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By Joseph P. Slaughter, Wesleyan University

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

Title of course:

“God and Guns: the History of Faith and Firearms in America”

What prompted the idea for the course?

As a religion professor, I’ve come to know many students from other countries who identify as Christian. I realized they were puzzled at some of the things Americans often bundled into their faith – things these international Christians didn’t consider relevant to their own religious identity.

One issue in particular sparked a question from a South Asian Christian student: Why did American evangelicals seem to have such an affinity for firearms? For example, Pew Research indicates 41% of white evangelicals own a firearm, compared with 30% of people in the U.S. overall. This unsettled the student, since they shared much of the same theology, and they wanted to know more about this connection.

I was embarrassed to admit that I didn’t have a satisfactory answer. Since I was trained as a historian of the 18th and early 19th centuries, I suspected it wasn’t explained by the last 10 or 20 years. I knew we needed to go back and start with the Colonial era and work our way forward. This course is my humble attempt to answer these students’ questions.

What does the course explore?

We spend the first two weeks reading what the Bible says about violence. There are no firearms in the ancient text, of course – but there are plenty of other weapons.

For example, hymns of celebration after defeating enemies, such as when Jael hammers a peg through the head of the military commander Sisera in the Book of Judges, appear to celebrate violence.

In the Sermon on the Mount, however, Jesus teaches his followers to turn the other cheek. What do American Christians think about these types of passages, and to what degree do they inform their approach to firearms?

The surprises in the text are endless, especially since very few of my students have ever read the Bible.

Our readings help contextualize key themes in American history as we move through the course: from the Colonial era, when firearms, religion and violence were intertwined aspects of settlers’ lives, to the Cold War, when we discover how evangelicals embraced a masculine, warriorlike idea of Jesus.

Abolitionist,John,Brown.
Abolitionist John Brown (Shutterstock)

Together, we explore digital and archival sources that show a wide range of attitudes toward weapons. For example, the abolitionist John Brown’s prison letters provide a fascinating window into how faith and firearms can be central to someone’s cause. Brown was a Christian who believed so strongly in abolishing slavery that he was convinced God had appointed him as his agent of violent judgment. The letters were written just prior to Brown’s execution in 1859, after his failed attempt to spark a slave uprising in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).

Why is this course relevant now?

Americans live in a country where politicians’ platforms often focus on God and guns.

Some are overtly weaving it into their election pitch, such as U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel of Ohio, who called himself “pro-God, guns and Trump,” while other Republicans such as Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie included guns in Christmas messages.

Gun rights supporters stand outside the Capitol in Phoenix on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, during a Guns Across America rally. (AP Photo/Matt York)

What’s a critical lesson from the course?

American Christians, including evangelicals, are a diverse lot. The “peace church” tradition – the Mennonites, Amish and Quakers, among others – may not often grab headlines, but complicate the narrative about guns and God in U.S. culture.

Many other types of Christianity do not embrace firearms, either. For example, Pew Research found that only 52% of Black Protestants have fired a gun, compared with a 72% average among all Americans.

Yet from the time of the Puritans onward, many Christians have viewed America as a divinely inspired nation – an idea that often served to sanction violence, whether in a war for Indigenous lands, defending slavery or leading a revolt.

What will the course prepare students to do?

Hopefully this course will equip students to coherently answer the question of why American religious culture is so intertwined with gun culture – especially if the subject comes up at Thanksgiving dinner.

More seriously, the better that people in America understand how their predecessors viewed firearms, the more robust and productive debates will be over their place in American society today.

 

The Conversation

Joseph P. Slaughter, Assistant Professor of the Practice in Religion and History and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Guns and Society, Wesleyan University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

155 COMMENTS

  1. I question that 30% number for gun owners in America. I don’t know who is taking these polls but how can it be possible after years, years, of record setting gun sales that only 30% of Americans own guns?

    I call bullshit.

    • “Pew Research indicates 41% of white evangelicals own a firearm, compared with 30% of people in the U.S. overall.”

      Ditto

      Christianity BTW, does not teach that believers should throw their lives away needlessly, nor allow others to steal that which is not theirs,

      • Who gives a flip about what religion a person who owns a firearm is? Are there nitwits running around asking gun owners what religion are you? Or are these nitwits sitting somewhere in an ivory tower and just being judgemental azzhats categorizing people on a hunch?

        As far as this church lady goes I am listening to Jimmy Swaggert on TV piped through large Cerwin-Vegas…I don’t care too much for Jimmy after he was caught with his pants down; that’s between his wife and the Good Lord. But I do have to say the man knows music and knows how to assemble some great musicians and gospel singers.

        • “Cerwin-Vegas… “

          Yeah, back in the late ‘70s I had a pretty nice PA with Cerwin Vega B36 subs, the original earthquake speakers.
          Those 18” woofers had plenty of output, but the heavy cones were really muddy and the reactive load was hard on amplifiers.
          Gene was a pretty sharp guy, he just died about 10 or 15 years ago.

        • not what you’d call a high sensitivity driver. surprisingly, the lansing usually are. voice coil clearance .001″ will help.
          cv’s were for the original “sensurround.” and i think that was for the earthquake movie.
          didn’t hold a candle to water’s odorama. you might want to light a match, tho.

    • That is because of people like me who have to buy a new house every five years or so because of all the space the guns and ammo take up! At least that is what the idiot left would have you believe, that and they seem to believe that guns only last a couple of decades before they wear out or evaporate or something.

    • Oh Jethro, don’t you know that 99% of the guns being bought are all being bought by the same 3% of gun owners, presumably all old fat white guys?

      Seriously, that’s what Dacian and Albert will say. Never mind the millions and millions of black and brown women and men who are flooding the gun stores to buy their first ever firearm.

      • My last gun purchase was right before the full lockdown. I was in a gun store in CA doing the paperwork. At least a dozen people came in wanting pistols in the short time I was there. None of them were white. The ranges I go to in the bay area being a white guy makes you a minority.

        Personally I think it’s great.

      • Why do you care what trolls will say to the point that you’re giving them free rent in your head?

        • Personally, I’m *loving* the fact we’re living rent-free in their heads… 🙂

        • Why do YOU care what trolls will say to the point that you’re giving them free rent in YOUR head by commenting on their posts and the replies?

        • MinorLiar,

          We comment on trolls (such as yourself) because (i) they have, by their persistent return to this site, proven that “ignore them and they’ll go away” doesn’t work with them, and (ii) they are deserving of all the mockery we can heap on them. You are a lying propagandist of a Leftist/fascist moron, and you seem unacquainted with anything resembling truth. But a game of “MinorLiar”whack-a-mole is mildly amusing.

    • Moderated again, either their Random Number Generator just picked me to zap, or it is just too easy to offend W0rd Pre55.

    • That s_u_r_v_e_y* was conducted in the spring of 2017. I’m sure the number is higher now.

      *avoiding moderation

    • Says “people” rather than “eligible adults”, so could be counting illegal aliens, children, felons, etc. to get the 30%. Also possible that white evangelicals are simply more honest in telling some pollster on the telephone about their guns.

  2. OK UUUM , PRAISE THA LORD AND PASS THA AMMO …

    GOD MADED MAN . HOWEVER . THE COLT 45 MADED THEM EQUAL … O’WHATEVER …

    O ‘ IF Y’ALL DON’T LIKE THE 2ST AMEMMENT ,
    TRY LIVING IN NORTH KOREA IN SEE ,
    HOW IT IS WITH OUT OUR BELOVED CONSTITUTION …

  4. Perhaps, maybe, it has nothing to do with any particular religion or religious teaching and more to do with folks who appreciate their rights and enjoy exercising then. One of which just happens to be the right to practice, or not practice, the faith of their choosing.

    I don’t have any religious concerns either way but I certainly appreciate that I can have whatever views I wish without fear of repercussions.

    Anecdotally it would appear appreciating one actual right comes with appreciating others while derision of an actual right begets derision of others. Usually by the same people who think getting high, living on the dole and diddling kids are rights.

    • They aren’t more likely to own a gun because they’re a Christian. They’re more likely to own a gun because that demographic is more likely to be conservative.

      • Dead on point, Dude. But, why wouldnt a lib prepare for and struggle to defend self and/or loved ones? From experience, a pistol or shotgun is the most effective way to save your life when violent SHTF, and while I pray for the souls {and my own} of those rendered incapable of killing me or mine, I will use any means to defend self or family.. firearms just happen to be the most efficient means for an old bass tired or woman of stopping criminal or animal attack. Tis a dark and sad world we live in,
        whatever the reasons. FWIW I am not particularly religious.

        • “…..why wouldnt a lib prepare for and struggle to defend self and/or loved ones?”
          That’s what government is for, right?

  5. “Some are overtly weaving it into their election pitch, such as U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel of Ohio, who called himself “pro-God, guns and Trump,” while other Republicans such as Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie included guns in Christmas messages.”

    which has absolutely zero to do with a connection between God and guns.

    its political ‘campaigning’ plain and simple…democrats do the same thing, they just substitute LGBTQ, abortion, and BLM, and anti-gun as their ‘God and guns’.

    • “wanted the Bible taken out of schools“

      The first amendment itself prohibits the government from establishing any particular religion by endorsing any particular religious text in public schools.

      The Constitution was written to prevent the religious violence that the early colonies experienced… Remember, it was the Christians who hung a couple dozen innocent women for being witches.

      • and it was the democrat founded and run KKK that (collectively) hung, or raped, or murdered, or beat, or tortured a couple thousand black people annually for years.

      • 1A: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion

        10A: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

        The 1A didn’t prevent states from establishing religions. As a matter of fact, they used to have official state religions until the 14th Amendment came along.

        • “The 1A didn’t prevent states from establishing religions“

          Do you really believe under the Constitution the government of Massachusetts could once again make worshiping the wrong sky daddy punishable by death?

          Frightful.

          Amazing, with you religionistas, it’s straight back to the Dark Ages.

        • More straw man arguments, personal attacks, and of course more Christophobia. Same old same old…I suppose your ego won’t allow you to just admit you were wrong.

      • “The Constitution was written to prevent the religious violence…”

        No, it was written to ensure freedom. It was also understood that only moral, religious, and virtuous people would be able to keep said freedom.

        • I’m really not sure why you guys continue to feed this troll.

          Anyone who’s arguing that the Salem Witch Trials were a major impetus behind the 1A is a certifiable R-t a r d and to be ignored.

        • Do you really maintain that the Salem witch trials of 1692 had no impact on the writing of the first amendment?

          You do realize the Salem witch trials were an example of a theocratic government imposing the death penalty upon citizens for religious doctrine violations?

          Do you grasp the reason Thomas Jefferson was thankful that ‘We The People’ had erected a “wall of separation between church and state”?

          S9, your ad hominem attacks are a sad testament to your lack of intellectual integrity.

        • Fun to see to see him try to twist logic into pretzels until he gets as far as sovereign citizen tier.

      • @Miner49er

        “The first amendment itself prohibits the government from establishing any particular religion by endorsing any particular religious text in public schools.

        The Constitution was written to prevent the religious violence that the early colonies experienced… Remember, it was the Christians who hung a couple dozen innocent women for being witches.”

        False

        The first amendment, which you obviously have not read and comprehended, was written as such:

        “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

        “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”

        The Constitution WAS NOT written to prevent the religious violence that the early colonies experienced, in the context of the first amendment in which you framed your very wrong reply.

        The Constitution was written, in the context of the first amendment, such that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”.

        You need to learn to read and get away from this confirmation bias thing you have.

        In your further replies to others, this bit of false nonsense from you trying to continue a failed confirmation biased argument:

        “Do you really maintain that the Salem witch trials of 1692 had no impact on the writing of the first amendment?

        You do realize the Salem witch trials were an example of a theocratic government imposing the death penalty upon citizens for religious doctrine violations?

        Do you grasp the reason Thomas Jefferson was thankful that ‘We The People’ had erected a “wall of separation between church and state”?”

        The Salem witch trials were NOT an example of a theocratic government imposing the death penalty upon citizens for religious doctrine violations. It was an example of wrongfully minded persecution and ignorance and intolerance with the excuse of religion used to persecute to maintain resistance to change by using religion ‘belief’ as a vehicle of fear, thus imposed a tyranny of fear and oppression and persecution.

        Ya know, like the democrat founded and run KKK did to thousands of black people for many years under the guise of ‘religion’ pushed by the Democrat party white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for Black Americans, and thus the democrats imposed a tyranny of fear and oppression and persecution.

        And democrats still continue that basic concept today except now its using ‘laws’ and rhetoric and a tyrannical-minded out of control government to impose that fear and removing freedom while catering to special interest of BLM, LGBTQ, abortion, and anti-gun based upon a fervent ‘religion like’ ‘belief’ they push in these areas so as to push their wrongfully minded persecution and ignorance and intolerance towards those who do not cater to their desires, thus to impose a tyranny of fear and oppression and persecution. Ya know, like the KKK and Salem witch trials concepts all over again.

        • And also, in fact there is absolutely zero in the Constitution that was written to ‘prevent the religious violence’ or prevent violence at all. In fact the constitution its self was born of violence, and enshrined in its words are the very need to use violence if necessary to resist and defeat a tyranny which by its very existence is ‘violence’ and also a need to use violence for defense of life – thus the second amendment because the founders understood that evil violence existed and would exist in the nature of mankind and to counter that the innocent needed the force of arms to defeat and resist such evil of violence.

          Laws don’t even prevent violence for if they did there would be zero violence, they punish the perpetrators of violence after the fact. Its that ‘during the fact’ of the perpetrated violence where firearms are needed in most cases to stop that ‘fact’ of violence against the innocent ‘during the fact’ its happening.

        • “Laws don’t even prevent violence for if they did there would be zero violence, they punish the perpetrators of violence after the fact“

          Interesting, you completely ignore the deterrence effect of laws.

        • I’m not ignoring the deterrent effect of laws, only those who would obey the law for some reason are deterred by the law. You ignore that if someone wants to commit a crime some words on a page does nothing to stop them from doing so.

          Once again, laws don’t even prevent violence for if they did there would be zero violence, they punish the perpetrators of violence after the fact.

      • And once again, MinorLiar is proving himself a damn fool.

        “The first amendment itself prohibits the government from establishing any particular religion by endorsing any particular religious text in public schools.”

        While the first twelve words of that are somewhat correct, the last nine are an absolute laugh riot. Direct me to those words in the TEXT of the Constitution and BoR, you lying sack of canine excrement. (And don’t EVEN give me that “T. Jefferson’s letter” BS). NOTHING in the Constitution says, or even implies, that government must exclude religion from all government activities. Government is required to be equally accepting of all religions (even the laughable “Church of Apocalyptic Climate Change”), PERIOD. Yes, the execrable “Warren Court” got that completely wrong (as they did most EVERYTHING they touched); fortunately, we are walking back that absurd nonsense.

        Again, WHY do you feel it necessary to LIE about EVERYTHING?????

        Pro tip: Throw in a random bit of truth every once in a while, just for camouflage, you nitwit.

  6. This is just one of many reasons why the atheists, who are s0ci@list pr0gressive in their p0litic@l 0rientati0n, wanted the Bible taken out of schools.
    They have always hated the 1st amendment. Just as they have always hated the Second Amendment.

    And yes, I know that not all atheists think this way. But we had a much smaller government, no public welfare, and we could get our machine guns through the mail. Back when we were a much more observant christian country.

    And our military was much smaller back then as well.

    Also it’s very interesting just how different Christianity is in other countries. England and Mexico for example are Christian countries. But they don’t have a 1st or 2nd amendment.

    • The United States Of America is no longer a “Christian Nation”. Barak Hussein Obama declared this from the roof-tops after he took office- remember? We have deserted our God- and recent history suggests that our God is deserting us, as well. We’ve gone from a “shining city on a hill” to the mucky city in the swamp… or something like that, in less than two generations.

      • “The United States Of America is no longer a “Christian Nation”. Barak Hussein Obama declared this from the roof-tops after he took office- remember?”

        It seems someone slept through civics class…

        The United States has never been a Christian nation.

        ARTICLE 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli:

        “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.“

        https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bar1796t.asp

        The treaty is a clear an unequivocal statement that the United States of America is a secular nation, following the constitution by establishing no religious connection with government.

        It was authored by Joel Barlow, an ardent Jeffersonian republican, and signed in Tripoli on November 4, 1796, and at Algiers (for a third-party witness) on January 3, 1797. It was ratified by the United States Senate unanimously without debate on June 7, 1797, taking effect June 10, 1797, with the signature of President John Adams.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tripoli

  7. The religious blessing of hunters and their weapons was a normal occurrence. And it still happens all over the world.

      • “This is also common with warriors“

        And there you have it, the despotical linking of government force and religious delusion.

        From the ‘Meth hēmon ho Theos” of ancient Greeks to the Nazi ‘Gott Mit Uns” on the Wehrmacht belt buckles, they always claim the archaic authorization of the god delusion.

        • MinorLiar,

          You are free to believe, or not believe, any “faith” you choose – even your STUPID belief in Marxism (or, as you lie and say, ‘Progressivism’), or your other idiotic beliefs. Have a ball. The federal government is neither permitted to endorse, or oppose, any religion (and Marxism is obviously a religion, ’cause it sure as HELL isn’t economics!). And that is it. And you might want to actually LEARN something about a religious tradition, and have actual knowledge of it, before you presume to declare it a delusion – if you are even capable of the feat of ‘knowledge’.

          Historically, particularly at the time of the Founding, citizens of America were overwhelmingly some flavor of Christian (including the overwhelming majority of the Founders themselves). You really can’t be as stupid as you come across in your comments, can you??? The 1A was designed to prevent the establishment of anything like a ‘state religion’, PERIOD. Other than that, the 1A requires government neutrality on the issue of religion, period.

          Show us on the doll where the Christian hurt you, MinorLiar.

      • mom used to send me out the door with gloves clipped to my coat sleeves and a hearty, “got mittens.”
        and she always asked me, “where does the general keep his army? in his sleevy!”

        • tsbhoa.p.jr:
          I looked it up, and as I suspected, Gott Mit Uns is German for “God with Us. I also suspect that your comment was in the manner of a joke.
          Incidentally, for those of us (including yours truly) who didn’t know it, “Meth hēmon ho Theos,” actually: “Μεθ’ ἡμῶν ὁ Θεός” is Greek. It translates as: “God is With Us” in English.

        • mom used to send me out the door with gloves clipped to my coat sleeves and a hearty, “got mittens.”
          and she always asked me, “where does the general keep his army? in his sleevy!

          ”Too phunny brother, I choked on my Shepherd’s Pie, but it was worth it! tan-ju-berri-much!

  8. Biden is on the hook again for having classified documents he was not authorized to have as vice president. found in his home. this is a second discovery aside from the other day. he basically stole classified documents.

    At least Trump was authorized to have his when he got them because the president is the actual owner of all government classified information.

      • “You’ll not here miner clamoring for ‘justice’ against biden. Just Trump.“

        Would be kind enough to let me know exactly which subpoena from the department of justice regarding classified documents that President Biden has defied?

        Perhaps you can show me public statements by President Biden when he refused to return the government documents and claimed they were his property.

        • So he committed the crime and is now a cooperative witness? The crime is having the documents. If it was a crime for Trump then it was a crime for biden.

          And you’ve never answered my question. How does a man that has been civil service for his whole adult life become wealthy?

    • saw great meme with eight captcha squares of trump, all checked, and four each of shrillary and sponge brain poopy pants, all unchecked.
      “which images can declassify classified documents?”

      • The entire thing wasn’t just another get Trump operation, but also yet a_noth_er* cover for the Puppet. Same stuff different day. I’d be embarrassed to admit I still read/listened/watched MSM after another episode of the Big Lie.

        *WordPress won’t let me use the word another in that context.

  9. It’s also interesting that the more secular we become, the higher our taxes go up. When we were a much more observant Christian country, over 100 years ago, we didn’t have an income tax.
    In fact, I believe for the first 130 years of the United States of America, this very Christian country had no income tax at all.

    • Chris:
      “In 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed a bill that imposed a 3% tax on incomes between $600 and $10,000 and a 5% tax on higher incomes. The law was amended in 1864 to levy a tax of 5% on incomes between $600 and $5,000, a 7.5% tax on incomes in the $5,000-$10,000 range and a 10% tax on everything higher.” (Goggle)

      • Thanks for the heads up. Now that you mention it, I seem to vaguely remember a story of how the government needed to fund the Civil War, by having an income tax. But what is very interesting to me, Is I have spent a lot of time in libraries, across the United States, and overseas while serving in the military. And I don’t recall a single book in the military section, discussing the Civil War and the creation of an income tax to fund it.

        And when looking at the tax section of libraries, I have never found a book that discusses the income tax and the American Civil war. It may have been inside some book. But it was never on the cover of a tax book or a military book. Or any history section that I have seen.

        But there are plenty of books with a cover about the 16th Amendment and the progressive national income tax.

        If those books are out there I seem to have missed them. And also a lot of the Civil War Scholars don’t seem, to pay a lot of time or attention, to how the war was funded in their history books.

        https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-imposes-first-federal-income-tax

        • Chris:
          That’s not too surprising. Historians are usually more interested in personalities and battle strategy than ways and means.

  10. NOT GOD and Guns-Just GOD and GUNS in the USA and by GOD Americans invariably mean CHRISTIAN GOD. Did not your christian god tell believers to -‘ Love your enemy’, ‘turn, the other cheek’, ‘reply not in wroth’, ‘VENGEANCE is MINE’ and ‘judge not that you be judged’ . Was Not your god in the form of JESUS CHRIST the god of peace and e reconciliation among all men? Were not those principles the essence of Christianity? What you god in the formof Jesus christ did not say was to ‘shoot that mother-fucker’ as a first option or arm oneself to the teeth ;just in case’.

    To me once GOD, RELIGION or FAITH enter the discussion all reason, logic and critical thinking flies ou the bloody window .

    • To me once GOD, RELIGION or FAITH enter the discussion all reason, logic and critical thinking flies ou the bloody window .

      That’s because you’re a poorly educated idiot, a troll and, honestly, not a very good person.

    • You know that cuts both ways, right?
      Using “muh, God” as either religious or edgy atheist is the same thing.

      • “He also said kill them all, don’t even keep the livestock.”

        Well, not all of them…

        Even He was not above a little child rape and sexual slavery:

        Numbers 31:17-18 KJV

        17Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. 18But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.”

        Yep, now there is an example of true divine morality.

        • “nits grows into lice.”

          So you’re suggesting that those innocent baby girls might become whores one day so it’s better to kill them as babies?

          Isn’t that the very pre-crime punishment you folks rail against?

          I guess murdering babies is OK when your sky daddy does it.

          Just think how many innocent babies and toddlers Yahweh drowned in Noah’s flood, but that’s somehow different.

        • You mean like Mohammed, the Pedophile Prophet, MinorLiar?????

          Also, learn to differentiate New Testament and Old Testament, before you make even more of a fool of yourself. @$$clown.

        • The biggest abuser and killer of innocents is the religion of .gov. What religion does china claim? the soviet union? not-z germany?

          Your religion is .gov miner and it is soaked in blood.

        • there was no suggestion.
          it’s a reference from centennial where the soldier on trial explains why he slaughtered the native children, as per his superiors order.

  11. The question skips over the larger question (hardly shocking considering who asked the question), which is more about canonical Western thought and who adheres to that line of thinking more strongly.

    Lefties of all stripes love to make everything about Christianity because it allows them to fall back on the “church and state” argument but this is about a far wider ranging set of beliefs which could be called “traditional” these days and which happen to be correlated with religiosity. This is why there’s been an ongoing assault on the Greek and Roman “Classics” and studies of Egypt for a decade and a half.

    *Social reformers* don’t care that much about the religion per se, they care about trying to root out something it purveys that can be found elsewhere and they openly demonstrate and say that they wish to excise all repositories of this way of thinking from society. Which makes sense because they hate the Western world and want to do something else which requires erasing the knowledge of what has worked in the past.

    As such, “the Bible” or “Christianity” or whatever synonym they choose, is a stand-in for their real target. Partially because it’s an effective troll (eliciting emotion on both sides which makes it quite effective as an attack) but it’s more about the fact that it’s a simple “othering” statement that allows for a quick delineation between us and them in a way that’s statistically good enough, at least for a first pass.

    The simple explanation to this incorrect question is that those who adhere to traditional (post-Reformation) Western views of society place value on the individual as the most basic unit of society and therefore place value on the rights of that individual. This correlates fairly strongly with people who’ve inherited a goodly portion of their ethos from family/social structure rather than school and therefore correlates fairly well with religiosity because those are the people who tend to place value on family traditions.

    One could be more accurate to say “We choose Locke over Hobbes” but that would go over the heads of about 95% of the public, including most of the people choosing Locke over Hobbes.

    • “This is why there’s been an ongoing assault on the Greek and Roman “Classics” and studies of Egypt for a decade and a half.”

      It’s really picking up steam thanks to the calls to eliminate ‘colonialism’ from the library stacks at the universities.

      And I’m not really bothered by it as much as I was initially, ever since I realized the internet has that *everywhere*, and if someone wants to find it, they can. And there’s the eternal attraction to find whatever has been ‘banned’ by whoever. The internet they love so much will foil their plans at censorship of the classics quite nicely…

      • I’d argue that you should be more worried.

        The curation of the internet suggests that it will become harder and harder to find, though the websites will exist. It will also become harder to share. Web 3.0 doesn’t seem to offer much in the way of “fixes” for this either.

        Combine that with Universities removing books, any books for any reason, and you know that the other side is winning major battles. Mostly because the Right isn’t showing up to the battlefield.

        Which should scare the shit out of people because anyone who thinks that homeschool and skipping college is a way to fight the Left (as is argued by many Right-ish personalities) obviously has their head up their ass. Ceding territory and declaring that a victory is quite possibly the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of.

        I don’t think that people need to take two full years of Latin or Greek or anything but this culture war is going well for the Left. Very, very well. In fact, there’s a pretty decent argument that they’ve basically won that war. Without a cultural repository for everyone else to draw on, the war goes to the Left and you lose everything. Including the 2A.

        Unless you want to put your eggs 100% in the “win an actual civil war” basket, moves need to be made in other areas.

        • They won the culture war by default. Those who want to win will always prevail over those who just want to be left alone. It seems like some on the right are just now getting serious about the culture war.

          The just avoid higher education mantra was always puzzling to me.

        • I don’t think that the Left has won the culture war but I think they fought it unopposed for a long time and therefore made serious gains.

          Which puts everyone else behind the proverbial 8-ball.

    • “the fact that it’s a simple “othering” statement that allows for a quick delineation between us and them“

      Friend, the Abrahamic religions are the very origin of the ‘us and them’ paradigm.

      From selecting one special group to be the ‘chosen people’ to the different rules for the heathen slaves, the children of Abraham have been all about ‘othering’.

      And they’ve been really serious about it, they’ll kill your ass unless you believe their particular delusion:

      Deuteronomy 13:6 – “If your brother, your mother’s son or your son or daughter, or th e wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul entice you secretly, saying, let us go and serve other gods … you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death”

      • Assuredly no othering happened before the advent of abrahamic religions nor outside it’s narrow confines.

      • @Miner49er

        “Friend, the Abrahamic religions are the very origin of the ‘us and them’ paradigm.”

        100% false, ignorant, stupid, BS as is the rest of your contrived confirmation bias nonsense.

        The origin of the ‘us and them’ paradigm” is based in human nature. Its even that way in the animal kingdom, prey vs predator.

        The ‘Abrahamic religions’ and all ‘religions’ recognize that ‘base’ of human nature.

        • So the prejudice and bigotry of the Abrahamic religions is OK because it might’ve been practiced earlier?

          Perhaps you could share with me what ancient religious texts you can cite to support your claim.

          You know, something equivalent to:

          Deuteronomy 13:6 – “If your brother, your mother’s son or your son or daughter, or th e wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul entice you secretly, saying, let us go and serve other gods … you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death”

        • @Miner49er

          “So the prejudice and bigotry of the Abrahamic religions is OK because it might’ve been practiced earlier?”

          I never said that nor did I imply it. There’s confirmation bias ignorance kicking in again for you.

          “Perhaps you could share with me what ancient religious texts you can cite to support your claim.”

          Perhaps you can share with me what ancient religious texts you can cite to support your claim that ONLY “Abrahamic religions are the very origin of the ‘us and them’ paradigm.”

          “You know, something equivalent to:

          Deuteronomy 13:6 – “If your brother, your mother’s son or your son or daughter, or th e wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul entice you secretly, saying, let us go and serve other gods … you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death””

          Hey, look at you. You know how to copy-n-paste something that only encompasses your confirmation bias stupid yet still does not support your claim that ONLY “Abrahamic religions are the very origin of the ‘us and them’ paradigm.”

          Its human nature you idiot. Its always been a ‘us and them’ paradigm, it derives from human nature. Even now you express it with ‘you vs me’ in your continuing pattern of choice to only choose that which confirms your bias. Its got nothing to do with religion.

        • “your claim that ONLY “Abrahamic religions are the very origin of the ‘us and them’ paradigm.”

          Wrong, I never use the exclusion of ‘ONLY’.

          And yes, the Abrahamic religions are the prevailing religion in America by a wide margin and thus, the exclusionary principles of those religions are the paradigm of the ‘us and them’ culture in the United States.

          You folks can’t claim this is a nation founded on ‘Christian values’, and then attempt to deny the origin and bigotry of those values.

          For 250 years American preachers quoted from the Holy Bible God’s rules for chattel slavery to justify the enslavement of millions of humans in North America, a perfect expression of the ‘us and them’ mentality.

          Leviticus 25
          44 “‘Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. 45 You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. 46 You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.“

          These sort of corrupted ‘morals’ are not all that surprising, considering all these religions were born of an incestuous relationship:

          Genesis 20
          “12 And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.”

          I guess that answers the eternal question for Abraham.

          If he did divorce his wife, they would still be brother and sister.

        • @Miner49er

          “Wrong, I never use the exclusion of ‘ONLY’.”

          False.

          You posted …

          ““Friend, the Abrahamic religions are the very origin of the ‘us and them’ paradigm.””

          Its the way you said it that says “ONLY”

          You said “the very origin” which is basically another way to say “the only origin” – when you preface with “the very ” excluding others in the English language you are essentially saying the “the only ” because “the very ” is saying its the only thing you consider.

          Then you doubled down on your already defeated argument with even more nonsense.

      • Good GOD, you are a flipping IDIOT, MinorLiar!! The “Abrahamic religions’ had NOTHING TO DO with the origins of ‘othering’, you uneducated, incompetent fool.

        The concept of “other” has been inherent in virtually every culture, and religion, since before we had written history. As you might have learned if you’d ever learned anything about linguistics or sociology, MOST tribal or cultural names for their tribe/culture boil down to some variation on the native word in that tribe or culture for ‘the people’, and everyone else was “not the people”.

        Your delusional antipathy toward Christianity has long been noted, along with your near-total ignorance of same. Just refrain from commenting on s*** you don’t understand, OK?? Just pour yourself a giant glass of S. T. F. U. juice, because you’re nothing but an ignoranus.

  12. It isn’t just Christians that like firearms. Every army and world leader does as well. Many go further and build nukes. Many of these world leaders are anything but Christian. To focus so heavily of a particular religious belief is to blind yourself to a much larger world.

    Many people all over the world used swords, axes, and blow darts long before guns were invented.

    • An interesting note about weapons in general; most years the most deadly weapon on the planet is the humble machete. This has been true since the 1980’s.

      It was probably true quite often long before the 1980’s but no one was keeping numbers.

      • I have several. Brush hooks work better. Some people call ’em sling blades. I call ’em brush hooks. Mmm.

        • I always thought that a sling blade was one of those brush trimmer things on a pole that’s at a 90 degree angle so that you can swing it like a scythe?

        • It might be, but you messed up my joke lol. Brush hooks are superior to machetes though. That’s for sure. Leverage is a thing, and you can keep some distance from poison ivy and briars.

        • I’m just musing on what a sling blade actually is, since you effectively reference the object by referencing the movie.

          Somewhere I have a book with an image of a WWII Japanese soldier who met his end via a Gurkha’s kukri, damn near split the dude from shoulder to the opposite hip. I imagine a brush hook would do a fairly similar job, except maybe some of those extreme curve ones with the bluntish head(?).

  13. “Pew Research found that only 52% of Black Protestants have fired a gun, compared with a 72% average among all Americans.”

    What better proof does one need to see that the racist origins of gun-control WORKED!?

  14. Hmmm…I don’t care what the heathen think about my gun ownership. JESUS CHRIST is my Lord & Savior. If I don’t provide for my own(family -&friends) I am worse than any infidel. To those you cite JESUS as a peacenik he told his disciples to buy a sword. Whipped the moneychangers & excoriated the so-called religious leader’s of 1st century Judea. And will annihilate millions at the battle of Armageddon. “In righteousness HE doth judge and make war”. Truly the Lion & The Lamb.We aren’t wrong in America. Much of the world is not right. Too subtle? I have a nephew-in-law(bible translator & African missionary) who thinks Americans shouldn’t think we’re “special” He spouts that in Nigeria where(unarmed) Christian’s are slaughtered by Moose-lambs. We ARE special. When America becomes like Europe the end is nigh. It’s nigh…

    • Which party was it engaging in election fraud? Oh yes, here it is:

      “Rensselaer County Republican elections board commissioner Jason Schofield pleaded guilty to federal charges of fraudulently obtaining and filing absentee ballots.… “

      Actually, many people have been pointing out that several Republican election officials just like this criminal have been brought to justice recently.

      And the best part is, the system worked and he got caught and is now being sentenced.

      So what is it with these conservative New York Republicans?

      Speaking of political corruption, I can’t believe all this criticism of Rep. George Santos, you’d think the press would be a little more respectful of the first American to walk on the moon.

      • @Miner49er

        You mean the more than several democrats (collectively) under investigation and arrested don’t count?

        You mean your hero Biden who actually, in the context, stole classified documents doesn’t count?

        You mean your hero Biden who actually, in the context, collaborated with enemy’s of the United States with his son Hunter, for financial gain doesn’t count?

        Your mean the democrat party purposely conspiring with the twitter liberals to suppress speech it didn’t like and suppress political speech of republicans so as to influence public perception, and even say so in their emails, to influence the election doesn’t count?

        The depth of your stupidity and confirmation bias knows no bounds I guess.

        • Your laundry list of supposed crimes is interesting.

          Perhaps you’d be kind enough to let me know exactly which subpoena from the department of justice regarding stolen government documents President Biden refused to comply with?

          And could you as well post the public statements by President Biden wherein he claimed ownership of the government documents and refused to return them to the national archives?

        • MinorLiar,

          Go eat a bag of dicks. The CRIME, you @$$clown, is having in your private possession classified government documents. If it was a crime for Trump, it is EQUALLY a crime for Senile Joe. Trump claims he had declassified the materials in his possession (which may, or may not, be true, but is DEFINITELY within the powers of the President). If declassified, COPIES of the documents (which is what Trump had) are no more the property of the government than any other document.

          Spin harder, clown – but first put your right leg around to the left side of your left leg. Then your spinning might be sufficient to screw yourself into the ground. My GOD you’re a pathetic partisan propagandist, MinorLiar!!!

        • “Trump claims he had declassified the materials in his possession“

          The classification status of the stolen documents is immaterial to the federal felonies Trump is being investigated regarding.

          But it is a false equivalency to equate the two situations, Trump has clear criminal intent to take the documents, conceal his possession, defy federal subpoenas, and make false declarations that all the documents have been returned, all while making public statement claiming ownership of the documents.

          Sure, there may have been carelessness with the documents during the Biden VP., But there was no criminal intent and certainly no obstruction of justice.
          It was Biden’s own attorneys who found the documents and immediately reported to the national archives, clearly showing no criminal intent.

          Trump defied a federal subpoena and filed fraudulent statements claiming a diligent search had been made and all the documents had been returned, statements proved false by the ensuing search warrant.

          You know, it’s just so funny. It was trump’s own video surveillance footage, subpoenaed by the DOJ, that showed there were documents left even after Trump had claimed they’d all been returned. As all the kids say, what a maroon.

        • MinorLiar,

          Please cite the parts of the relevant statutes that require ‘mens rea’.

          The ‘crime’, you @$$clown, is private possession of classified documents. IF Trump declassified them . . . they are not classified documents. Possession of a COPY of a documents is not criminal under your cited statutes, SO LONG AS THE GOVERNMENT HAS THE DOCUMENT. Cite me the parts of the relevant statutes that requires that the government copy be the ONLY copy – the government has to have the record. No mention of ‘exclusivity’.

          Still waiting on your cite for the requirement of ‘mens rea’.

          And how, PRECISELY, do you “know” what Senile Joe’s state of mind was??? Because HE said so????? Sure, just like he said his wife had been killed by a drunk driver (false), Beau died in Afghanistan (false), he was ‘raised in the Puerto Rican community’ (false), that he attended temple and shul more than Jews (false).

          Again, you MISS THE FRIGGIN’ POINT (as usual) – the law can, PERHAPS, prohibit personal possession of ‘classified’ documents. Were the documents in question classified? Because some nitwit bureaucrat used his rubber “Classified” stamp? What was the process?? What if they were subsequently ‘declassified’ (as Trump claims)??? If something is designated a “government record”, you pathetic @$$clown, that means the government is entitled to maintain that record. Great, the government has copies, or even the ‘original’ (a false concept, in this day and age) – WHERE, EXACTLY, does it specify that copies may not be maintained?? Registering a copyright is a ‘government action’, so once a book has been submitted for copyright, it can no longer be sold, because
          EVERY COPY of that book is now a ‘government record’?

          You are not smart, MinorLiar, nor are you educated, nor are you possessed of logic or common sense. Save yourself further embarrassment by refraining from attempting to claim such. You remain and ignorant, lying, Leftist/fascist @$$clown of a propagandist.

          IF Trump is guilty of a crime, Senile Joe is equally guilty. The ‘government records’ requirements you are trying to pin your pathetic, partisan arguments on DOES NOT REQUIRE that no one else have a copy of an “official government record”, only that they government MUST have a copy – simple common sense. When Hillary’s operative, Sandy Berger, REMOVED government records (rolled them up and stuck them in his shorts) from the government?? THAT was a crime. How much jail time did he do for that, MinorLiar? Do you SERIOUSLY believe that the Barry Soetoro private library doesn’t include MYRIAD COPIES of ‘government records’? Can you prove that ANY of the ‘government records’ supposedly possessed by Trump were the sole copies, and there were no copies of such records in proper government possession? Mere private POSSESSION of classified documents, ABSENT ‘mens rea’, is a crime. It is the possession, not the intent, that defines the crime. NOTHING in the various ‘government records’ statutes that you foolishly claim are apposite requires simply that the government have a copy (or in some cases, the original). WHERE, EXACTLY, does it prohibit possession or retention of copies????

          Please stop trying to be clever . . . you don’t do it well, at all.

      • Miner:
        “Rensselaer County Republican elections board commissioner Jason Schofield pleaded guilty to federal charges of fraudulently obtaining and filing absentee ballots.… “
        So, voter fraud cuts both ways. I guess that’s what happens when one’s only religion is dirty, godless politics.

        • “So, voter fraud cuts both ways“

          No, this was not voter fraud, this was election fraud, a completely different animal.

          And this was a Republican sworn elections official who perpetrated these frauds, would you please make me aware of a Democratic elections official who has been charged, convicted and sentenced for election fraud?

          “one’s only religion is dirty, godless politics”

          Well, this convicted elections official self identifies as a Christian.

        • Miner:
          What I meant was vote fraud (with no “R”).
          “… self identifies as a Christian.”
          Maybe so, but he acts like the other thing.

  16. I don’t know if Mr. Slaughter covers this, but the acceptance of violence in historic Christian writing made a major shift after the Christians came into political power in the 4th century.

  17. Joel 3:10 “Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ”

  18. Most of the people I worked with over the years that were bible thumpers were the lowest form of humanity. They violated every teaching of Christianity. They were racist, stingy, cheap, violent and stole each others wives at every opportunity and hated people of any religion other than their own. They blasphemed every teaching of their faith. They were drunks, dope fiends and wife beaters and they abused their own children and they were warmongers.

    They went to church on Sunday and then stole every penny they could lay their hands on
    (even from their own mothers) the other 6 days of the week.

    They were all violent paranoids that had loaded guns in very room of their house with no regard for the safety of their children when they picked up a loaded gun.

    Of course the religious fanatics are a dying breed, they are just a few decades behind the European decline in religious participation and in the U.S. you see more and more churches being abandoned for lack of members just as happened in past decades in Europe where many churches are now hotels, gambling houses and indoor flea markets. More and more American Churches now stand totally abandoned.

    In the end the most denigrated and forgotten man of the revolution Thomas Paine is laughing in his grave. His satire on the Bible, “The Age Of Reason” is even more hilarious when read today. As he pointed out even the various chapters often contradict themselves. If the chapters were divinely inspired the men who wrote it were either drunk as hell or high on drugs or recently escaped from a lunatic asylum, probably the later of course.

    And the religious fanatics who are mostly misogynistic to the max are so damn dumb they would shit if they were better educated because they would have discovered that the person who actually rewrote, organized and saved Christianity from being only a footnote in history was actually a woman, but that is another story far above their ignorance which would conflict with their misogynistic mind sets and fragile male egos.

    • How did you manage all this from your mommy’s basement, dacian the demented?? And what job (other than ditchdigger or garbage collector) would your vaunted “education” qualify you for???

      You’re a lying fraud, dacian the demented, and that’s been documented here numerous times. Why are Leftist/fascists, like you and MinorLiar and Prince Albert, ALWAYS lying, about everything???

      • And you would certainly be aware of “the lowest form of humanity”; you look at it in the mirror on the daily.

  20. As a Christian you are guaranteed that you will be persecuted. Persecuted people defend themselves. Modern people defend themselves with firearms. If he doesn’t have a dagger let him sell his cloak and buy one.

  21. I can tell you why firearm ownership is (and should be) intertwined with Christianity. And I don’t need a semester university class to do it.

    The Bible informs us that:
    — Human life is the pinnacle of God’s creation and of immense value
    — Countless people seek to maim/murder innocent victims
    — God commands us to preserve innocent human life
    — God gave us reasoning and discernment
    — Reasoning/discernment tell us that we need weapons to save innocent lives
    — God explicitly allows us to use weapons in defense of innocent life

    I am 1000% confident that God expects all responsible people to be armed to defend their own lives and the lives of innocent people around them. The only uncertainty is whether or not people who profess to be Christian will succumb to the emotional worldly arguments against being armed for righteous self-defense.

  22. “Wesleyan University” and non Christian “Methodist” institution. As Christian as the Church of England.

    Mr Prof is teaching a “Religion” class at a nominally Christian university where “very few of my students have ever read the Bible”.

    Mr Prof – NO ONE with an oz of testosterone uses the word “violence”. Prog double speak.

    Entire thing is pathetic.

    • “Mr Prof is teaching a “Religion” class at a nominally Christian university where “very few of my students have ever read the Bible”.”

      Christianity encompasses different churches and denomination, and not all followers read the bible.

  23. “And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.

    Luke 6:29

    But here they are, “Christians” and their mental gymnastic, trying to justify why God probably expects them to use deadly force on others 😂🤡

    • Quotes scriptures without context, mocks a faith, derides self defense……. probably a commie at best.

    • Fools,

      I am replying for the benefit of other observers, not you.

      First of all, that is an awful translation. That verse referred to a cultural practice at the time where an incredibly rude person SLAPPED a victim with the soft (sort-of) pads of the rude person’s fingers and palm–striking the victim’s soft (sort-of) cheek. While that stings a lot (both physically and emotionally), it does not injure the victim. Thus the incredibly rude person was leveling an extremely harsh INSULT, which is NOT attempting to maim nor murder the victim.

      Of course that verse goes on to direct the victim to “turn the other cheek” after the first slap. That puts the incredibly rude person into a losing position if he/she wants to continue insulting the victim and strike the victim again. Why? Because the rude person will either swing their dominant hand back across the other direction and strike the victim with the hard/bony back of their hand. Or the rude person will swing their dominant hand in the original direction and now be striking the victim’s vulnerable nose. Either action is escalating beyond a stinging insult. Thus, when the victim turned their other cheek, it was a clever way of calling out the rude person’s grossly obscene behavior while minimizing the potential of exploding into a nasty physical fight. (Remember the mantra, “The only fight that we are guaranteed to win is the fight that never happens.)

      So, that Bible verse instructs Christians how to push-back against INSULTS, even extreme insults, in a way which minimizes the chances of the situation devolving into a nasty/messy physical fight (with its associated potential for serious injuries to the victim). It does not instruct Christians to allow awful people to beat, rape, nor murder them.

      • Gee, that sure is a lengthy explanation.

        You know, I checked the KJV and I found none of the text you posted anywhere.

        Do you also believe that your text, just like the Bible, was inspired by God so that gives you some sort of license to create explanations out of whole cloth?

        • Miner49er,

          I have a single word answer for interested observers: exegesis.

          Exegesis means getting a thorough picture/understanding which necessarily requires learning about Archaeology and History. It is Archaeology and History in conjunction with the Bible which inform us about the culture of the writers and readers when they wrote (and read) the original texts of the Bible.

          Exegesis also means reading the Bible as a whole to inform us of the meaning of any given single verse.

          That is how we are able to fully understand the Bible verse about “turning the other cheek”. And that is how my explanation includes additional information which is not in the “turn the other cheek” verse.

      • @Miner49er

        You know, I checked the KJV and I found none of your wrong confirmation bias stupid there.

  26. Fascinating. We should work to disconnect the two things. I’m a reformed Catholic (my name is not Achmed) and I’m fine with people being religious although have no interest in religion. Guns and God are connected in America because of reasons relating to our history and culture war … not for any really good reason. And there is no reason based on science and utility that an atheist should not want guns or be a shooter. And bluntly …. religion is long term trending down … we should not tie religion to gun rights.

    • Doesn’t seem to be tied to anything but a contrived study. As multiple others above posted conservatives, those impacted by various “grass roots protests” (riots), and anyone generally distrustful of government/media tends to own firearms and their being Christian is incidental.

      • The very broad application of religion here is a problem. Its automatically assumed to be “God and Guns” when in reality it isn’t.

        For example, an article called “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Gun Ownership,” which looks at how such beliefs shape national attitudes about guns – the Co-written Abigail Vegter, a KU doctoral student in political science, had interviews with supposedly ‘dozens’ of “Christian gun owners in the Midwest”. Well, she called them “Christian gun owners” because they were WASP types because they were white, it wasn’t because they were all actually Christians in a religious context. (and it wasn’t ‘dozens’ either, plus she started lumping them all together from the very beginning a ‘Christian’ without knowing the religious preferences)

        One of her interview subjects was a white man who was atheist. Each of her interview subjects she asked them about the movie “American Sniper.” In this movie about Chris Kyle, the Navy SEAL sniper is asked why he chose that job. Her interview subject said he recalled from the movie that Kyle had responded “Because there’s evil in the world,”

        In her article she immediately jumps to interpreting and translating her interview subject recollection of what another person said to her interview subject owning firearms because supernatural evil was his chief reason for keeping firearms whether as a protection from Satan or as a way to stave off the apocalypse. Thus ‘God and Guns’ to support the pre-determined context of her article. Biased as heck.

        The point being this; Its not ‘God and Guns’ for these people, its what ever they choose it to be to support their rant or article or bias or course – and they blindly simply call gun owners ‘Christians’. Its a false stereo-type to keep the myth alive that ‘right wing Christians’ are the reason for guns ’cause “God said so”.

        Even surveys do it by the way they ask questions. For example, one survey asked the question “Have you ever attended a church service?” to which the available answers were “Yes” or “No” or “Sometimes” or “Never”. Well, if you ever attended a wedding in a church you attended a church service, if you went to sunday school as a child you attended a church service – you get the point, basically if you had ever gone to church while there was some service in progress you attended a church service no matter your religious beliefs. Those that answered “Yes” or “Sometimes” were automatically classified as ‘Christian gun owners’ despite them answering other questions showing they had no specific religious preference or were atheist or did not practice any religion.

        Its these slants used to paint a picture that is overall not actually true any longer. Its not about ‘God and guns’, its about saying its a right, its about those who don’t agree with that right having a stereo-type label they can use to disparage with.

  27. Satan says jump from the pinnacle because God will save you.
    Democrats say disarm, because they will save you.

  29. Have Warrior12.com Tee….”God gave his archangels weapons because even the Almighty knew you don’t fight Evil with Tolerance and Understanding.”

    Politicians do what they do because we haven’t done the “…Jael hammers a peg through the head of the military commander Sisera in the Book of Judges……” thingy in a long, long time. They don’t take We The Little Peeps seriously.

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