New Documentary on Guns and Christianity
Shows Sarah Palin at NRA
To watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WcB5wP5864
Sarah
Palin has a curious perspective on what Christianity is all about. Many who
practice what is called “Christianity” encourage helping the least among us,
charity, helping to eradicate poverty, advocating for peace and against war,
and generally trying to be a decent person.
It is unclear from where in The
Bible Sarah Palin and other gun advocates have gathered religious inspiration
that it is okay to shoot people. Perhaps the Old Testament.
The
documentary The Armor of Light is opening Oct. 30, and features an
Evangelical minister who walks the audience through the question, “is it
possible to be both pro-gun and pro-life?” Reverend Rob Schenck is an
anti-abortion activist and serves as a fixture on the political far right, but
he breaks with the cult to press conservatives on the conflict in their
so-called values.
The trailer of the documentary opens on the keynote address Sarah Palin gave to the 2014 NRA convention feeding the fear that the government is coming for people’s guns and 2nd Amendment rights are being stripped away by the left.
Palin told
the audience “Gals, now, ya know, ammo is expensive! Don’t waste a bullet on a
warning shot.” She got a standing ovation for the line. In contrast, Rev.
Schenck says:
“When pastors, preachers and Bible teachers ignore these questions it creates a vacuum. The NRA has come in on the issue of guns and has attempted to provide all kinds of ethical and moral commentary on the use of lethal force… I sometimes wonder about the ethical dimensions of even having a constant defensive posture.”
Rev.
Schenck introduces us to fellow Christian Lucy McBath of Florida, whose son was
shot and killed, all thanks to “Stand Your Ground.”
In November 2012, white guy
Michael Dunn fired 10 shots at a car outside a convenience store. The car was
filled with a group of black teenagers inside. He didn’t like what he called
their “thug music.” He was convicted of first-degree murder in a retrial last
year. Thankfully.
Even
though McBath considers herself pro-life, she says she’s on a difficult journey
working through her own grief, but also attempting to create some kind of
effective political change. The film shows the struggled she has with her
conscience and the heartbreak and rejection of other parents who are trying to
compel the country to think about gun sense through a moral lens.
The
trailer goes on to show a clip of NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre
speaking to the conference where he gins up fears for the reasons people should
buy more guns:
“We know, in the world that surrounds us, there are terrorists and home invaders and drug cartels and carjackers and knockout gamers and rapers [sic], haters, campus killers, airport killers, shopping mall killers, road-rage killers, and killers who scheme to destroy our country with massive storms of violence against our power grids, or vicious waves of chemicals or disease that could collapse the society that sustains us all. I ask you. Do you trust this government to protect you? We are on our own.”
No
mention from the NRA at that conference on the crime rate and homicides being
at historic lows, by the way.
This
documentary is a fascinating challenge to conservatives who aren’t afraid to
have their beliefs challenged. What an interesting and foreign concept it must
be to think about the morality of gun ownership, not from a position of
“protection” but in preventing accidents.
Is it more moral to have a gun to
kill someone in the unlikely event of drug cartels invading your home? Or is it
more moral to not have a gun to prevent a possible accident? “Firearms were the
third-leading cause of injury-related deaths nationwide in 2010, following
poisoning and motor vehicle accidents,” according to the CDC.
This
is powerful, you’ve got to see it: