“I think it’s worth [it] to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.” Charlie Kirk
I don’t think we should condone ANY deaths, including Charlie Kirk’s. Trump barely even mentioned Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband’s assassination in June. The truth is no one should be dying from gun violence in this or any country. That should be the stance of all Americans, certainly those calling themselves Christians. And make no mistake, I am a Christian, and I do not condone gun violence upon anyone. I feel only empathy – a word CK believed was “woke” – for Kirk, and especially his family. If you call yourself a Christian but think gun violence is acceptable, or “worth it,” it is you who needs to repent. Jesus does not condone gun violence. He commands us to feel empathy for those who lose their life through violence. Life is sacred.
And abortion is a false equivalency. I personally don’t believe abortion is the answer for an unwanted pregnancy. I also don’t believe in the government interfering in complex medical decisions that are between mothers, fathers, doctors and their God. I believe this is the proper stance for Christians. Thou shalt not kill. I do not condone the deaths of innocent children in the womb or in the classroom. I do not support the right for just anyone to bear arms. Guns need to be licensed, and owners need to be mentally fit to own them, especially military style, semi-automatic weapons. Otherwise, we are condemning ourselves to violence; people will continue to kill innocent humans like Charles Kirk and the two students who also died at a school shooting yesterday.
And here’s why the government shouldn’t ban abortion. There are a million reasons why someone might elect to have an abortion. Some of them we might agree on. Things like rape, incest or medical conditions or other circumstances you would not want the government, a blunt instrument at best, to be in the business of litigating. Just like there are a million reasons a person might want to own a gun. As the kids say, “It’s complicated.” I don’t want the government involved in complex decisions like that. Will it mean some will use abortion as birth control? Yes, as abhorrent as that is, that is the cost of our freedom. Just like CK said about the 2nd amendment. There, I just made the same false equivalency. I’ve talked myself into not wanting the government to tell me whether I can own a gun. I just think the government should not be involved in these kinds of complex, deeply personal decisions. That’s why as a Christian I support the separation between church and state. Many of our choices are moral; these moral decisions might differ depending on our religious beliefs. Just as I would not want a Muslim, if they were elected to office, dictating what is legal or not, based on their religion, I don’t want one person’s version of Christianity dictating to me complicated decisions around abortion or for that matter, who can own a gun. We can argue about those choices because we live in a free country, free from religious persecution and religious dictates.
One side in this debate is separating families, sending people to death camps, militarizing cities, defying court orders, throwing out the constitution, rewarding the wealthiest at the expense of a hardworking middle class, firing non-partisan bureaucrats, appointing loyalists to do their bidding, attacking minorities, women and people with disabilities, and tearing down the protections that allowed us to live in relative safety. The other side is simply asking to let us all live together in peace.
What appears to be crazy according to the people in this first group are simply normal people fighting to retain the basic rights that were heretofore long ensconced in our institutions. We are the centrists, who are calling for a measured, rational and quite sane response to the madness that has taken control and infected our once trusted governmental leaders. That here is support for these insane policies by millions of people does not bode well for the future of the Republic.