Mass Murder Again

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

With every mass-murder, it seems increasingly clear there is no hope of this country changing its course.

Every murder is followed by the same debate, between the same irreconcilable "pro-gun" and "anti-gun" factions.  Whatever other issues come into the debate, its spirit is political.

The deepest kind of political, because any American debate about "rights" is political, and the N.R.A. has framed the debate as being about "rights."  The uselessness of the debate is that the N.R.A. has defined "rights" as having guns.

Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God.  He didn't say much about politics, the human construct by which mankind tries to assert its rule.  Nowhere is the spirit of "politics" more blatant than in societies like America's, whose faith is that "the people rule," Greek demos kratia. Jesus's contrary message is that God rules.

Jesus also didn't say much about "rights."  Unless giving up everything to which He was "entitled," even His human life, said everything about "rights."

Jesus does talk about murder.  He says that everyone angry with his brother (such as most people engaging in America's gun-debate) is guilty of murder (Matthew 5:21-2).  I John 3:15 makes Jesus' teaching even more explicit: "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer."

Jesus also says murderers act in the character of their father, satan (John 8:44).