Idols

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me…You shall not murder. - Exodus 20:2-3 & 13 (NRSV)

Just another day and just another mass shooting in the land of the free and home of the brave. There have been more mass shooting in the good old US of A this year then there have been days of the year. A mass shooting is when four or more people are shot in an event, or related series of events, likely without a cooling off period. Here is a graph from the Oregonian today that tells a lot about this number (each purple hash is a mass shooting):

I think we have been talking about the problem of guns all wrong. I think that what we have in this country with a minority of the population is a fanatical worship of an idol. By most sources and estimates only 1/3 of the US population owns a gun and gun ownership is declining. Yet most sources will tell you that right now in the US there are anywhere from 270-310 million privately owned guns – that’s nearly one gun for every man, woman, and child in the US. So those that own guns on average own several. So I think we might have a devotion to an idol and not a commitment to a right to own and bear arms.

Let me say that a large number of gun owners are people who handle them safely, have a reason to own them and don’t participate in what I am saying is idol worship. I cannot tell you numbers because they aren’t easy to find but I know many people who do own guns but don’t worship them or the right to own them.

That being said there are still a small but fanatical group out there that sees their guns as holy and their right to own them as devotion to their god. How else can you explain their unflinching claim that more guns would keep these mass shootings at bay? That isn’t logic or even defense of a right, it is religious fanaticism. “You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hand.” Who says something like that? Only a devote worshiper. I think that we are missing the point if we approach gun control from a socially responsible or logical or common sense perspective.

We have to see that the NRA and its devotees are a form of idol worship, they have placed their guns and their right to own them on a pedestal and have fervently dedicated their lives and resources to keeping the object of their devotion free and accessible so they can carry it with them wherever they go and have it near at all times. Regardless of how senseless or illogical or even criminal it may be these gun worshipers will risk everything for their god; even when their devotion means the very real possibility that they or others will freely violate of their other god’s commandments.

The opposition to gun control isn’t about the right to own and bear arms; it’s about a fanatical devotion to an idol.

Dear God, help us to worship you and you alone. Be with the victims of gun violence. Be with those who feel that they must use guns for violent purposes. Be with us all as we try to find a way forward that allows for freedom and also protects us. Amen.