School Shootings Confirm That Guns Are the Religion of the Right

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Samuel Perry
@profsamperry
My latest for @TIME. There’s a reason we see calls to return to God after every school shooting. For the right, guns & Christianity are at the core of our national identity. And their answer to every tragedy like this is to double down on both. #GunControl

time.com
School Shootings Confirm That Guns Are the Religion of the Right
There’s a reason we always hear calls for Christian nationalism rather than for commonsense gun legislation from the right.
9:43 AM · May 25, 2022

https://time.com/6181342/school-shootings-christian-right-guns/

Sometimes calls for America to return to God are couched in the language of consolation. Especially after a mass shooting. When 19 children were killed at school in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, tweeted that “It is in times like these that we should, as individuals, communities, and as a nation, turn to God for comfort and healing.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia followed deflection — “Our nation needs to take a serious look at the state of mental health today” – with denial: “We don’t need more gun control We need to return to God.”

There’s a reason we always hear calls for Christian nationalism rather than for common sense gun legislation from the right. As we have shown in our research, guns are practically an element of worship in the church of white Christian nationalism. Gun rights thus must be defended at all costs.

Along with “thoughts and prayers”—a response so hollow it has become a meme for contempt — Christian nationalist calls like Greene’s are often accompanied by warnings not to “politicize the deaths,” as worship leader and MAGA advocate Sean Feucht put it in his own tweet: “We need to call on God. We need him back in schools. We need him to heal our country. He is our only hope.” Evangelical Christian and Lieutenant Gov. of Texas Dan Patrick went on the Tucker Carlson show hours after the massacre to say “We gotta unify in prayer. We have to unify in faith…This was a country founded on faith, Tucker. And that’s why together we have to come together as a people. Don’t politicize it. Don’t point fingers.”

It’s a Christian nationalist mantra because political action after a mass shooting might well imperil unlimited access to guns. My colleague and I conducted a representative survey of over 1,600 Americans in February 2020. We found that among white Americans who strongly agreed that “The federal government should declare the United States a Christian nation,” over two-thirds rejected the idea that “The federal government should enact stricter gun laws.” Those laws had the support of over 55% of Americans in general.

*snip*

[TheRealNorth]

1. They are the last resort of Republican minority rule....

Force.

[CrispyQ]

2. Nothing will change until we get bigger dem majorities in the senate & in the nation's state houses.

There is a logic at work here. As we show in our recent book The Flag and the Cross, white Christian nationalism is ultimately about controlling who gets access to cultural and political power, and thus is fundamentally anti-democratic. Access to guns is about protecting the freedoms of white conservatives to suppress disorder. This is why, among white Americans who believe the United States should be a Christian nation, 82% believe “The best way to stop bad guys with guns is to have good guys with guns.” The goal isn’t to rid the world of gun violence. The goal is to suppress “bad guy violence” with righteous violence—our violence. And that requires guns.

These people are motivated to vote, to steal the vote, to lie about the vote. They are motivated to take power anyway they can. They have no morals or ethics & yet are full of self-righteousness. Somedays I feel like our side isn't taking them seriously enough, both our government officials & voters.

They marched this disgusting flag through our Capitol Building.

[Solly Mack]

3. If some god is the answer to everything then that absolves government of its responsibility.

Cancer? Choose God! (Stop complaining about the lack of healthcare)

Homeless? Choose God! (Stop complaining about the lack of affordable housing)

School shootings? Choose God! (Stop complaining about all the guns)

[fescuerescue]

4. I don't think elevating this to a 1st amendment issue (religion) is particular a good idea.

[Nevilledog]

5. It's not elevating anything.... It's reality.

Seen several Republicans say only more God will fix this problem.

[fescuerescue]

8. Well I suppose we can look forward to those arguments in court.

[StarryNite]

7. I don't see this as being elevated. It is what it is.

This has been my experience with people I know. Of course I realize that doesn't mean it's everybody's experience.

[keithbvadu2]

6. Worship the gun and worship with the gun.

Worship the gun and worship with the gun.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/02/28/pennsylvania-church-ceremony-guns/383815002/

Worshippers clutching AR-15 rifles hold commitment ceremony

[Irish_Dem]

9. The slaughter of children is a small price to pay for cheap gas and Jesus.