Were Jesus Christ alive today, not only would his presence mark the beginning of the end times, but he also probably wouldn’t be a member of the National Rifle Association, according to an op-ed that ran on Reuters.com Friday.
“Evangelical Christians … may well be the key to shifting America’s broken political dynamic around gun rights,” wrote filmmaker Abigail Disney in her op-ed titled, “Jesus wouldn’t join the NRA.”
“Right now, white evangelical Protestants are the group most likely to oppose stricter gun-control laws,” she added. “They stand out as one of the few constituencies where a strong pro-life identity is tied to attitudes against any restrictions on gun ownership. Evangelicals are also one of the strongest constituencies of support for the National Rifle Association.”
The op-ed cited anonymous critics who accuse the NRA of having a “casual disregard” for human life, which is antithetical to Christian teaching.
“A brief stroll through its direct mail and advertising, listening to the language of its most prominent spokespeople and seeing the laws it promotes could bear this assertion out,” Disney wrote.
“Meanwhile, the proliferation of ‘stand your ground’ laws, which relieve citizens of the obligation to exhaust all options before shooting in self-defense, sounds like an inversion of basic Christian teachings about loving every human being, including, and most especially, those who would harm you,” the op-ed stated.
The scripture verse referenced by the op-ed comes from the Gospel of Matthew when Christ said, “You have heard that it hath been said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you not to resist evil: but if one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other.”
The Douay-Rheims translation explains these verses by saying, “What is here commanded, is a Christian patience under injuries and affronts, and to be willing even to suffer still more, rather than to indulge the desire of revenge: But what is further added does not strictly oblige according to the letter, for neither did Christ nor St. Paul turn the other cheek.”
The “turn the other cheek” verse referenced by Disney doesn’t exactly translate into “be willing to suffer and accept all forms of violence,” but that a desire for revenge must be replaced with the pursuit of justice.
The article also sought to create some distance between the NRA and religious beliefs. “The close relationship between evangelicals and the NRA does not go back far,” Disney wrote. “As recently as the Korean War in the early 1950s and the Vietnam War in the 1960s, many evangelicals said they were pacifists and registered as conscientious objectors.”
But something changed, it added. The NRA became more cunning.
“[D]uring the 1980s, the NRA moved strategically to exploit the nascent relationship between American conservatism and evangelicalism,” the op-ed read. “It played to the fact that evangelicals saw much of their own cultural value system reflected in the narrative of traditional American values. They saw their belief in independent individualism embodied in the rock-ribbed, self-sufficient American gun owner, as described by the NRA.”
The strategy apparently worked and now evangelicals are part of the NRA’s most loyal base.
The op-ed then mentions a few in the evangelical community who have been working to distance themselves and other Christians from the NRA. If successful, the article noted, it could change the political dynamic of American gun culture.
“This could alter the discourse among families and in media, shift the attitudes of men and women in public places where guns have become increasingly welcome. Perhaps most important, it could lead to a shift in the behavior and expectations of a community known for reliable turnout at the ballot box.
It added, “For decades, a rigid and paralytic political dynamic has been ascendant in this country, and the only way forward is to alter the behavior of the forces in conflict with each other — to find a different lever point for change. That lever point could turn out to be an evangelical Christian community fully reawakened to the fundamental tenets of its own creed.”
It’s not impossible, the op-ed promised.
“When the call of conscience trumps habit and history, surprising things can happen. From Jim Crow to women’s suffrage, it is only when men and women have brought their higher selves into the political realm that we have seen systems radically change,” it concluded. “It might not be as hard as we fear.”
