I'll just leave it at that for now.
So, because in the view of the NRA leadership it's a God given right to own guns, that pretty much translates into more guns. Guns everywhere. That's the answer. Schools. Shopping malls. Churches. On the streets. Restaurants. Bars. Anywhere and everywhere! Yep! More guns is the answer.
Did I say churches? Why, yes.....yes, I did!
So, the logical question would be if Christian-Muslim-Jewish God granted the right of anyone to own guns, where is that right actually written down by Christian-Muslim-Jewish God? Even if it's his word written by man? Where? The Bible, the Quran, or the Torah? Where? Where does Christian-Muslim-Jewish God say anything, anything at all, just one little tidbit will do, about him granting a right to anyone anywhere to own a gun? I'll just leave it at that for now.
So, because in the view of the NRA leadership it's a God given right to own guns, that pretty much translates into more guns. Guns everywhere. That's the answer. Schools. Shopping malls. Churches. On the streets. Restaurants. Bars. Anywhere and everywhere! Yep! More guns is the answer.
Did I say churches? Why, yes.....yes, I did!
You name it, guns are the answer. Push that fear and paranoia! More guns!
Getting off track here a little bit.
Back to the NRA.
One of the more iconic images I've seen is the one of Charleton Heston:
Oops. That's two images - one with a staff held high and the other with a musket held even higher. Both arguably weapons when used in the context in which they are presented, both in the movie "The Ten Commandments" and in the NRA convention Mr. Heston took part in.
Under Christian-Muslim-Jewish God, Moses was able to part the Red Sea allowing his people to pass safely and then closing it upon the advancing Egyptian Army causing the death of everyone, arguably thousands, by merely waving his magic staff which had been empowered by, you guessed it, Christian-Muslim-Jewish God. So, it wasn't really Moses who generated the power. It was Christian-Muslim-Jewish GOD!
Staffs, no matter how one wants to look at it, don't kill people. People with staffs kill people, people with staffs (Moses) powered by almighty Christian-Muslim-Jewish God.
Seems a little odd to me, though, because an omnipotent Christian-Muslim-Jewish God should maybe take at least some of the blame for this needless loss of life because he was the one who hardened Pharaoh's heart against those fleeing Israelites in the first place.
If he hadn't done that, the Egyptian Army wouldn't have been ordered into the Red Sea bottom by hardened heart Pharaoh to chase those fleeing Israelites and prevent them from escaping, now would they?
Just imagine. If Christian-Muslim-Jewish God had just NOT hardened Pharaoh's heart, the entire Egyptian Army would have stayed back, watched those pesky Israelites make their way to the opposite shore, the Red Sea would have closed back in, and everything would have been good. No loss of life. No mass execution. All things copacetic, right? What was Christian-Muslim-Jewish God thinking?
So, who's to blame here for Egyptian loss of life? Moses or Christian-Muslim-Jewish God?
But, I digress.
The year after the massacre at Columbine High School, Mr. Heston's words at the national NRA convention in May, 2000 in North Carolina, would ring out loud and very clear (sort of like his words to Pharaoh in the movie - "LET MY PEOPLE GO!"), and would pretty much become etched in our collective psyches for all time:
Mr. Heston apparently felt the need to use that same statement at every ensuing NRA convention until he retired in 2003. For some reason, it seemed to resonate with him, although I'm not aware of anyone actually coming to try to get his gun/guns during that time, or, for that matter, to try to kill him or to even try to take him up on his challenge, his dare.
In fact, when Mr. Heston passed away in 2008, was anyone there to actually pry that musket from his cold dead hands? Did he even try to take it with him? Wait. Was that a little too insensitive?
Personally, I don't think so. In fact, his words have inspired others to follow his "cold dead hands" mantra. I kind of have to be honest here - the cold dead hands thingy didn't even originate with Mr. Heston. No, it apparently originated with a group called "Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms". It really doesn't matter though. What matters is that the slogan became popular. It became etched into our daily lives. It was perpetuated by Moses (Heston in disguise).
From Moses to NRA President, Mr. Heston seemed to choose those kind of heroic roles, or they were chosen for him (NRA President, specifically) in which people could look to him and think oh my, what a great man! Kind of like a Christian juggernaut so to speak, even though Moses was anything but a 'Christian'.
And therein lies the gist of the point I'm trying to make about God and guns. There really does seem to be a connection between the two in today's American Christian Evangelical and more extremist sects of the Christian faith than many are willing to admit, either to themselves or publicly.
We talk about religious denominations all the time within the Christian faith. We also talk about sects breaking off from some of those denominations, but not nearly enough.
Why is it that so many who profess themselves to be Christians look with some amount of disdain at sects? Why is it that some who profess to be Christians look with some amount of disdain at members of other denominations for that matter? What actually separates denominations from sects within the Christian faith?
Muslim God recognizes sects. Jewish God recognizes sects. Neither talks about denominations - just sects. Can those sects be compared to so-called Christian sects such as Westboro Baptist Church as just one example? Does that even compute? What about the KKK? They profess to be a Christian organization. Both have been identified as hate groups. But to hear them tell it, they're God's children, just like everyone else. Yup. Uh huh. I'm buyin' it. I'd also go so far as to state there would be some pretty upset Muslim and Jewish folks if they knew they were being compared to those two groups, for sure.
And therein lies the conundrum. Christians look at American sects, A.K.A. hate groups like WBC and KKK, with utter contempt. When they do that, and they hear the word sect being representative of different groups within the Muslim and Jewish faiths, might it be possible they place "guilt by association" on the sects of Muslim God and Jewish God simply because of, well, sects = hate groups.
What that boils down to, as stated in my previous blog post (God, Guns, Guts, Glory: Part 1....."GOD"), is a failure to communicate what all of this really means. It's a logical fallacy. Christian sects = bad. Muslim and Jewish sects, therefore = bad. Not too hard to understand that connection, and, yet, it's actually a disconnect because the sects of Muslim God do not actually include ISIL or ISIS (whatever the Hell you want to call them), Al Qaeda, or the Taliban. Sects of Jewish God are even harder to pin down. The only radical sect I could find apparently doesn't even have a name, and at least in 2011 Israelites were pretty unified in denouncing them - publicly, no less.
So, the question must then be asked why are all the other sects of Muslim God and Jewish God so extremist in the eyes of mainstream Christian God's followers?
Could it be, could it possibly be because they're different from us?
Going back in time a ways for this next segment......
Quotes made by our Founding Fathers have been used and abused by both sides in our ongoing pro and anti gun advocacy arguments and debates.
Guns have been around for a very long time. No debate there.
Guns have also variously been used to conduct warfare, to commit crimes, to hunt, to provide for one's self defense, and a multitude of other things, both beneficial and barbaric.
Our Founding Fathers relied on guns during our very own Revolutionary War to secure our freedom and independence as a nation, albeit guns were kind of supplemented by cannons, now weren't they?
They even wrote the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution contained in the Bill of Rights:
So, one can state with pretty good confidence, the Founding Fathers knew of, and accepted the necessity of being able to keep and bear arms....at least during their time.
Times, however, have changed. So have temperaments regarding guns.
Some people just like to own them. Some people just like to hunt with them. Some people just like to shoot them.
Others, well, others use them for pretty nefarious purposes like actually killing other people. Or themselves. Lethal more often than not in more instances than we care to acknowledge.
However, facts don't lie.
Heck, just the homicide data is humbling, if not downright disturbing.
But guns don't kill people, or so we're told over and over and over.
Guns don't kill people. People kill people. With guns.
Getting off track here a little bit.
Back to the NRA.
One of the more iconic images I've seen is the one of Charleton Heston:
Oops. That's two images - one with a staff held high and the other with a musket held even higher. Both arguably weapons when used in the context in which they are presented, both in the movie "The Ten Commandments" and in the NRA convention Mr. Heston took part in.
Under Christian-Muslim-Jewish God, Moses was able to part the Red Sea allowing his people to pass safely and then closing it upon the advancing Egyptian Army causing the death of everyone, arguably thousands, by merely waving his magic staff which had been empowered by, you guessed it, Christian-Muslim-Jewish God. So, it wasn't really Moses who generated the power. It was Christian-Muslim-Jewish GOD!
Staffs, no matter how one wants to look at it, don't kill people. People with staffs kill people, people with staffs (Moses) powered by almighty Christian-Muslim-Jewish God.
Seems a little odd to me, though, because an omnipotent Christian-Muslim-Jewish God should maybe take at least some of the blame for this needless loss of life because he was the one who hardened Pharaoh's heart against those fleeing Israelites in the first place.
If he hadn't done that, the Egyptian Army wouldn't have been ordered into the Red Sea bottom by hardened heart Pharaoh to chase those fleeing Israelites and prevent them from escaping, now would they?
Just imagine. If Christian-Muslim-Jewish God had just NOT hardened Pharaoh's heart, the entire Egyptian Army would have stayed back, watched those pesky Israelites make their way to the opposite shore, the Red Sea would have closed back in, and everything would have been good. No loss of life. No mass execution. All things copacetic, right? What was Christian-Muslim-Jewish God thinking?
So, who's to blame here for Egyptian loss of life? Moses or Christian-Muslim-Jewish God?
But, I digress.
The year after the massacre at Columbine High School, Mr. Heston's words at the national NRA convention in May, 2000 in North Carolina, would ring out loud and very clear (sort of like his words to Pharaoh in the movie - "LET MY PEOPLE GO!"), and would pretty much become etched in our collective psyches for all time:
"So, as we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those fighting words for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you, Mr. Gore: 'From my cold, dead hands'!"
Mr. Heston apparently felt the need to use that same statement at every ensuing NRA convention until he retired in 2003. For some reason, it seemed to resonate with him, although I'm not aware of anyone actually coming to try to get his gun/guns during that time, or, for that matter, to try to kill him or to even try to take him up on his challenge, his dare.
In fact, when Mr. Heston passed away in 2008, was anyone there to actually pry that musket from his cold dead hands? Did he even try to take it with him? Wait. Was that a little too insensitive?
Personally, I don't think so. In fact, his words have inspired others to follow his "cold dead hands" mantra. I kind of have to be honest here - the cold dead hands thingy didn't even originate with Mr. Heston. No, it apparently originated with a group called "Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms". It really doesn't matter though. What matters is that the slogan became popular. It became etched into our daily lives. It was perpetuated by Moses (Heston in disguise).
From Moses to NRA President, Mr. Heston seemed to choose those kind of heroic roles, or they were chosen for him (NRA President, specifically) in which people could look to him and think oh my, what a great man! Kind of like a Christian juggernaut so to speak, even though Moses was anything but a 'Christian'.
And therein lies the gist of the point I'm trying to make about God and guns. There really does seem to be a connection between the two in today's American Christian Evangelical and more extremist sects of the Christian faith than many are willing to admit, either to themselves or publicly.
We talk about religious denominations all the time within the Christian faith. We also talk about sects breaking off from some of those denominations, but not nearly enough.
Why is it that so many who profess themselves to be Christians look with some amount of disdain at sects? Why is it that some who profess to be Christians look with some amount of disdain at members of other denominations for that matter? What actually separates denominations from sects within the Christian faith?
Muslim God recognizes sects. Jewish God recognizes sects. Neither talks about denominations - just sects. Can those sects be compared to so-called Christian sects such as Westboro Baptist Church as just one example? Does that even compute? What about the KKK? They profess to be a Christian organization. Both have been identified as hate groups. But to hear them tell it, they're God's children, just like everyone else. Yup. Uh huh. I'm buyin' it. I'd also go so far as to state there would be some pretty upset Muslim and Jewish folks if they knew they were being compared to those two groups, for sure.
And therein lies the conundrum. Christians look at American sects, A.K.A. hate groups like WBC and KKK, with utter contempt. When they do that, and they hear the word sect being representative of different groups within the Muslim and Jewish faiths, might it be possible they place "guilt by association" on the sects of Muslim God and Jewish God simply because of, well, sects = hate groups.
What that boils down to, as stated in my previous blog post (God, Guns, Guts, Glory: Part 1....."GOD"), is a failure to communicate what all of this really means. It's a logical fallacy. Christian sects = bad. Muslim and Jewish sects, therefore = bad. Not too hard to understand that connection, and, yet, it's actually a disconnect because the sects of Muslim God do not actually include ISIL or ISIS (whatever the Hell you want to call them), Al Qaeda, or the Taliban. Sects of Jewish God are even harder to pin down. The only radical sect I could find apparently doesn't even have a name, and at least in 2011 Israelites were pretty unified in denouncing them - publicly, no less.
So, the question must then be asked why are all the other sects of Muslim God and Jewish God so extremist in the eyes of mainstream Christian God's followers?
Could it be, could it possibly be because they're different from us?
Going back in time a ways for this next segment......
Quotes made by our Founding Fathers have been used and abused by both sides in our ongoing pro and anti gun advocacy arguments and debates.
Guns have been around for a very long time. No debate there.
Guns have also variously been used to conduct warfare, to commit crimes, to hunt, to provide for one's self defense, and a multitude of other things, both beneficial and barbaric.
Our Founding Fathers relied on guns during our very own Revolutionary War to secure our freedom and independence as a nation, albeit guns were kind of supplemented by cannons, now weren't they?
They even wrote the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution contained in the Bill of Rights:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."Please note, there are two clauses to the 2nd Amendment - the first of which many in the pro gun advocacy group choose to, more often than not, completely ignore while focusing solely on the second clause.
So, one can state with pretty good confidence, the Founding Fathers knew of, and accepted the necessity of being able to keep and bear arms....at least during their time.
Times, however, have changed. So have temperaments regarding guns.
Some people just like to own them. Some people just like to hunt with them. Some people just like to shoot them.
Others, well, others use them for pretty nefarious purposes like actually killing other people. Or themselves. Lethal more often than not in more instances than we care to acknowledge.
However, facts don't lie.
Heck, just the homicide data is humbling, if not downright disturbing.
But guns don't kill people, or so we're told over and over and over.
Guns don't kill people. People kill people. With guns.
There are nefarious, shadow sects few people know about, sects based in their own Christian God dogma, sects that believe only in the Old Testament laws of the Bible, sects that really aren't organized in the truest sense of the word, sects that some people toy with but don't even realize they are part and parcel of.
And that's what we're going to talk about next......
Ever hear of something called the "Dominionist Movement"? If not, here's your chance. Learn about it, understand it, and, for all intents and purposes, be aware it is intimately linked with Christian God and guns.
There, I said it. Christian God and guns. Just as we, here in the U.S. equate terrorist groups of Muslim God with guns (pictures of masked marauders riding in the backs of pickup trucks with guns pointed in the air, pictures of a ring of masked evil-doers surrounding a man on his knees waiting for the machete to fall on the back of his neck), so, too, should we equate the possibility of genocidal killing, a new crusade of sorts, with those belonging to this group.
Religious discrimination? Yep.
Sexual orientation discrimination? Just listen to the rhetoric from some of those who've flirted with this philosophy.
Misogyny? Oh, yeah. Guys having a proclivity to keep women in their place really get off on this one.
Shall we try and put some faces to the Dominionist movement"?
Look familiar?
Add to all of this the fact these people have legitimate followings, and, believe me, I use the term "legitimate" very loosely here, and one must wonder how the slow, deliberate, eating away at our democratic, secular ideals might ultimately end up costing us dearly if one of these folks ever gets elected.
Now let's look a bit at each one of the Dominionists listed in the graphic above. First, Mike Huckabee.
Mike once had Ted Nugent on his show.
Mike played a tune right alongside the Nuge. They played one of the Nuge's biggest hits, a sexually explicit melody called Cat Scratch Fever.
Mike, an ordained minister if I'm not mistaken, then doubled down on playing this song with Ted (Mike Huckabee pussyfoots around the truth) by stating the explicit words had been removed (video proved they were not) followed by his statement along the lines of it was for mature audiences. Yeah, right! And what was that he said about then President Obama's kids listening to lyrics sung by Beyonce'?
And:
Nuff said on good ol' boy, Mike!
Rick Santorum? Staunch supporter of gun rights and then some. As one example from one of his home town's media outlets: Former Pa. senator Rick Santorum said a lot of wrong things about gun control this weekend
Sarah Palin? Well, dang! There's Ted Nugent.......again! Palin pallin' around with the Nuge talking about, what? God? Guns? Getting elected, perhaps?
And, last on this particular list, but certainly not least, none other than Rick Perry? Oh, Rick of the woohoo fame, shoot a six shooter in the air at a public event fame:
Each one of these folks is very well known for their pro-gun stances. Each of them is also very well known for what some might consider to be their religious fervor. Each of them is politically ambitious almost to a fault. And, by the way, old Ted Nugent, alleged pedophile, has kinda sorta indicated he might even have some political ambitions (Heaven help us if he goes for it - or will Christian God forgive him his sins and make him a victor in an election?).
That's the short list. The long list would also include the likes of Michelle Bachmann, Ted Cruz, and, my favorite, Louie Gohmert.
There are plenty of groups, both affiliated with Christian churches and quasi-military militias that would qualify, too, and that would simply get on board with these folks if they are ever elected - groups, armed groups, well armed groups. Think about that. Seriously.....think about that.
When people talk about, and advocate for, taking our country back I invariably ask them, "take our country back from what, exactly?" This question is usually met with one of two answers:
Mike, an ordained minister if I'm not mistaken, then doubled down on playing this song with Ted (Mike Huckabee pussyfoots around the truth) by stating the explicit words had been removed (video proved they were not) followed by his statement along the lines of it was for mature audiences. Yeah, right! And what was that he said about then President Obama's kids listening to lyrics sung by Beyonce'?
And:
Nuff said on good ol' boy, Mike!
Rick Santorum? Staunch supporter of gun rights and then some. As one example from one of his home town's media outlets: Former Pa. senator Rick Santorum said a lot of wrong things about gun control this weekend
Sarah Palin? Well, dang! There's Ted Nugent.......again! Palin pallin' around with the Nuge talking about, what? God? Guns? Getting elected, perhaps?
And, last on this particular list, but certainly not least, none other than Rick Perry? Oh, Rick of the woohoo fame, shoot a six shooter in the air at a public event fame:
Each one of these folks is very well known for their pro-gun stances. Each of them is also very well known for what some might consider to be their religious fervor. Each of them is politically ambitious almost to a fault. And, by the way, old Ted Nugent, alleged pedophile, has kinda sorta indicated he might even have some political ambitions (Heaven help us if he goes for it - or will Christian God forgive him his sins and make him a victor in an election?).
That's the short list. The long list would also include the likes of Michelle Bachmann, Ted Cruz, and, my favorite, Louie Gohmert.
There are plenty of groups, both affiliated with Christian churches and quasi-military militias that would qualify, too, and that would simply get on board with these folks if they are ever elected - groups, armed groups, well armed groups. Think about that. Seriously.....think about that.
When people talk about, and advocate for, taking our country back I invariably ask them, "take our country back from what, exactly?" This question is usually met with one of two answers:
- Back to the way it was when it was one nation under God; or,
- Back to the way it was when we had all our freedoms.
Them: Well, damn, there is only one God.
Me: So, Christian God.
Them: Yep.
Me: Well, what about Muslim God, or Jewish God, or any of the other multitude of Gods out there?
Them: ATHEIST GOD HATER!
Logical question to the second answer, "which freedoms have been taken away, specifically?"
Logical question to the second answer, "which freedoms have been taken away, specifically?"
Them: So many, I can't give specifics.
Me: Why not? Should be an easy thing to identify if you're so upset they've been taken away. Right?
Them:
Me: ?
Them: ATHEIST GOD HATER!
And there you have it. A widespread call to put God back into everything American. Just can't be Muslim God, or Jewish God or any other God but Christian God. Those who worship those other Gods, not Christian God, are doomed unless they are born again, and by Christian God, we're going to either help everyone, or we're going to force everyone to believe in the one true God, Christian God, by golly! And if that force just happens to be deadly force like what Ted Nugent’s Final Solution For “Rabid Dog” Muslims is: “Kill ‘Em All”, then so be it.
Sounds sort of like this might all turn out to be another of those Crusades we learned about in school. In fact, we might even already BE in one right now.
What guts that takes, eh? In fact, those 'guts' are what I'll talk about in the next installment of "God, Guns, Guts, and Glory".
My two cents.
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