UMC — United Methodist Communists
Thursday, July 7th, 2005 4:30 pm by NealI read that the United Methodist Church had passed a resolution against the private ownership of guns, so I decided to try and verify this. Sure enough, I found the resolution on the UMC website. It’s a little old (1996), but as far as I can tell it is still the UMC position on gun control. Here are some juicy excerpts:
Gun violence is a deep concern to The United Methodist Church and the community of faith whose members are called to a vision of a peaceable kingdom, a society in which God’s justice reigns, where reconciliation replaces alienation, where an open hand and a turned cheek replaces retaliation, where love of enemy is as important as love of neighbor. The religious community must also take seriously the risk of idolatry that could result from an unwarranted fascination with guns and that overlooks or ignores the social consequences of their misuse. The United Methodist Church regards effective gun control and regulation to be a spiritual concern and public responsibility.
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As Christians who are deeply concerned about human life, we must do something about the unregulated and unnecessary [Editor: emphasis added] access to guns.Although there is vigorous debate over the meaning of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which speaks to the right to keep and bear arms, the United States Supreme Court and lower federal courts have held that the private ownership of guns is not protected by the Second Amendment. [Editor: This statement is utterly and demonstrably false.]
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Our focus must not lose the vision of transformation given to us in Micah to beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks (Micah 4:3). Therefore, The United Methodist Church:1. Declares its support for meaningful and effective federal legislation to regulate the importation, manufacturing, sale, and possession of guns and ammunition by the general public. Such legislation should include provisions for the registration and licensing of gun purchasers and owners, appropriate background investigation and waiting periods prior to gun purchase, and regulation of subsequent sale;
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3. Opposes the licensing of individuals to carry concealed weapons. Special controls should be applied to the handgun, for it is the most deadly and least utilitarian weapon in American society [Editor: emphasis added. For self defense the handgun is the most utilitarian weapon in existence. It beats the hell out of a sling.]. Because the handgun is concealable, it is the weapon of crime; because the handgun is available, it is the instrument used in suicides and crimes of passion;
This is a pitiful resolution. It is a shameless mix of European-socialist political philosophy with cherry picked Biblical passages. It is stunning in its naivete and lack of historical context. This resolution is a sloppy amalgam of the most hysterical and innacurate anti-gun urban legends. Many of the “facts” cited to justify this untenable position are simply dead WRONG. None of this matters to the authors of this resolution who clearly cooked the facts to fit the desired outcome. Practically every “point” raised in this resolution has been rebutted in the book, “More Guns, Less Crime” by John Lott (Click here to read an interview with Lott).
If this resolution is indicative of the UMC’s stated purpose, then the UMC is an organization that is hostile toward the concepts of liberty, individualism and freedom.
This is one of the main reasons I do not like organized religion. You may be a Christian — a Methodist even — with respect to what philosophy you follow to live your life. But as soon as you join or support an organization, you invariably support crap like this.
I’ve known for decades that the organization known as the “United Methodist Church” has quite a leftist tilt. Keep your money and missions local and please don’t support the socialist agenda of the UMC.