God and Guns!

This morning I was rudely awakened to those words proclaimed loudly by none other than Hank Williams Jr. from a snippet that was broadcast on the radio from a recent Republican rally/concert held in Fayetteville.

Hard to believe that those words would be used together as a proclamation...what has this country come to? I was disturbed all day by this announcement, even more so by the cheers of the crowd that followed it. Is this the teaching of our God and our Saviour? How can this statement be reconciled with Biblical teaching?

Have we really become a nation that equates gun ownership as a "God" ordained right? Have we removed ourselves that far from the core of God's instructions? How can someone claim to be a Christian and also proclaim a love for guns? I really struggle with this.

Here is an interesting quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower, from a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953 (and remembering that this man was a decorated WWII General as well as our 34th President):

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed...This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is a humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

I believe President Eisenhower would roll over in his grave if he knew that statements praising "God and Guns" were the rallying cry of a Republican gathering.

Each election season, the rhetoric becomes more and more divisive, the distinctions between the two parties more and more oppositional, the choices less obvious and the poor and the downtrodden lost in the struggle for power. I sometimes feel that as a country we have completely lost direction and instead keep spinning around the same circles, the same issues, the same frustrations. Because we are so focused on our side "winning", nothing gets accomplished except more polarization. We are now hanging dummies in effigy, physically damaging ourselves to make a story, plotting giant assassinations, sending viral emails full of half truths or lies without any consideration of the damage we are doing not only to those we oppose, but also to ourselves. Each time we reduce ourselves to the spreading of lies, gossip or half truths, we are hurting our own consciousness. How can we stop the madness???

Throughout the Bible, the chosen people of God have been set apart, not part of the culture they resided in. From the early Hebrews, the sons of Abraham to the first Christians in the Acts 2 church, we followers of God have been separate from societies ways, often subjected to hardship, slavery, persecution or execution. Perhaps the culture that surrounded them was no different than we are facing in this country. So how do I set myself apart from the madness? How do I continue my pilgrims journey of faith, follow my hearts desire and God's directive to help the poor, the orphan and the widow?