Against the Stream

God and Gunz Again

Via Steve Benen, I came across this story this rainy Saturday morning:

A pastor in Kentucky is redefining the tradition of wearing your Sunday best to services by encouraging his congregation to strap on holsters and bring their weapons to church.

Pastor Ken Pagano of New Bethel Church in Louisville, Ky., says that he organized an "Open Carry Celebration" to promote responsible gun ownership.

"As a Christian pastor I believe that without a deep-seeded belief in God and firearms that this country would not be here," Pagano told ABCNews.com. "I'm not ashamed of that fact. I'm proud of it."

There's a lot to mock in this story, but my favorite part is the idea that it is due to "God and firearms" that the United States exists. Of course, in the Christian tradition, most of us believe that God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, who preached non-violence and suffered death by torture at the hands of the Romans. And yet ... there are large swaths of the "Christian" community who don't find any internal contradictions between believing that they are followers of that kind of God, and supporting violence, the use of weapons, the government's policies of torture, and the stockpiling of nuclear weapons.

One wonders if they have ever come across the passage in the Bible where Jesus instructs his followers that they are not to carry a sword, and if so, what it could possibly mean to them.

The Reagan Legacy

This post pretty well sums it up for me. A brief excerpt, in a long list of malfeasance:

1) Treason: As a private citizen, and BEFORE the election, in contravention of both law and tradition, Reagan’s minions and handlers illegally negotiated with the Iranians to induce them hold the American Embassy hostages until after the elections,to embarrass President Carer and to prevent his successful negotiation of an “October Surprise.” Sent future VP George Bush, Sr., and future CIA chief William Casey to Paris to negotiate the deal.

2) Sent arms, including chemical weapons, to both Iraq and Iran during the decade-long Iran-Iraq war, making those two countries the two biggest US arms trading partners at precisely the time when it was illegal to trade with either due to both US and UN laws.

3) Iran/Contra: Used drug traffickers to transport illegal arms to Nicaragua, ignoring the contraband which was brought back on the return trip, creating  a massive and immediate increase in cocaine trade in urban California. Illegally used the CIA to mine harbors and ferry Contra troops in Nicaragua. Eventually, several administration staffers were convicted of crimes ranging from lying to Congress to conspiracy  to defraud the U.S. The scandal involved the administration selling arms  to  Iran and using proceeds from the sales to fund a guerrilla insurgent group in Nicaragua

4) Created alQaeda in Afghanistan to oppose the Soviet puppet/occupation there

5) Sponsored right-wing, State terrorism in El Salvador,  Honduras, Haiti, and Guatemala against indigenous insurgents who were fighting the dictatorial, hereditary regimes there. Illegally invaded  and occupied Grenada, overthrowing the democratically elected President

6) Lied about ALL of this activity before Congress, and suborned his Secretary of Defense to perjury, as well.

It's worth remembering this as you reflect on his newly installed statue in the Capitol rotunda. It's also worth remembering that the new statue replaces that of Thomas Starr King, the great abolitionist Unitarian minister who fought to keep California in the Union during the Civil War.