NEHEMIAH AND THE NRA are at loggerheads. As the NRA opens the floodgates of gun rights, Nehemiah embraces protection for the common good.
Nehemiah writes following the return of the Israelites from Babylon. Jerusalem needed to be rebuilt and a protective wall was required. Why? “Then they said, ‘Let us start building!’ So they committed themselves to the common good.” (Neh 2:18) A wall was constructed in place of weapons production.
The NRA leadership trumpets weapons for protection. This farcical buffoonery unleashes 38,000 gun deaths a year, making the USA #1 in the rate of gun deaths among all Western Developed Nations. Activist and philanthropist Abigail Disney, who made the documentary “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” and won an Emmy in 2017 for “The Armor of Light” which addressed gun violence, commented in the October 10, 2018 CHRISTIAN CENTURY:
“I believe there are very few people who act with intentional evil. But I do believe there is one bad actor in this equation, and that is the NRA. It has lowered every barrier to taking human life by increasing the number of guns in the country, by encouraging more people to have them, by discouraging any kind of checks or hesitation in gun ownership, and by hoping to force states that do have gun control laws to accept conceal carry permits from other states, despite its stated belief in states’ rights. It is now much easier to kill a person and walk away than it has ever been. If every single human life is sacred, then we have a problem.”
I support Nehemiah’s wall of protection for the common good. Unfettered gun availability is the antithesis of the common good.
Peace!
Ron Letnes