One of the lead stories was the latest in the regular string of bombings of weddings and other public events by the Taliban in Afghanistan. I thought to myself, as I have for most of my life when I hear about violence in the "backwards" parts of the world, how blessed we are to live in a country where folks rarely go around killing people for no apparent reason, or to make a political statement.
But almost the next story covered the shooting in Odessa Texas. It was like having a bucket of ice water dumped on my head as I realized we are becoming Afghanistan. We may have had more crazy or politically motivated mass murder events this summer than Afghanistan.
Deep down I always had a little bit of a feeling it could never happen to here because our dominant religions are rooted in the teachings of Jesus. Yet the proliferation of mass murder events are a direct result of the most noisily Christian folk in this country supporting, or tolerating, the Gun Lobby dictating policies to Republicans for 40 years.
In their zeal to have a veto power over women's reproductive decisions they have sought appointment of conservative Supreme Court justices. Those justices have twisted the words of the second amendment to the point their decisions preclude the state from stopping angry or crazy or politically unstable people from walking into stores, or churches or other public places with assault weapons and opening fire.
Not a legacy Jesus would be happy with.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)