“More and more Americans are moving away from organized religion and toward all manner of alternative spiritual paths,” baptistnews.com asserts. “And newly published research suggests that guns may be replacing God, scripture and community for many in the U.S.” Wait. What? . . .
That largely means white adult men mostly in rural areas who have experienced, or fear they will experience, economic hardship, according to a study titled “Gun Culture in Action” by Baylor University scholars Paul Froese and F. Carson Mencken.
The pair found that Americans in that population group reported the highest levels of emotional, moral and even spiritual attachments to their firearms.
Froese and Mencken created a scale measuring how safe, responsible, confident and patriotic gun ownership make survey respondents feel. Feelings of control over fate, value to family and community, and respect also were examined . . .
Greater attachment to guns also indicated lower levels of participation in church or other religious communities, he said.
“They may say they are religious and Christian, but if you dig down, they are less likely to go to church, to read the Bible or be attached to a religious community.”
Are you picking up what he’s putting down? That people who love their guns are less likely to love God? What’s first in your heart: God, family or guns? Or is it impossible to separate this trinity?