Gun-Grabbing Religious Useful Idiots Really Serving Interests of All-Powerful State

U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Everytown for Gun Safety, which expects to spend $60 million on this year’s elections, is forging its interfaith effort amid ongoing concerns about shootings at houses of worship,” the Associated Press reports. Among the “faith partners” for disarmament are, among others, Red Letter Christians, former pro-lifer turned abortionist BFF Rob Schenck, and a United Church of Christ/Black Lives Matter influencer who evidently believes the police he protests against should be the “Only Ones” with guns.

The partnership with the secular left is telling. Socialist government cultists are typically disparaging of evangelical Christians, and of Jews when the subject of Israel and Palestine comes up while smearing anyone who is not enthusiastically welcoming of Muslims as a hater.

What’s also telling is how, by playing fast and loose with tax exemption rules, these groups are de facto opposing Republicans and supporting Democrats, particularly Joe Biden, who in typical quid pro Joe pandering fashion, “released a proposal last month to boost security at houses of worship.” God forbid parishioners to be able to protect themselves. These people want laws that would leave such defenders unarmed, meaning they demand higher body counts.

As for being slippery with exemptions, we can consult the anti-gun zealot group websites and see for ourselves:

“All donations are tax-deductible,” Red Letter Christians announces.

“All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law,” Schenck’s group, The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute, echoes.

The United Church of Christ explains:

“Your church is restricted from engaging in some political activities because it is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. For example, your church is prohibited from expressing its support for or opposition to any candidate. Your church is also prohibited from making political contributions to candidates. There are no restrictions on educating church members about election-year issues and promoting discussion of public policy.”

The Internal Revenue Service qualifies that:

“On the other hand, voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that (a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c) have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates, will constitute prohibited participation or intervention.”

Don’t expect to see anyone raise an eyebrow over tax-exempt nod-and-wink campaigning for gun-grabbers, though. An example from years past helps explain why.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State snitched on a pastor to the IRS back in 2013 because he’s told his parishioners “If you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!” I could say worse about Romney, but not for the same reasons. In this case, the minister was big-time prejudiced against Mormons. As offensive as we might find that, if one religion can’t denounce another religion in this country anymore, then the First Amendment isn’t worth the parchment it’s written on.

But OK — say the opinionated clergyman crossed a line and violated IRS electioneering rules. Until such time as we do the right thing and abolish the damn agency, there shouldn’t be preferred groups that can get away with violations you or I cannot because self-styled watchdogs are more interested in weaponized government than in the consistency of principles.

So wasn’t it curious that Americans United could not have cared less about “Reverend” Michael “Snuffy” Pfleger stumping for “Reverend” Al Sharpton and Barack Obama?

It’s not curious at all if you look at where their current president’s head is at:

“[S]tarting in 2014, white Christians ceased being the majority in America. Add to that the first black president, the rapid movement toward LGBTQ equality, the #MeToo movement, the fast rise of the religiously unaffiliated or the ‘Nones’ and the fact that America will be majority black and brown by 2046. This all has engendered great fear among white Christians particularly vested in traditional power structures.”

This is the secular fundamental transformation/cultural terraforming of America that Democrats are counting on for votes and Chamber of Commerce Republicans for cheap labor. It’s also, not coincidentally, the greatest threat to continued legal recognition of the right to keep and bear arms, something none of our state and national “gun rights leaders” has been willing to acknowledge, let alone champion, lest the “national socialists” behind it all smear them as “haters,” too. As if they don’t already.

Those who hold religion in contempt have always been more than happy to exploit religious useful idiots if it advances their agenda. At some point, when they’re no longer needed, useful idiots are then “fundamentally transformed” into useless eaters, right before they’re further “fundamentally transformed” into fertilizer.

Anyone who thinks this is just about a difference of opinion with “our friends across the aisle” hasn’t been paying attention. This is existential, and recalls an observation by my late friend and colleague Mike Vanderboegh, who noted:

“We are, in fact, two countries divided by the fundamental difference of principle on the question: Does the government serve the people, or do the people serve the government?”

Those who mean to rule mean to do it totally.

“Marx’s line about the ‘opium of the people’ only hints at the ideology’s hostility,” a Wall Street Journal opinion piece from last year documented. “No amount of hope or hermeneutic effort can cleanse communism’s record of blood — especially the blood of religious adherents.”

That, in turn, recalls a sermon from a time when ministers were true community, as well as religious leaders, this one from Rev. Gilbert Tennent of Philadelphia:

“He that suffers his life to be taken from him by one who has no authority for that purpose, when he might preserve it by defense, incurs the Guilt of self-murder since God has enjoined him to seek the continuance of his life, and Nature itself teaches every creature to defend itself.”

The damage the Bloomberg clergy can do is incalculable. It’s incumbent on all people of faith who know better to call them on it when we hear them spreading lies, and to not let them get away with it.

 

---

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.