They Want to Take Your Religion and Your Guns

I still will write a second part to my post about the situation in Haiti and proposed solutions/strategies, but need to write about the impeachement trial of President Donald Trump. I have not been in the United States much at all during his presidency, but have caught a lot via social media, reading the news, and talking to family and volunteers who visit.

A few weeks ago, a friend posted this article from Christianity Today where the magazine takes a stance saying,

"To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record,

we might say this: Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come? Can we say with a straight face that abortion is a great evil that cannot be tolerated and, with the same straight face, say that the bent and broken character of our nation’s leader doesn’t really matter in the end?"

Then there was a run of commentary. What an interesting situation we have here! I remember while living in the U.S. how non-Christians would sometimes relate Christians to a type of judgmental, self-righteous person which is not what anyone who reads Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John about the life of Jesus can see that Jesus was. This issue of people's feelings about Donald Trump and the commentary I saw and participated in under this article is so interesting because it's completely splitting Christianity into two groups. And I couldn't agree with Christianity Today more. Hopefully this will be a statement to non-believers as to what Christianity is and isn't. 

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:21-23). I don't share that verse to judge anyone, but simply to raise the point that not everyone who claims to be a Christian would be recognized as so by Christ himself. 

This Washington Post article by Jeff Flake, a Republican Senator, is also excellent. He shows disappointment in House of Rep. members who simply denied that President Trump did

anything wrong in soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 presidential election.

"Regarding the articles of impeachment, you could reasonably conclude that the president’s actions warrant his removal. You might also determine that the president’s actions do not rise to the constitutional standard required for removal. There is no small amount of moral hazard with each option, but both positions can be defended. 

But what is indefensible is echoing House Republicans who say that the president has not done anything wrong. He has.

The willingness of House Republicans to bend to the president’s will by attempting to shift blame with the promotion of bizarre and debunked conspiracy theories has been an appalling spectacle. It will have long-term ramifications for the country and the party, to say nothing of individual reputations." 

In these comments, I'm seeing people say things like "Demon-crat", "we didn't elect him to be our pastor, but our president", "he's doing great things for the economy". And then there are all sorts of talk about there is no better candidate and attacks on past presidents. It is being said that every president has done things just as bad, etc. Jeff Flake said: 

"Before President Trump came on the scene, would I have stood at a rally and cheered while supporters shouted “lock her up” or “send them back”? Would I have laughed along while the president demeaned and ridiculed my colleagues? Would I have ever thought to warm up the crowd for the president by saying of the House speaker: 'It must suck to be that dumb'?"

Like I said, I haven't been in the country, but it isn't hard to catch wind of the hatefulness and immaturity that the Head of State is exemplifying. To anyone who would say that there is no better candidate, I would say that that is a lack of faith. I didn't vote for Hilary or Trump and think that most agree that was quite a radical election. I also agree that there are issues strongly supported in the left side that are not biblically aligned, but there are probably just as many on the right side. 

In response to the Christianity Today article, Trump tweeted that the magazine "would rather have a Radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion and your guns, than Donald Trump as your President. No President has done more for the Evangelical community, and it’s not even close."

Your religion and your guns!?!?!?!?!? Does Donald Trump think that Christianity supports guns? That they go hand in hand? Do other people claiming to be Christians think that? (And sadly, I know that the answer is yes.) Yes, in the Old Testament there was war and killing mandated by God. That was all because creation was corrupted beyond return and God had to build up a population through which he could redeem creation. That all ended in the New Testament. What did Jesus do when an officer's ear was cut off by his disciple, while the officer (or servant of the high priest) arrested him for doing nothing at all? And he knew that the officer was leading him to his torturous death? He healed the man's ear and told his disciple that if he lives by the sword, he'll die by the sword! (Matthew 26:50-52)

But is that not what has been going on in the U.S.? Living by the sword and dying by the sword? Nearly 300 mass shootings in the United States in the first nine months of 2019!?!?! Are we crazy?!?! Are we really worrying about which "team" is in the majority when this is going on in the country!?! Is that not a problem both "teams" can work together to try to resolve?? Is anything more important at this time!?!? I think this has also become so normal in U.S. life that people somehow.... DON'T REALIZE HOW ABSOLUTELY CRAZY IT IS!?!?!?

I recently saw a Facebook post claiming that 198 or so people were killed in mass shootings in the U.S. in 2019 whereas 10,000 some were killed by illegal immigrants. I laughed and knew it was a lie, but just did a Google search to address it in this blog. This came up. It was addressing a post that claimed a much higher number of people killed by illegal immigrants, but even so, I think reading the link I just shared should make the point clear that immigrants have a much lower crime rate than native-born Americans, and that that claim is dillusional, defending the love of guns over people and God.

"For if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?" (1 John 4:20). This is the perfect sign of a gun addiction. Addicts always try to make sense out of nonsense to defend their beloved addiction. Why don't we pay attention to the stats that compare countries and the frequencies of mass shootings that take place there??? Maybe that would help us look our face in the mirror.

I refer to a political party as a team a few paragraphs up because that is what it seems like to me at times. It's no different than ghetto gangs: hating each other and not wanting to accept someone because they wear the wrong colored bandana. It is different. There are serious issues up for discussion, but they don't really make a lot of sense. How can you glorify freedom of guns and demonize abortion so? It doesn't make any sense at all.

My two-year-old son and five-year-old son sometimes get sticks and play fight with them. It gets out of hand, someone cries, and I take the dang sticks and throw them out the door. Case closed. Other countries have done the same with guns and they have had good results. Oh but it's in the Constitution. Then pray to the forefathers who wrote the Constitution, not to the God who wrote the Bible and gave you life.

If I remember correctly, 2019 started with a government shutdown about building a border wall/immigration control while mass shootings continued to take place on a daily average. What is our goal? We're trying to seclude our children so they can  play violent video games to the point that they are completely desensitized, and themselves dangerous, while protecting their right to have an automatic weapon, with the chance of them turning out to be a mass murderer increasing?  

I have theories about personal space vs. community living and its effect on mental health. I also feel certain that I am not the only person who has such theories and am looking forward to investigating to see what research is out there. I know I have had very different experiences living in the United States with, what I would call lots of space, compared to living in the Dominican Republic in much closer quarters, experiencing more community living. I was on campus during the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings. I grew up with people who tragically murdered others in adolescence with no motivation other than their own mental issues. I had friends who lost parents to suicide. I lost classmates to suicide. I myself experienced emotional instability while living a very priviledged life. Heck, we couldn't go outside for awhile in school because a sniper was shooting down people randomly around the area. 

I thankfully feel as though that was all part of a prior life. Being removed from such events for so long, it all seems even more crazy. Sure, violence takes place everywhere, but I cannot remember a violent event that has taken place here that had no tangible motivation, whether it be a robbery motivated by coveting the belongings of others, domestic violence, etc. There are plenty of other challenges here, but perhaps those challenges save us from the solidarity that brings the biggest challenge of all, which is ourselves. Perhaps we Americans have a lot we could learn from our southern (and northern, for that matter) neighbors. 

While this post waited in draft form, someone shared this brilliant post: 10 Signs You're Actually Following Trumpianity Instead of Christianity. I couldn't agree more with Mr. Benjamin Corey, except I'll admit that I haven't yet figured out what number 3 is referring to.  

I'll close by saying that I am endlessly grateful to have been born and raised in the United States of America. I recognize my priviledges and do not take them lightly. The fact that I spend very little time in the United States should not be understood as a lack of patriotism or anything of the sort. I just dont' think that God intended us to hoard our priviledges. "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." (Luke 12:48)