Well, I agree, but I suspect that those who say “Good Christians can carry guns to kill the enemies of God” would lean on the following:
Matthew 10:34: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
and
Luke 22:36 “ He said to them, “But now, let him who has a purse take it, and likewise a bag. And let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one.”
Neither, to me, put even a tiny dent in the over-all message of non-violence in the New Testament. The cleansing of the temple is more problematic, but I think that, as you point out above, the clearest message in the Gospels and the letter of St. Paul is “love”.
But, the Gospels and St. Paul are not the entirety of Christian scripture. The Book of Revelation is also the word of God, and while that Apocalyptic literature seems useless and strange to Christians like me, my guess is that the folks at Liberty University are big fans of that book, which is full of violent images of war.
Furthermore, Christian scripture stands on top of Hebrew Scripture. What parts of Judaism Christians have to follow is one of the most vexing questions of the early Church. Some get settled, others do not.
- Should Christians be circumcised?
- Do they have to keep the Sabbath?
- Can they eat meat that has been used in a Pagan sacrifice?
- Should they follow Jewish marriage and divorce customs?
Anyway, what parts of the Hebrew Bible Christians are bound by is one of the many things that makes for all of the different kinds of Christians in the world.
The point is, from the perspective of the Liberty University crowd, the people who were formerly God’s chosen people were allowed to destroy whole cities and kill everyone in them (Jericho). God himself destroyed a city for the sinfulness of its citizens (Sodom). If you really believe that you are the new “Chosen People of God”, then why don’t you get to do what the ancient Hebrews did? Are you not an “instrument of God”?
Even weirder is the fact that since God doesn’t go back on promises, the State of Israel is seen as doing God’s work. If you listen to Christian radio, there is constant talk of Israel and the conflict between Israel and Islam. There is no bigger supporter of reactionary Israeli politics than the fundamentalist Christian right in this country. Those folks at Liberty University are not just packing guns themselves, they are lobbying for tax dollars to be spent for IDF bulldozers.
Anyway, I can’t imagine a 21st century Jesus carrying a sidearm, but, unfortunately, it’s not as simple as pointing to the Gospels. The truth is, the Gospels are only 4 of the 27 books in the canonical New Testament. They are not the oldest books in the New Testament, nor do they agree with one another. Fundamentalist Christians take a lot of stock in the books that people like me disregard, and they take their role as the “chosen people of God” seriously, which makes them the inheritors of Hebrew scripture.
I think they’re wrong, but they are, undoubtedly, “Christians”, and their interpretation of Christianity goes back almost to the beginning, so I don’t think they are “see the light” of the Gospels anytime soon.
