“Rosalind C Hughes [above] is an Episcopal priest and immigrant from the United Kingdom,” cleveland.com reports, by way of an introduction to her Op Ed Guns everywhere, but our safety is never more compromised. Reverend Hughes isn’t happy with Ohio’s gun law liberalization. Her hand-wringing harangue asks the following questions of her readers — which is about to include you . . .
What does the notion that a trip to the local sports bar requires a concealed weapon do to our way of being in community? What do guns in schools teach our children about how to live together? What does the introduction of weapons to our churches say about our faith?
Answers below please. Meanwhile, here’s Reverend Hughes’ answer to [what she thought was] her rhetorical questions:
There is something profoundly alienating about the idea that the only way we can be safe is to be ready at any moment to kill. It is a bias of mine that we do not make ourselves or one another safer by carrying death more closely in our pockets, or binding its tools to our bodies.
I recognize the irony that the cross I sometimes wear over my heart was itself an instrument of terror, as excruciating as any organ damage inflicted by a bullet. Even the stories surrounding the crucifixion of Christ include cynical debates over who carries the right to kill.
Perhaps, two thousand years later and half a world away, we still have some lessons to learn.
For example, when Jesus said, “Suffer the little children,” he did not mean, “Make them suffer.” On the contrary, he was saying, “Let them live.”
Really? Who knew?
[NB: As always, ad hominem attacks will be deleted. Persistent offenders will be permanently banned.]