Would Jesus Carry an Assault Rifle?

The misappropriation of Religion in America

How did it come to pass that in the United States, the Republican party has become the home of the religious right, and also the gun lobby? This is unsettling in a country where gun violence has become too much of a norm, and when it happens, only ‘thoughts and prayers’ are offered to family in condolences.

According to The Conversation, Christianity in the US is unique in the way that it espouses gun rights compared with Christianity in other countries:

One issue in particular sparked a question from a South Asian Christian student: Why did American evangelicals seem to have such an affinity for firearms? For example, Pew Research indicates 41% of white evangelicals own a firearm, compared with 30% of people in the U.S. overall. This unsettled the student, since they shared much of the same theology, and they wanted to know more about this connection.

The United States was originally a country that was built on the idea of religious freedom, as many early immigrants were fleeing religious persecution in Europe at the time of their immigration.

In the Constitution, there is a clause about the separation of Church and State for this very reason. The founding fathers believed that religion and politics should be kept separate. However, we can see that in modern times this is not the case anymore.

The Republican party has become associated with the Christian Right, and also with the NRA and gun ownership. These seem to be two values which should be diametrically opposed, however in the US there has become a synthesis of these two types of values.

This is strange to say the least, when in the bible, Jesus talks about turning the other cheek when someone harms you:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also” (Matthew 5:38–39).

You would think that, for followers of Jesus, this verse would imply pacifism instead of violence. And yet, in the US today, there are violent quasi-religious groups that espouse violence in defense of their beliefs.

According to Christianity Today,

I am angry about the ways guns have poisoned our country like lead seeping into our water. I am angry that people are taught to cling to their personal freedoms and their individual comforts above caring for real life human people. I am angry that the God I believe in, the one who teaches us to love our neighbors, to sacrifice our lives for that of our friend, and to consider others more important than ourselves has been turned into a justification for a right he did not bestow and an ideology that looks nothing like him. So yes, I sure am angry. But more than that, I am sad.

Even within the church there is a divide. However, when it comes to political ideology, the church has strayed away from the teachings of the bible in many ways. The right to bear arms is just one of them, however, it has a huge impact in the lives of many people who are the victims of gun violence.

Why is the right to bear arms so much more important than innocent people — oftentimes children — and their right to life?

‘Religious values’ in the United States have strayed away from the religion that they claim to follow. Evangelical Christians especially use their religion as a justification to espouse right-wing political views, even when those views are in opposition with what their religion teaches.

According to The New Yorker,

Claiborne believes that conservative culture often conflates Christianity and nationalism, placing, as he puts it, “the American flag above the cross.” This has long involved aligning religion with American gun culture. Last year, Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice-president of the National Rifle Association, said, in a speech, that the Second Amendment was not a right “bestowed by man, but granted by God to all Americans as our American birthright.” In 2017, after a shooting at a Southern Baptist church near San Antonio, Texas, left twenty-six people dead and twenty injured, some Christian leaders called for members of their church to arm themselves; Robertson Jeffress, the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, said, on “Fox and Friends,” that he felt more secure knowing that his congregants were carrying weapons. After the shooting in San Bernardino, California, in 2015, Jerry Falwell, Jr., the president of Liberty University, urged his students to procure gun permits.

When Christian leaders advocate for gun rights for their followers, it further radicalizes them.

Separation of church and state has become a joke. The Republican party has become enmeshed with white nationalism, gun rights, and the religious right. How all these pieces fit together to make a cohesive political statement sometimes is beyond belief. In many cases, political ideology is overriding what should be the teachings of the church.

It is disheartening in the least to hear that so much hate is being spewed forth from the pulpit, and that a mass amount of people are eating it right up.

According to the New York Times,

What is drawing more people to embrace the evangelical label on surveys is more likely that evangelicalism has been bound to the Republican Party. Instead of theological affinity for Jesus Christ, millions of Americans are being drawn to the evangelical label because of its association with the G.O.P.

People are identifying as Evangelicals not because of the teachings of the bible, or an affinity for what it has to say. They are identifying this way because of the way the Christian Right has aligned itself with the Republican party. Many of the people who are now calling themselves Evangelicals don’t attend church regularly, and probably haven’t read the bible.

When church and state mingle this way, it leads to trouble. But this isn’t the first time that the Christian faith has changed itself to align to the State. The first time this happened was when Christianity became the official religion of Rome under Constantine.

Faith changed to align to the prevailing values of the state, both then and now. The Christian church is changing itself — and not for the better — for a supposed broader appeal to its values.

But when you bring people into the fold who don’t actually understand the values that the Church is purporting to teach, then the religion itself is being corrupted through its misappropriation.

Church leaders aren’t doing anything to stop this though. The ‘Religious Right’ is becoming more Fringe than ever. And in doing so, is appealing to a broader number of people in the process. You see gun rights activists and white nationalists flocking to the ‘church’ in droves. If only in how they self-identify.

This is making ‘Christian Values’ synonymous with a bunch of political hatred that is being spewed by a greater and greater number of people who have been emboldened by the Church’s endorsement of Donald Trump for president. When the church did this, it lowered its standards, and corrupted whatever values it once stood for.

‘Christian Values’ are now synonymous with bigotry, hate, and socio-political intolerance. Religion is being used to justify all kinds of violence and hate which have no basis in the religious doctrines that they pretend to be based on.

It makes me wonder if Christianity in the United States will survive the conservative Republican political movement.

There needs to be something done in America to reinstate the division of Church and State, since the two are becoming so comingled within the Republican party. People need to start considering carefully if their religious and political ideologies actually mesh. Until this happens, we will be heading towards a disaster of epic proportions.

The coopting of Christianity to support right-wing political causes needs to stop, so that people can reclaim the values that are actually supported by the Christian faith in its true form.

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