This week my Facebook timeline blew up (no pun intended) with post after post regarding the 2nd Amendment. Part of it is the fact that many of my Facebook friends are from my hometown or college- a culture where hunting is a way of life and some children are practically born with a Remington in their hand. The other part of it is simply that some people really, really love their guns, some to the point of near-worship. In fact, roughly half of the employees in my building at work was in Las Vegas this week for the “Shot Show”.
Meanwhile, 9 people were killed by gun violence in Chicago last weekend. If this would have happened in a single place as an isolated incident it would’ve been front-page news. But it only added to the 500 homicides from 2012, making 9 a relatively small number.
We, as Christians, need to own up to the fact that we’ve lost the Culture War in America. We lost because we fought on the wrong front. We turned Christianity from a lifestyle to a political platform. We choose to fight immorality in our culture with legislation, putting our trust in politicians to enforce morality rather than allowing our lives to be Christ-like examples worth following.
We fought to limit abortions while neglecting the single mother. We fight against amnesty for immigrants while ignoring the Biblical examples of refuge. And now we fight for our right to own Assault Rifles, just because.
I don’t know what the answer is to gun violence. I know better than to blame video games. I want to blame fatherless homes, but that’s part of a larger problem. It wouldn’t be fair to blame gun manufacturers or gun enthusiasts. Really I need to blame you. I need to blame me. We need to take personal responsibility for pursuing the American Dream no matter the cost. We need to take the blame for leading self-centered lives that has turned neighbors into strangers and home into the place we go when we’re not at work. We need to point our fingers at the mirror and ask ourselves the hard question- do our lives look like Jesus, or do they look just like everyone elses’?
Hi there. I came across your blog via an unrelated Google search and stayed to read a few posts.
Your commitment and call to the faith for all of life is noble. God has authority over every area of our lives, and he has given us directives for how we build families, communities, churches, and nations. We have lost culture because we have turned a blind eye to God's law-word. Churched people have syncretized with man-centered modernism. Consequently, they can offer no valid solution to this country's miseries, including the most recent gun tregedy.
"And now we fight for our right to own Assault Rifles, just because."
And now, in the midst of growing tyranny, churched people struggle to defend their liberty “just because”. Or they just surrender it altogether because they long ago surrendered the source of their liberty –the authority of God.
Brother, the American govt has become a bloated nanny state over people who will not govern themselves. Either we will have self-government under God, or we will be tyrannized; America is choosing tyranny. America has set over itself a god of their own making, a god who provides their welfare via legalized theft and debt, a god who educates and has claims on their children (Obama–"These are our children!" *Crowd cheers*), a god who will take away dangerous things when they just are not responsible enough to handle them.
Americans have lost their faith in Christ and expect the civil government to be their saviour; in times of natural disaster, in times of unemployment, in times of old age, and in times of school shootings.
If we are to disciple this culture, we need to reintroduce the perfect law of liberty. We need to understand what authority God has and has NOT given civil governments. We need to understand our responsibilities under God.
The solution in the aftermath of murder is repentance. It is men and women turning back to Christ, showing themselves ready to defend and promote life (6th commandment), and trusting God alone for their protection and their future (1st commandment).
Gun-free zones invite exponential levels of criminality because God is not mocked –where men surrender tools for defense and provision (guns) to a nanny state (rival diety), they will reap what they have sown.
Jesus answered the people in the aftermath of a tragedy in Luke 13:5. Our message is one and the same: Repent, or you will all likewise perish.
JM
JM, thank you for taking the time to browse around and leave a comment.
"Americans have… expected the civil government to be their saviour" That right there is what gets me so riled up. I'm a political junky and I used to get fired up about this issue or that, that politician or that, but I now see those as "foolish arguments." The real issue is that we turn to government to save us. More importanlty, we rely on the government to save our neighbors, avoiding any personal responsibility to love one another.
The solution? You nailed it. Repentance. School shootings, natural disasters, economic uncertainties, no matter the issue we need to turn back to God.
Again, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Come back anytime!