To Control Guns or Not to Control Guns - Ah, That's the Question

I am not sure you have heard that over the weekend the Church of the Holy Sepulchre closed its doors in Jerusalem.  This is perhaps the most sacred of all the Christian sites in Jerusalem - at least to most people.  It is purported to be the place where Jesus was crucified and buried.  But its halls were silenced over the weekend in a dispute between church officials and the officials of the city of Jerusalem concerning taxes.  I do not fully understand all the reasons for the shut down, but just found it interesting that even a sacred site, can be used as a pawn in a political game.  I think Queen Helena might roll over in her grave if she knew.  I will be in Jerusalem in a few weeks, so will give a full report of what I find.


We continue to see the uproar caused by the Parkland, Florida, shootings.  There are loud cries to take away guns.  I recently read an article, written by Michael Swartz, and published on the Patriot Post website on February 23.  You can find it at: www.patriotpost.us/articles/54357-the-youth-massacre-outside-florida.  Allow me to quote from this article: "The tragic loss of 16 students and one coach from one high school in a single incident is bound to dominate the news for days.  But who knew that the five cities with the highest number of murders in 2017 combined to match that terrible total in just three days?  Chicago led the way with 650 murders last year, and while Baltimore was second with 343, its per capita total of 55.8 per 100,000 residents was the highest in the nation among its 50 most populous cities. 


"Bear in mind that many of these cities have stringent gun laws.  But while the Left's answer is to blame guns, there's truly much more to the story.  One key element is the issue of gangs: 'Some young men take precautions appropriate to Beirut, circling their home block three or four times in search of any person or car that is out of place, before they will park,' writes Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson.  'Others must be smuggled out of the city to avoid revenge killings,'  A lucrative drug trade and a lack of respect for human life are clearly fertilizing these killing fields."


The author, Michael Swartz, then proceeds to describe the real problem - and it is not guns.  He continues, "Yet too often among these 'war zones within the borders of America,' young men grow up without a dad.  Whether that's because the father has left the mother voluntarily (or was never really 'with' her in the first place), has since been imprisoned, or was a victim of violence himself doesn't necessarily matter - the issue is the lack of positive male influence in these children's lives.


"As marriage and family expert Suzanne Venker points out about divorce, 'More often than not, children lose contact with their fathers - for two reasons.  One, mothers remain the default custodial parent in the average American divorce and thus retain most of the control.  Second, it is usually women who consider themselves the aggrieved party, as evidenced by the fact that wives initiate 70 percent of divorces.'  She continues, 'The unfortunate result is that some divorced mothers use any opportunity to undermine their children's relationship with their father or, if not that, dismiss the significance of a father's role.'"  I would encourage you to read the full article.


The Patriot Post posted another article, written by Jordan Candler, on February 20.  You can find it at: www.patriotpost.us/articles54242-the-anti-religious-agenda-behind-gun-control.  "After every mass shooting, America succumbs to recycling the same old tropes, a process that inevitably devolves into social media attacks, public shouting matches, vitriol and polarization.  The subject, regardless of which side of the debate you're on, always ends up revolving around guns because even those who believe there are evil outside forces at work when mass shooters commit their carnage are faced with dispelling the shortsighted and erroneous notion propagated by the Left - namely, that the culprit is guns.


"The Left's plea for gun control stems largely from its refusal to acknowledge the connection between cultural depravity and America's throwing away Christianity.  The reason organizations like the Freedom From Religious Foundation are so successful is because too many Americans share the view that God is either nonexistent or is ill-suited to fulfill our idea of what faith demands. 


"Both America's long relationship with guns and 'toxic masculinity' are scapegoats the Left uses because it objects to moral changes.  On the issue of gun control, for all the talk of how conservatives don't offer ideas to curb violence, the truth is that we do; they're just meaningful and religious-oriented ones leftists reject.  ...  If America wants to see an end to mass shootings, it's literally impossible to do so without a return to the moral standards set forth through Christianity.  Most leftists believe in a lot of coincidences - the big bang, for example - and their argument against guns implies that the lack of mass shootings before God was stripped from schools is also coincidental.  In reality, its the unavoidable outcome of engendering a godless society.  Our national discussion must take on and rebut the secular approach to stop the bloodshed.  Otherwise, our rights will continue to be undermined with absolutely nothing to show for it."


The problem is not strictly guns - although I have often wondered why people need such high-powered weapons.  But, then again, I have never had any desire to own a gun.  But I know men within my church who own several guns, but use them for hunting and recreational purposes.  I have even been invited to one of their "shootings" but could not hit the "broad-side-of-a-barn."  I go now just for the food!  Friends, a gun is no more dangerous than is a car.  In fact, more people are killed every year with automobiles than guns - yet there is no rush to control automobiles.  The problem is the people who shoot the guns, the people who drive the automobiles.  And, when you talk about a people problem, you inevitably have to focus upon a moral problem - more particularly, the lack of morals.  And, whenever you begin a discussion of morality, you are driven to the ultimate question - what is right and wrong?  And, that question will bring you to the penultimate question - who decides what is right and wrong?  The answer to that question, as we know as believers, is God Himself.  But, we don't want to travel down that road, so it is much easier to say it is a matter of guns.  And so the debate will continue.  Bills will be introduced into both state and national legislatures.  Executive orders will be executed.  Stricter controls will be mandated.  But, the killings will continue - just look at what is happening in Chicago, a city with some of the most strict gun control regulations in the country.  It is not a gun problem.  It is a heart problem.  And, until we stop and admit to that side of the issue, there will be more Parkland shootings.