Tennessee Lt. Gov. to
Christians: Buy Guns
by William Bigelow 2 Oct 2015
On Friday, in response to the shooting at Umpqua Community
College in Roseburg, Oregon in which Christians were targeted and murdered,
Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey minced no words in his concise message to Christians and
those who believe in the values of Western Civilization: buy guns.
Ramsey issued his statement on Facebook, linking it to aNew
York Post article headlined, “Oregon gunman singled out
Christians during rampage.” Ramsey pointed out other recent mass shootings as
he posited that the targets were the same: Christians and defenders of the
West. His post read:
As I scroll through the news this morning I am saddened to
read the details of the horrible tragedy in Oregon. My heart goes out to the
citizens of Roseburg — especially the families and loved ones of those
murdered.
The recent spike in mass shootings across the nation is
truly troubling. Whether the perpetrators are motivated by aggressive
secularism, jihadist extremism or racial supremacy, their targets remain the
same: Christians and defenders of the West.
While this is not the time for widespread panic, it is a
time to prepare. I would encourage my fellow Christians who are serious about
their faith to think about getting a handgun carry permit. I have always
believed that it is better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and
not have it.
Our enemies are armed. We must do likewise.
Tennessee Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, who joined
State Senate Minority Leader Lee Harris, D-Memphis on August 31 to file
a bill that would exempt events held in public parks and major sports venues
from the “guns-in-parks” law, thus banning handgun-carry permit holders from
going armed to those venues, whined that Ramsey had chosen the road of the
radical right. He issued a statement reading:
Rather than lead the General Assembly’s bipartisan efforts
to improve public safety by removing guns from the hands of criminals and
addressing the serious mental health issues confronting many in our state,
Senator Ramsey unfortunately chose the road most traveled by the radical right.
There is an eerie absence of logic in his statement that
ties one’s Christian faith to firearms ownership that is offensive to all
religions. Senator Ramsey is essentially saying that we should all run
out and get a handgun carry permit to prove how serious we are about our
Christian faith. Not only must we have a state-issued ID to vote, must we
now have one to prove our religious faith?
Senator Ramsey’s inciting statements in the face of a
national tragedy are all the more alarming when you consider them in their
historical context. Things have never ended well when any leader has
asked people to take up arms in the name of their religious faith. This
type of rhetoric is counter-productive to our efforts on so many levels.
In the end, I am sure Sen. Ramsey will get the national
headlines he was seeking, but it will be the rest of us Tennesseans who will
suffer the humiliation and pay the price for his words.
Of course Clemmons has problems with Ramsay expressing his
defense of Christians; Clemmons is the same guy who helped delay a bill
urging mothers to have ultrasounds before they had abortions.
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