Let There Be Peace on Earth, and Let It Begin With My Concealed-Carry Permit

Liberty University’s president, a man who claims to be a follower of Christ, had an interesting message for the conservative Christian institution’s students on Friday: Get your concealed-carry permit so you can kill Muslims.

No, I’m not making this up. In fact, Jerry Falwell Jr. went on to say that the university (which boasts a total enrollment of about 90,000 students, more than 13,000 of whom are “residential”) provides free classes to help students obtain concealed-carry licenses, and noted that he himself was packing heat even as he gave his speech at the mandatory convocation.

Jerry Falwell Jr. (Credit: Liberty University)

Falwell later “clarified” on Twitter that he meant students should arm themselves to kill Islamist terrorists. I don’t buy it. If he’d meant his students should carry guns to kill Islamist terrorists, he would have said so. He didn’t. He said “Muslims.” Although he was referring to the San Bernardino mass shooting, his exact words were: “I’ve always thought that if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in.”

“Those Muslims.”

Most of his audience cheered that line.

I’m worried about Liberty University, which bills itself as a Christian institution but seems breathtakingly ignorant about what the Bible actually says. Perhaps they should hold off on those concealed-carry courses and go back to basics, by which I mean the Bible itself — Christianity 101, if you will.

I’m pretty sure this book is widely available.

They could start with the words of Jesus, specifically those in Matthew 5:43–48:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

(Maybe the bit about “kill them before they have the chance to kill you” was in another translation?)

Sufficiently advanced students could then move on to Christianity 201, where they would study other New Testament passages like, oh, say, 1 Peter 3:9 (“Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing”); 1 Thessalonians 5:15 (“Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else”); and Mark 12:30–31 (Jesus again — “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’ [and] ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these”). And so on — there’s plenty more where that came from.

Maybe, if they pass both of those courses, students could move on to concealed carry. But — assuming they were paying attention to what they were reading — I’m not sure they’d want to anymore.

“Swords into plowshares” and all that. Ring a bell? It should; it’s from Isaiah 2:4. (Credit: Wikipedia)

Look, I know this argument is as old as Christianity itself — older, in fact, because almost every belief system in the world has some version of the Golden Rule (“do unto others as you would have them do unto you” or a similar statement of moral reciprocity). Christians of Falwell’s sort often claim their religion is better than anybody else’s, and they usually cite love and mercy as the reasons. But you wouldn’t know it from the way they talk — or how they treat anyone different from themselves.

Falwell in particular ought to consider going back to basics. The Washington Post notes: “Falwell retweeted several tweets praising his remarks, including one that said ‘SUCK IT, Muslim extremists,’ with a link to the weapons course Liberty offers.” (Falwell later claimed his “kill the Muslims” rallying cry was backed up by Jesus’ eviction of the moneylenders from the Temple, which is ludicrous on its face — especially since the Quran prohibits usury, not that I think Falwell has read a word of it.)

On second thought, maybe Falwell needs to go back a bit further than the basics. Is there a Christianity 099 class?

Original Post via Medium