Cops, community leaders, and clergy, working together in Chicago
As your basic godless heretic, I tend to keep an eye on what believers are doing mainly to look for the latest outbreaks of discrimination against skeptics like me. But it also interests me when our secular ideas and goals intersect. The religious right may be my enemy, but once in awhile I do hear from the rest of the religious; I wouldn't go so far as to say this particular piece of news is about the 'religious left.'
But since they coincidentally have expressed the same support that I have for the President's proposals to reduce gun violence, maybe I could say that.
This article, from the Center for American Progress, characterizes this effort as religious leaders from across the country, spanning various sects and religions, calling for an end to gun violence based on a moral imperative.
Faith leaders from all congregations are joining forces to stress the moral imperative for measures preventing gun violence; supporting federal legislation requiring universal background checks, a ban on assault weapons, and high-capacity magazines; and making gun trafficking a federal crime.
Reading some of the faith leaders' statements presented by the CAP, I found some curious ideas mixed in there. Drawing the
Second Amendment from the Bible, for example. Who does that?
Daniel Darling, an evangelical pastor and author in the Chicago area: “As Christians called to care for the common good of our communities, we should be willing to endure the inconvenience if it saves one child from death. Evangelicals should not defend the use, proliferation and availability of assault weapons with as much vigor as they defend their faith. In spite of some who insist the Second Amendment is drawn from the Bible, there is no clear-cut Christian position on gun control.”
At first, I might have thought this was too ridiculous, this must have come from
The Onion...and you can find it there, in this article from August 2010.
Is this really just a joke?
CHICAGO—A new translation of the Bible released this week directly mentions the Second Amendment on eight occasions, and includes a version of Psalm 23 that begins, "The Lord is my shepherd, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Positive early feedback praised the new edition for its clean design, readability, and beautiful rendering of proverbs that condemn the foolish ban on semiautomatic weapons for personal use. "For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you," Deuteronomy 23:14 reads. "Your camp shall be holy, and if that means exercising your constitutional right to purchase a firearm, then that's your own damn business." The leather-bound book also comes with a handsomely crafted carrying case and a fully loaded, custom-monogrammed Glock 17 9mm.
In another case of conservative reality outpacing the world of satire, however, I could actually find some right wingnuts expressing the view disputed by pastor Darling. For example, there's David Barton,
Right Wing Watch's favorite revisionist historian. They found this in Barton's book,
The Founders' Bible.
Later in the same chapter, Barton declares that the Second Amendment is rooted in Exodus 22 which says that "if a thief is caught breaking in at night and is struck a fatal blow, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed" (though Barton conveniently edits out the rest of the line, which says "but if it happens after sunrise, the defender is guilty of bloodshed.") For Barton, this is proof that "the Second Amendment's 'right to keep and bear arms' is the constitutional embodiment of the Biblical right to self-defense found in Exodus 22 (and other passages) - another of the many American rights rooted in Biblical teachings."
(emphasis mine)
And there's this treatise on "What Does The Bible Say About Gun Control?" by Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America (the more extreme -- rawk on, Mountain Dew! -- version of the NRA). Incidentally, he claims to be an elder in the Presbyterian Church of America.
Perhaps we should start at the beginning, or at least very close to the beginning—in Genesis 4. In this chapter, we read about the first murder. Cain had offered an unacceptable sacrifice and Cain was upset that God insisted that he do the right thing. In other words, Cain was peeved that he could not do his own thing.
Cain decided to kill his brother rather than get right with God. There were no guns available, although there may well have been a knife. Whether it was a knife or a rock, the Bible does not say. The point is, the evil in Cain’s heart was the cause of the murder, not the availability of the murder weapon.
God’s response was not to ban rocks or knives, or whatever, but to banish the murderer. Later (see Gen. 9:5-6) God instituted capital punishment, but said not a word about banning weapons.
Seemed somewhat ironic to me that Pratt chose to start with the story out of Genesis. The law against murder came much later in the book, some time after the 'first murderer,' but while Pratt knows where it is he doesn't see the point. Instead, he's more concerned with
banning rocks. But while this supposed Presbyterian elder tortures the Bible until it produces the Second Amendment for him, among those faith leaders cited by the CAP?
A Presbyterian!
Rev. J. Herbert Nelson II, director of the Washington office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): “We stand today on the premise that faith does have something to say about life and death. Therefore it is imperative that we declare that our creator affirms the abundant life while giving leadership to those who will challenge the false choice between guns and freedom.”
I'm no expert of course, so I can't say if there is some actual schismatic action going on there or just a difference of opinion between a couple of the tens of thousands of xian denominations. Nevertheless I would be pretty damned amused to see some catholic priest withhold the wafer for some heretic gun enthusiast. So far, I haven't heard of any big faith dust-up over gun violence. Alas, the only catholic voice CAP could find was the
Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a group of nearly 1500 catholic women religious leaders. No entries from the priestly class, for shame.
At any rate, it's nice to see these folks put their faith to some more positive use once in awhile. Hopefully when the religious right goes on the counterattack, guns blazing, that will only be a figure of speech.
2:40 PM PT: A commenter below pointed out that I missed a Jesuit writer for HuffPo mentioned by CAP:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Although I doubt that his argument would gain too much appeal here, to a consistent 'pro-lifer,' if there is such a thing, makes one wonder. Then again, I understand that often as not, 'pro-life' really just means anti-abortion rights and isn't really about life in the first place.