I'm about to get on a political soapbox, which I know is dangerous. But I can't not, because it's terrifyingly important.
After yet another shooting in the USA, another few choruses of "thoughts & prayers" by the very people who believe gun-owning is a God-given right, and another group of people whose families are now devastated, I'm reminded how incomprehensible hypocrisy has made this country a difficult place to live.
On the day of a school shooting a few years back, I read a Twitter exchange between two people commenting on M*ke P*nce’s customary “thoughts & prayers” tweet. The first guy, whose Twitter profile claims he was a “conservative Christian, God Bless America,” thanked P*nce for his prayers. The second guy was a teacher at the local high school with a child in the middle school where the shooting took place. The teacher asked what P*nce planned to do besides pray. The “conservative Christian” proceeded to call this guy an “asshat,” and told him to “go F yourself.”
The Bible doesn't describe any situation where Jesus called someone an asshat or told them to go F themselves (and he might've had plenty of reason to).
(Also, gotta love how the Christian felt that saying FUCK would've been a step too far, but if he abbreviated it, God would smile upon his endeavour).
Do these "conservative Christians" then understand what "conservative" means? The Free Dictionary says it is: "a person who is reluctant to accept changes and new ideas."
So, if they're reluctant to change, then they're clinging to what came before. And what came before, regarding Christ and living as he taught, is Do to others as you would have them do to you. Not, stomp on others' legitimate and logical concerns by cursing at them and writing them off because you disagree with them. Oh that this concept could be applied to so many divisive situations endemic in the USA today.
The right to live without fear of being shot down is more important than the right to bear arms.
I believe God gave us free will. That means, I believe, that when we make negative decisions and do negative things as a society, there are negative results. Free will means God’s not going to swoop in every time a politician (or anyone) offers thoughts and prayers and snap his fingers like a magic genie and fix it all. We’ve gotten ourselves into this mess—"we" as in humanity. But we can take action to try to change it. We have free will for that, too, if people could just stop grasping their second amendment like it was the gateway to eternal life. The right to live without fear of being shot down is more important than the right to bear arms. That's what it boils down to. That IS the choice people are making—they're rejecting the first right in order to support and receive the second. Funny how often "conservative Christians" who tell grieving and worried fellow humans looking for positive change to go F themselves confuse the US Constitution with the Bible. Thoughts and prayers are where we start. Then we get up and use our power to make sure we don't have to keep praying these prayers again and again and again
