"The devil is sticking his pitchfork into the nation's immigration politics. At least that's what one of Utah County's Republican delegates thinks. Don Larsen, a district chairman, has submitted a resolution equating illegal immigration to 'Satan's plan to destroy the U.S. by stealth invasion' for debate at Saturday's Utah County Republican Party Convention. Referring to a plan by the devil for a 'New World Order ... as predicted in the Scriptures,' the resolution calls for the Utah County Republican Party to support 'closing the national borders to illegal immigration to prevent the destruction of the U.S. by stealth invasion. In part, the resolution states, 'There are ways to destroy a nation other than with bombs or bullets. The mostly quiet and unspectacular invasion of illegal immigrants does not focus the attention of the nation the way open warfare does but is all the more insidious for its stealth and innocuousness.'"
Then, in the wake of the V.T.masscre, comes this gem:
Brent Tenney
Utah only state to allow guns at college
SALT LAKE CITY - Brent Tenney says he feels pretty safe when he goes to class at the University of Utah, but he takes no chances. He brings a loaded 9 mm semiautomatic with him every day.
"It's not that I run around scared all day long, but if something happens to me, I do want to be prepared," said the 24-year-old business major, who has a concealed-weapons permit and takes the handgun everywhere but church.
Thank God for sanity of the variety exhibited when Archbishop Niederauer was here and, when asked about how banning guns from Catholic churches would stack up against Utah's liberal gun laws, said something to the effect, that he didn't require the Utah Legislature's permission to assert the Constitutional right of freedom of religion. It is by asserting this right that Brent has to check his gun at the door of the Church. Here's to hoping the next lesson is from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, Matthew, chapter five would be good.
Uhem.(cough)
ReplyDelete"All is Welll! All is Wellll!"
I'm a student at the U, and the prospect of licensed concealed-carry on campus doesn't bother me very much. Not allowing guns on campus didn't help the VT students very much, did it? I assume you'd be also be eager to show that verse to the late VT shooter (if it were possible) than to Mr. Tenney, incidentally? I hope I'm not being rude, but it frustrates me to see things like gun control treated as issues like abortion, on which Catholics can have only one opinion.
ReplyDeleteSonetka:
ReplyDeleteYour comments are not rude at all. They are quite welcome. I will point out that while I oppose concealed carry permits for a variety of reasons that are not limited to my Christian commitment, my post does not even imply that this stance enjoys the same status as abortion. I fully realize that banning guns from Catholic Churches does nothing to deter a person in the grip of homicidal psychosis, but I do not think permitting even licensed handguns makes me or anybody else safer on the whole. In other words, more guns does not equal more safety. I do support the right of self-defense and the right to defend others who are in grave danger. Just I do not believe pre-emptive war meets just war criteria, I do not think pre-emptive defense anymore meritorious.
What would've saved the lives of at least 29 VT students was competent response by the Campus Poice force.
Sure I'd be eager to try and dissuade anyone from committing murder.
This line of discussion has been stuck in my consiousness for the past several days: Cutting to the chase and writing only for myself, as one who has witnessed and participated in enough lethal and mortal violence to last ten lifetimes, it is hard for me to see how one can follow the way of the Lord Jesus packing heat along the pilgrim path. To love is to make oneself vulnerable. Like Bono, I want no part of karma. I want mercy, not justice. Jesus, I trust in you.
ReplyDeleteTo love is to make one's self vulnerable: St. Martin of Tours, pray for us.