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Writer's pictureAndy McIlvain

The Altar of the Second Amendment


two pistols
Gun Worship


The Second Amendment Has Been Shaped into an Altar

"The cowardice of politicians who refuse to consider serious gun safety legislation is striking. Every fresh bloodbath of innocents, they tell us, is the price that must be paid for the freedom to own firearms. Putting military-grade weapons in the hands of adolescent boys who dream of killing sprees only underscores how costly this right has become.

Marilynne Robinson recently noted that the Second Amendment “has been made the bedrock of our helplessness.” Absolutists for gun rights have forced this sense of helplessness upon us by turning the wording of the Second Amendment into an idolatrous altar, one prepared for the sacrifice of innocent victims at any time. Uvalde fourth graders, Buffalo grocery shoppers, and Pittsburgh Jews celebrating Shabbat never deserved to die. But up against assault-style weapons that gun-rights fundamentalists refuse to regulate, they died helplessly upon this altar.

The Second Amendment altar is reminiscent of those built to Baal and Molech by people in antiquity. The prophet Jeremiah fiercely denounces these gods to whom people sacrificed their children: “[Never] did it enter my mind that they would practice such abominations” (Jer. 32:35). Do-nothing political leaders in our day are practicing abomination every time they bow at the altar of Second Amendment idolatry and wash their hands of responsibility for innocent victims..." from the article: The Second Amendment has been shaped into an altar


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