THE BLESSING AND THE INDICTMENT
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:1-12 contains a BLESSING and an INDICTMENT of President Trump’s gun violence positions.
As stated in THE TRACE article of 19 October 2016, Trump supports: 1) Opposition to universal background checks; 2) Elimination of gun-free zones; 3) A national right to carry law; 4) Supreme Court nominees who will be anti-gun control; 5) Elimination of any assault weapons ban; 6) Expansion of mental health services; 7) Law and order, stop and frisk laws; 8) No fly lists/ watch lists; 9) NRA initiatives.
I would call numbers 6 and 8 gun violence prevention positives or BLESSINGS enhancers.
To qualify as a BLESSING, an action must lift up the poor in spirit, prevent mourning, enhance humility, ensure equal justice for all, promote mercy, create openness to God and each other, nurture peace, and accept violence towards self instead of inflicting violence.
The other numbers are INDICTMENTS, meaning they promote gun violence. They create poorness of spirit, stir prideful power, define righteousness as killing, nurture domination, negate relationship, destroy relational peace, justify persecution of the other.
Jesus’ sermon sheds light on what the faithful can do and support in promoting gun violence prevention. We are the human expressions of Jesus.