Last Tuesday in the Montana State Legislature, Representative Edward Greef put forth HB 215, which proposed designating the Winchester Model 1873 as the official Montana state rifle.
Fortunately Native American legislators gave powerful and personal testimonies in opposition to the bill which ultimately led to its failure. Notable was State Representative Carolyn Pease-Lopez’s emotional appeal: (more…)
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “ ‘A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.’ ”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And how many guns should I have?”
(more…)
Guns, gun control, gun rights — these are hot topics these days, and rightly so. They’re complex social and political issues and the rhetoric on both sides is often off-putting and entirely unhelpful. As with abortion, arguing about the extreme ends of the issue does little to address the enormity of the problem in the middle. It’s clear that we shouldn’t outlaw owning any and every firearm, and it’s equally clear that we shouldn’t allow unrestricted access to any and every firearm. But where to draw the line between those two extremes? That’s where things get messy. (more…)
My post Can you be a Christian and still believe … ? caused quite a bit of furor on the interwebs, so I’d like to take a moment to offer a few explanatory notes as well as provide some resources for further exploration of these topics.
First, the point of the post wasn’t to provide a litmus test for Christian faith (liberal or otherwise). The moment we use any of these issues to judge someone else’s relationship with God, we’ve stepped into dangerous territory — territory that belongs not to us, but to God alone. What you believe about these things doesn’t include you in or exclude you from the Kingdom of God. (more…)
Guess what? You can still be a Christian even if you believe that:
And you just might be a bit closer to the Kingdom of God if you do believe some of those things.
Update #1:
For those of you on Facebook, I’ve created a nice little meme of this post.
Update #2:
I’ve provided a list of resources regarding these beliefs in my follow-up post, coincidentally titled: Follow-Up: Can you be a Christian and still believe … ?