Acting their Part
Since the Parkland shooting we have seen perhaps the most vigorous attempt to protest the Second Amendment and our current gun laws in recent times. The conspiracy theorists alleged that the most vocal students were “bussed in” actors, with lines, all under a false flag covert CIA operation to take our guns away. I mean they could be, we don’t quite know what is going on in the FBI and CIA, but that’s another issue, for another day. These teenagers, which CNN so dutifully spotlighted in their recent town hall, are not actors in some conspiracy.
But make no mistake, these students organizing the “March for Our Lives” the associated walkouts are acting a part. Might I add, it is maybe even Oscar worthy, but that’s not saying much. These students are playing their part. They have their lines memorized, and the script they are reading from is progressive talking points. These students have sprung into action with uncannily precise articulation of their agenda and goals. It is almost as if they’ve been instructed in a worldview.
Their worldview believes that Government is the means whereby man is to be reformed. Paul Kurtz’s Humanist Manifesto expressly declares, “No Deity will save us, we must save ourselves.” They’ve been trained to think that man needs salvation not from sin and God’s wrath, but from mental illness, societal oppression, systemic racism, and un-woke, MAGA Trumpists. The deliverance they seek is not from sinful nature, but from “backwards thinking.” The remedy for evil is societal evolution through revolution, not repentance and reconciliation with God and our fellow man.
Revolution ≠ Reformation
The catch is that America, despite a steep slide in secularism, still retains much of our Christian heritage. It’s like we’re living in a 200-year-old house; the foundation is sound, the framing is square, but the most recent tenants have hung up some hideous wallpaper, laid down orange, shag carpet, and have even taken to excavating in the basement because the foundation seems too judgmental. Our Christian heritage is evidenced in our constitution’s attempt to secure as much liberty from Civil Government, while assuming that citizens will responsibly self-govern. The sword of Justice is given to the Government for protection from enemies and execution of evildoers. But most everything else is left to self-government.
The US is unique amongst most countries as it regards gun ownership. In most countries a citizen must prove to the government that they are responsible enough to own a gun; here in the States, we assume that our citizens are responsible and put the burden of proof on the Government to show why someone shouldn’t be allowed to own a gun.
Now, if those who are clamoring that we must #DoSomething actually want something done, the thing they need to do is a full-scale repeal of the Second Amendment. A cobbling of so-called gun control policies, laws, etc. will only ensure that we still have a million legal cracks through which maniacs can obtain a gun. If they want change, there is a legal way to do it. What would that entail? Two-thirds of both the Senate and the House must approve a proposed amendment repealing the 2nd amendment; this would be followed by two-thirds of the state legislators calling on Congress to call a constitutional convention. Once the constitutional convention has been called, three-fourths of the state legislators must vote to approve that amendment.There it is. You want Government to do something about guns, that is the legal process by which you can fundamentally alter the US culture as it regards the right to keep and bear arms.
However, the revolution which is being fomented, as all revolutions do, comes with the costly baggage of a fundamental shift of worldview. Would that change of worldview really be for the better? We would now require our citizens to prove they are responsible rather than assume citizens will be responsible. This shift would turn the Government into a patron to be supplicated, rather than a servant to be directed. It would mean that citizens were subjects of the Government, rather than the sovereigns of their civil Government.
These students––while exercising their First Amendment rights by protesting the Second––are pleading with the bloated Government that has shown itself incompetent at educating and protecting these students, to come in and be the solution. It is like hiring the Sophomore who routinely gets F’s as the new Math and Science teacher. The Government––though inept at teaching things like, y’know, addition, literacy, critical thinking––has successfully pried our children out from under those who are God-ordained to provide their education (their parents), and saturated them with the secular worldview which looks to Government intervention for the solution to every societal problem. These students are espousing the catechism of the secular worldview they’ve been taught. Unless we tell a different story, this generation will find itself more closely fettered by the chains of tyranny.
A Different Sort of Barrel
We are terrified of looking down the barrel of a mass shooter. However, we are indifferent to the fact that the barrel of overweening statism is aimed right between our eyes. Progressives want to point to places like Australia and applaud the confiscation of their citizens’ guns. What they fail to highlight is that the only way to enforce such a confiscation is by threat of force. If the Second Amendment was repealed, you’d necessarily need men with guns representing our federal government, confiscating guns from individual citizens. If someone did not comply with this repeal, they would be in violation of the law, and the police would be called in to force the relinquishment of the weapons.
The fundamental change which is being advocated for is deeply spiritual at its root. Our founders’ experiment was to afford as much liberty and power to the citizens as possible, so that the Government was as small as possible. Self-government, and personal responsibility were the expectation.
This was not to take place in a void, either. Their assumption was that once the citizens of this country were acknowledged as the rightful sovereigns of their own nation, the only way to keep the nation from descending into anarchy was if the virtues of the Christian faith were the underlying bedrock of our cultural morality.
Individuals and families were to take care of themselves and their neighbors, as Scripture commands. But, these appeals to outlaw “assault weapons” have no transcendent standard why. These advocates are not interested in the Government being stripped of their “assault weapons,” because they’ve been taught to think of the Government as the transcendent standard.
The reality is that tyrannical governments have a far worse track record as it regards mass killings than US citizens do. The reason we see repeated mass shootings in America is part of the risk that we’ve decided to run as a country. Our founders believed that personal responsibility, undergirded by the tenants and virtues of the Christian faith would be enough of a safeguard. They were right. It is only since we have forsaken such things as responsible and loving fathers who discipline their children to fear the Lord and obey His Word, that we’ve seen the abuse of the liberty our forefathers bequeathed to us.
God made man free, and the Gospel of the Risen Christ makes it abundantly plain that God intended to liberate man from all the evils of Satan’s empire. Tyrannical Governments are one of Satan’s favorite haunts, for through it he persuades men to pursue righteousness through means of moralism (i.e. let’s make good laws), rather than righteousness found in Christ and in obedience to His commands.
A Sign of Judgement
Finally, I would note that one of the signs Scripture gives that judgement has come upon a nation is that children rule over the nation (Is. 3:4). Parents have abdicated their God-given task to train up their children in the fear of the Lord, and instead been content to let the godless educate their children. We have been sloppy and apathetic as our national debt grows, and have failed to resist the madness of abortion on demand and the GQBLT propaganda. As a result, this generation is demanding that we yield up our self-government unto the God of State. It is demanding that we hand in our lawful protections, and guide the barrel of statism to that convenient spot right behind the ear and we shall ever do its bidding.
It is no wonder that this cultural battle of secularism/postmoderism vs. Christianity has now come around to guns. If there ever were a modern symbol of the masculine task of provision and protection, there it is. Surprise, surprise, our gender-confused culture wants it neutered. For the sake of the Gospel, Christians must respond with a firm, “Heaven, no.”