You live in the interface between radioactive molten stone and a hard vacuum. Did you feel safe before?

Just Jane

Sermons, Stories, and Musings by Rev. Jane Page, Unitarian Universalist Minister

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Standing Up to Gundamentalism

This weekend is one of two weekends in March identified by the interfaith group “Heeding God’s Promise” as a weekend to promote Gun Violence Prevention. Other organizations including the Brady Campaign have been encouraging faith groups to get involved for some time. But this big push for something this month probably is in hope that the timing is right for the government to finally do something – pass something – vote on something, -- if enough voices are heard.

So a while back when I saw this request, I checked the box and agreed to dedicate this service to gun violence prevention. It’s not the kind of sermon I especially enjoy doing. I like uplifting sermons, funny sermons, sermons that make our hearts glad! Yet – I am determined that we as Unitarian Universalists must stand up not only to religious fundamentalism – but today to religious gundamentalism.

Gundamentalism is a term coined by Rev. Rachel Smith, founder of the God not Guns Initiative. It’s an offshoot of fundamentalism. Its adherents believe that nothing is as important as the right to own and carry a gun. Or many guns. Their interpretation (and now the court’s interpretation) of the 2nd Amendment to the constitution appears to be more important than any commandment that Moses toted down that mountain or any passage from Christian scriptures. Rev. Smith says that their mantra, “’Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,’ is a magnificent half-truth that attempts to absolve gundamentalism of responsibility for the American epidemic of gun violence. This mantra is chanted over and over until it drowns out the Bilblical mandates of thou shalt not kill; love your neighbor as yourself; forgive seventy times seven; do good to those who hate you.”

Gundamentalism emphasizes FEAR of the other. And their Lord of protection is the powerful NRA – (“praise be unto it”). They really believe that the answer to our gun violence is more gun violence. I thought Rev. Smith had a good response to the call to allow guns on campuses after the Virginia Tech shootings. She said: “Sometimes I wonder if the proponents of guns on campus have ever been on a children’s playground. Just picture a group of children playing. If one child picks up a stick and begins hitting the others, what would you do? Most parents would take the offending child aside, take the stick, and if the child can play without harming others, let the child return to the group. One thing we certainly wouldn’t do is give all the other children sticks (bigger, better sticks perhaps?) with which to defend themselves. If we wouldn’t arm our children with sticks when they are small, why would we arm them with guns when they are older?” Yet the NRA and various state legislatures keep moving in the opposite direction.

Then on December 14, we had the Newtown shootings at Sandy Hook School. Although we’d had many mass shootings before – at schools, public gatherings, malls, theaters, and even houses of worship, this one seemed to capture the hearts and attention of folks even more. Perhaps it was because of the age of most of the victims – cute, precious little first graders. While thousands of urban teens and young adults are victims of gun violence each year, that doesn’t get the headlines or the hearts as easily. Even some very conservative folks were saying, “Enough is enough.” But the powerful religion of gundamentalism led by the NRA will not give up. This may take a massive and continuous outcry to make a difference.

So here I am today --- crying out with others that – Enough is Enough! You’ve heard the statistics before – so I won’t show a lot of slides for each of these, but I do want to give a reminder of some of the BLOODY STATISTICS.

Each year nearly 30,000 Americans are killed by guns. In the last 40 years, more than one million Americans have died as a result of gun violence.

Firearms are the second leading cause of death (after motor vehicle accidents) for young people ages 19 and under in the U.S.

Eight American children and teens age 19 and under are killed by guns every day.

Here’s a comparison statistic that should shock you. “The number of children and teens killed by guns since 1979 is two and a half times greater than the number of U.S. military personnel killed in action in the Vietnam (47,434) or Korean (33,739) Wars, and over 22 times greater than American military personnel killed in the wars in Afghanistan (1,712) and in Iraq (3,518).” Yet, “The United States of America has spent $1.5 trillion on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars so far, purportedly to protect our children and citizens from enemies without, while ignoring the reality that the greatest threats to child safety and wellbeing come from enemies within.” (Marion Wright Edelman Huffington Post blog).

ALSO -- There are far more suicides than there are homicides. And, guns kept in the home for self-protection are 43 times more likely to kill a family member, friend or acquaintance than to kill an intruder, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Guns on the street or in the house make us less safe.

And finally, if dollars mean more than lives to some folks ---- Gun violence costs the U.S. at least $1 billion annually.

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http://revjanepage.blogspot.com/2013/03/standing-up-to-gundamentalism.html

I feel certain we can easily child-proof gorilla cages

But after the unwatched child climbs under the fence no fair complaining when he is knocked unconscious by the electricity in the secondary wire barrier.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512090750