Christianity Today:
“I think gun control proponents are misguided in trying to persuade others of their position in the way they usually go about it,” said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, in The Washington Post.
“There are not two sides here about whether shootings should be stopped, laws enforced, and criminality punished, but rather two sides about whether gun control is a prudent way to carry out those common goals.”
Earlier research by PRRI showed that evangelicals were the only religious group “in which a plurality (40%) say that putting more emphasis on God and morality in school and society is the most important thing that could be done to prevent future mass shootings.”
Evangelical leaders have stronger feelings about addressing gun violence through legislation, according to a survey released by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in August. Most denominational heads and ministry presidents surveyed own a firearm themselves, but 55 percent agreed gun laws should be stricter.
“Evangelical leaders have nuanced views on guns,” said NAE president Leith Anderson. “They accept the Second Amendment, but also deeply grieve when weapons are used to take innocent lives.”
Moore told Religion News Service (RNS):
I don’t think that any gun control measure that I’ve seen would be effective in addressing these issues.
I hold to conservative views on the Second Amendment, but I don’t hold to my views here in the way that I would something clearly revealed in Scriptures. I certainly don’t hold to those things the way that I would the fundamentals of Christian doctrine and ethics, which is why I have very close co-laborers in Christ who are proponents of gun control. They haven’t persuaded me of that, but I don’t see them as being on another “side.” We both are looking toward the same goal.
No, No, NO, NO and a thousand times NO!! We are NOT working towards the same goal and we are not on the same side.
One side wants to enable people to perform their God-given duty of self defense and defense of loved ones, neighbors and family, and the other side wants to turn to the state, the usurper of God’s providence, for cradle-to-grave protection and security.
I saw the ridiculous statement from the NAE (National Association of Evangelicals), which is anything but evangelical, when it first came out, and I thought it was so stupid that I didn’t bother with it.
And yet for some reason I simply don’t understand, they apparently think they represent evangelicals in America and get press accordingly. From nuclear weapons disassembly to being pro-immigration and pro-redistribution of wealth, and being anti-gun, the NAE is a shill organization, worthless in every way, a mouthpiece for collectivist thinking draped in clerical accoutrements. With the world collapsing around them, the best they can come up with is to have a “racial reconciliation Sunday.”
Ignore them. And carry a gun at all times.