Guns Will Never Replace Spirituality in America

Where’s the Spiritual Leadership from the Evangelical Right?

It has happened again. An eighteen-year-old white boy has taken it on himself to travel for hours to murder black people¹. That is clearly evil by any definition of the word. But I have to wonder how many pastors and other religious leaders are standing in their pulpits today just 24 hours later and condemning the “replacement theory” doctrines which lead to such atrocities? I fear the answer is not enough.

I’ve wondered a long time about the reason or reasons for young people being that far out of touch with reality. I’ve made some observations which I doubt could be treated as conclusions, but certainly observations which must be considered. One thing that I’m sure must be considered is the idea that in the United States we tend to try to fix the blame and not the problem. Who cares who or what is to blame? That is the problem, that the event takes place at all. For that reason, I have to give credit to those who say that guns are not the problem. Okay… If guns are not the problem then what is the problem? It’s true that people are the problem or the problem exists in the people. But that statement does not address the problem, its cause, or a solution for the existence of the problem. It seems to me that the problem exists in the motivation or reason for these young people to wantonly murder folks. That young man in South Carolina went into a black church and murdered people he prayed with². That young person in Texas went to a Walmart to murder people shopping. We can not forget the young man who went to the school in Sandy Hook and murdered children³. Now this young man drives for more than three hours to murder black people in a grocery store. What are these young men thinking with?

Rather than consider what they’re using to think with, perhaps it would be instructive to consider what is not present in their thinking. We know that they all think about being replaced. I, for one, do not understand how they are being replaced. That seems to me to be pure craziness. I understand it is a popular thing to say, but then so is “have a nice day”, but I fail to see much meaning in either statement. I know that replacement is a fear for many white nationalists and they repeat a statement made by fascists of the World War II mindset. But Jews did not replace anyone. The Fascists murdered the Jews though. No one was replaced, only murdered. I think it is a fair bet that Latin people who come to the US through the southern border are not coming to replace anyone at all. Nor do I see how they could replace anyone.

When I hear people like Trucker and Sean over on the “Fox reporting of Alternate Reality” complain that there are pallets of baby formula going to immigrant babies and those babies are getting preferential treatment⁴, I have to pause and wonder if anyone at Fox has any idea about how long in advance that formula had to be ordered to arrive in the facilities where those babies are housed? We’re not talking about wiggle your nose timelines here, eh? Isn’t that kind of reporting the material that those murderous young men use to support their own “Alternate Realities”? Please do not misunderstand here. I do not think that Trucker and Sean are responsible for what those young men do, but I do think that Trucker and Sean play with fire unnecessarily.

Where I think the problem actually exists is with the people who are supposedly the workforce who are to keep the guardrails in place. This group includes the clergy and journalists. Journalists probably can be excused because of what they are instructed to report as news. News is a business and therefore is driven by issues that excite people and when people are excited they buy news media. Playboy and Hustler were prime examples of this kind of excitation. Those two magazines were honest about who and what they were. Fox on the other hand is decidedly less honest, although the “Fox Alternative Reality” is just as sexy and just as exploitive. But because sensationalism sells through excitation, it is not what it purports to be and we expect that. We all knew the National Enquirer was sensational lies, but we bought it for the same reason we bought Hustler. We all loved to read the sensational stories about sexual escapades that were featured in each Hustler edition.

However, we do not and never have expected that our religious leaders would sell out for money and sensationalism. Yet they have. As with many ideas, the road to Hell was paved with good intentions. Back in the fifties and sixties, there was a phenomenon which had its genesis in the thirties. It was the phenomenon of the tent revival. The idea was that a firebrand preacher man would come to town and hold a series of revival meetings. It was a good show. It was such a good show that Neil Diamond sang a popular song about it. But then along came television and it was possible for that firebrand preacher to make a lot of green. Billy Graham was notable as was Pat Robertson. However, these folks did not trade in the spirituality of their faith, but rather in sensational positions which could be translated into cash donations.

There is a necessity for spiritual guidance in any society. It is, in fact, the spiritual nature of we humans which provide society with the guardrails required to keep young men from committing atrocities such as mass murder. It is the guardrails which prevent men of goodwill from trading in untruthful alternative realities. It is the guardrails which guide politicians to keep church and state as separate entities.

Sadly, in current society, such guardrails are not in evidence. Is it surprising that the religious category of “Nones” is growing every year? There is no spiritual benefit derived through religion which is based on profit and political gain. A society or a reality constructed on profit and political gain is doomed to degradation. There can be no societal growth promulgated in such a spiritual wasteland. Young people must, perforce, search out guidance for the course of their lives. Actual spirituality provides guardrails for societal growth. However, there seems to be a spiritual famine in the current society. It is a wasteland populated by young people searching for actual spirituality. Spirituality which serves them as a guide for their future actions in the world. Money and political power are seen by these young people as the losing propositions they are. Drugs will not provide the answers nor the direction necessary. Pseudo religion will not provide direction any better. The only solution that can possibly function in any society is thoughtful religious principles being promulgated through guides with tolerance and the ability to open doorways for young people to observe actual spirituality in practice by those people recognized as spiritual guides. There can be no substitute. All long-lived societies have flourished as a result of spiritual understanding. No society has ever flourished through monetary gain and political power.

References

1. Buffalo suspect’s posts about attack plans could be seen online 30 minutes before mass shooting. (2022, May 19). CNN. Retrieved May 19, 2022, from https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/18/us/buffalo-supermarket-shooting-wednesday/index.html

2. Romero, D. (2021, August 25). Death sentence upheld for Dylann Roof, who killed 9 in South Carolina church shooting. NBC News. Retrieved May 19, 2022, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/death-sentence-upheld-man-who-killed-9-south-carolina-church-n1277667

3. (n.d.). Sandy Hook school shooting — HISTORY. Retrieved May 19, 2022, from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/gunman-kills-students-and-adults-at-newtown-connecticut-elementary-school

4. Vaillancourt, W., & Vaillancourt’s, W. (2022, May 13). Baby Formula Shortage: Fox News, GOP Lawmakers Want Migrants to Starve. Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 19, 2022, from https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/greg-abbott-fox-news-baby-formula-shortage-1352736/