Posted on 06/13/2016 8:24:28 AM PDT by DCBryan1
“Pray for Orlando" we read on Facebook and Twitter.
Prayer is vitally important, but is there more we can do?
As United Methodist Christians, we mourn with the victims and families of those wounded and killed in the shootings on June 12, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. We may even pray and wonder if anything could have been done to avert this heinous act.
But should we do more? Is there anything that can be done to keep something similar from happening in the future?
While we may not agree on a solution, many of us agree there is a problem. What can we do? The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church contains our official positions on many issues, including gun violence. The statement, originally adopted in 2000 and revised and readopted in 2008, calls upon The United Methodist Church—which means you, me, and every member of our denomination—to do eleven things. 1. Convene workshops
The Book of Resolutions calls us to bring together “clergy and mental health care professionals … to discuss ways by which The United Methodist Church should respond to this growing tragedy.” In order to be part of the solution, we need to research and understand the specific problems in our community. We need to work together to find creative solutions to stem the tide of violence.
2. & 3. Educate the community
We are called upon to teach “gun safety, violence prevention, adult responsibility around gun violence prevention, and the public health impact of gun violence.” We are to equip parents, members, and all in our community with steps they can take to make their homes safe, to lock and store their guns, and to deal with the dangers they may encounter.
We are also called to “identify community-based, state, and national organizations working on the issue of gun violence and seek their assistance to design education and prevention workshops around the issue of gun violence and its effect on children and youth.” In addition to creating helpful resources, this work facilitates cooperation among key players in the conversation.
4. 5. & 6. Advocate for regulation
Next, we are called to “develop advocacy groups within local congregations to advocate for the eventual reduction of the availability of guns in society.” While we may disagree about what those laws might be, we can agree to work to remove guns from the hands of those who have them illegally, and those who would use them to harm others.
The resolution further calls us to support federal legislation in the U.S. and to call upon other governments throughout the world to regulate the sale and possession of guns and ammunition.
7. and 8. Discourage promotion of gun usage
Sometimes gun usage is glorified in print media, movies, television, video games, and elsewhere. We are to call upon “the entertainment industry, to refrain from promoting gun usage to children” and to “discourage the graphic depiction and glorification of violence” in all media.
9. Assist victims
The Book of Resolutions then calls United Methodists to “call upon the federal and state governments to provide significant assistance to victims of gun violence and their families.” In addition to our thoughts and prayers, we want to provide physical, lasting relief to people who are grieving.
10. Name the sin and point to hope
Annual conferences of The United Methodist Church are to “make visible public witness to the sin of gun violence and to the hope of community healing.” As Christians, we are people of the resurrection. We know that systems, no matter how lost they appear, can be redeemed when we are willing to repent of our sin and submit to the healing power of Jesus Christ.
11. Provide weapon-free zones
The final statement in the resolution on gun violence states, “reflecting the traditional role of The United Methodist Church that has been one of safety and sanctuary, every United Methodist Church is officially declared a weapon-free zone.”
Our prayers should lead us to action.
We read in 2 Thessalonians 1:11, “We are constantly praying for you for this: that our God will make you worthy of his calling and accomplish every good desire and faithful work by his power” (CEB). We too pray for God to give us the wisdom and strength needed to fulfill the desires he has put within us for a world that is free from the violence of mass killings.
As United Methodists, this means getting involved in issues of gun violence and working to prevent these events.
They should just put a neon sign outside their churches saying “target-rich environment, ISIS”.
The truly evil thing about the concept of “the sin of gun violence” is that it’s anti-biblical in that it deliberately conflates legal, legitimate “gun violence”, like biblicly aythorized self defense, defense of others, and legitimate law enforcement usung firearms with illegal, immoral killing,as in murder. Taking yesterday’s atrocity as an example, this evil, anti-biblical, immoral way of thinking makes the heroic police killing of the mass murderer the moral equivalent of his murdering fifty innocent people. That’s the way to the end of Western Civilization.
Of course, that’s just what the Witch and Obola are trying for with their gun grabbing. Their response to crime and terrorism is to use both as excuses for disarming the very people at whom the crime and terrorism are aimed.
There is a way to minimize gun violence and a kind of “gun control” that would really work.
REQUIRE, as a condition of being allowed to vote or drive an automobile or consume alcoholic beverages, that all persons above the age of fourteen first be given a course in the care, operation, feeding and grooming of sidearms of all kinds, from BB guns to 4-gauge shotguns, including bolt-action and semi-automatic rifles, single-shot or semi-automatic pistols, and revolvers of all calibers. And to qualify to some degree of marksmanship.
The real control comes in with releasing of the safety, jacking a round into the chamber, raising the weapon to position, controlling breathing, sighting in on the target, SQUEEZING off the trigger, ejecting the spent cartridge, and repeating until the sumbish falls down.
The Orlando night club WAS a gun-free zone. Florida CCW laws prohibit carrying in a bar. That's how the terrorist could be sure HE would be the ONLY one there with a gun.
Bkmrk.
Muslim control is nowhere on the list.
People’s values determine if they’re good or evil.
It ain’t the guns, stupid.
We are in a battle for the soul of America. Just like clergy during the American Revolution, it is necessary to bear arms.
DAN FISHER - RETURN OF THE BLACK ROBED REGIMENT
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVj0q2F5XHegALc4nnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTE0anRnZ284BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDRkZVSTNDMV8xBHNlYwNzYw—?p=Dan+Fisher+Return+of+the+Black+Regiment&fr=yhs-mozilla-004&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-004#id=4&vid=289aed716100167cf6d900b9843e6062&action=view
If you left any later than 1964, you were already behind the power curve.
Just went to our UMC District Conference last week. In the back corner of the basement display area was a small sign welcoming Muslims. AS IF a Muslim was ever going to go to Methodist Conference, much less find the sign in the back corner of the basement. First-hand report: no burka or heavy beard sightings.
I was brought up Methodist.
This is why I no longer am one.
Independent Baptist now.
‘Pod.
Beware the workshops. Many are “facilitated” by Delphi-trained activists, meaning the attendees are thoroughly manipulated, and the outcomes pre-determined.
If your church is a WCC member, flee it - it is apostate.
Check here:
https://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches
To make their homes safe, to lock and store their guns.
Advocate for the eventual reduction of the availability of guns in society.
To provide significant assistance to victims of gun violence and their families.
Every United Methodist Church is officially declared a weapon-free zone.
I think it's time to start taxing churches such as this farce religion and preclude them from their cherished tax exempt status for they have become political instruments of the very corrupt regimes that will eventually devour them.
Don't forget the 1930’s in Germany. The Jews did EXACTLY what the Obama administration is trying to accomplish. We all know the result of gun control back then don't we...or do we?
This church should move their entire congregational horde over to Afghanistan and teach them love and warm feelings. See how that works...just don't do it here.
“The United Methodist Church that has been one of safety and sanctuary, every United Methodist Church is officially declared a weapon-free zone.””
I reckon they mean like how “The Pulse” was a weapon-free zone where 100 were shot and 50 killed, right?
I believe the time is near where churches will be targeted by Moslem terrorists, and the Methodists who ignore this and pack heat in the sanctuary will save many lives.
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