The reaction to President Obama’s gun control measures has been rather amusing. Whatever you may think of gun control, the religious language used here is disturbing and silly at the same time. As it happens, the “benediction” that “guns are absolutely essential for living in the way that God intended for us to live” was just a warm-up.
As the crazies rolls in, here are some of my favorites:
Larry Pratt, the head of the lobbying organization Gun Owners of America, said this:
Frankly, it almost would seem that animism won’t go away. The left, which is largely made up of people who don’t believe in Jesus Christ’s blood as being necessary for our salvation, view inanimate objects as possessing their own will. That’s animism, that’s a return to the most pagan of paganism and look at what nutty political views it ends up supporting.
Well, sure, inanimate objects having their own will makes no sense. But human sacrifice being necessary for humans being saved (mind you, FROM the same human/god being sacrificed!) makes a lot of sense. As it happens, animism and paganism aren’t the same thing, but Mr Pratt lost me before he even got to that.
And this from Rick Perry, governor of Texas:
As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be. Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice. Let us all return to our places of worship and pray for help.
The governor can pray as much as he wants. But this leaves one question unanswered. If he is against laws in case of gun violence because they are “the only redoubt of secularism” and he see prayer as the answer, why, then, does he want to outlaw abortion? Why won’t he just pray for women to stop having abortions?
As vile as the religious right often gets, the use of religion in defense of guns it about as creepy as they have ever been.
And, speaking of religion, here is the Christian Broadcasting Network with a high octane insane clip from Senator Rand Paul (complete with American and Israeli flags, which are standard religious right backdrop):
