Anti-Gun zealots joined by varied church, business groups
October 15, 2008

by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

There’s an old bumper sticker that proclaims “God, Guns and Guts Made America Free.”

Apparently, the anti-gun strategists and their cronies in the establishment business community, churches and the media have taken that slogan as cautionary advice. As a result, they are attacking all three Gs, and they are using church and business organizations to do it. At the same time they advise against displays of courage and personal defense, telling Americans not to resist criminal attacks but to give the predators whatever they want, including your life.

Now as many Gun Week readers are aware, some churches have been major players in the anti-gun, anti-self-defense alliance for some time. The Methodist Church, for example, has supported the anti-gun agenda and even provided free office space in Washington, DC. The Methodist Church has also backed other anti-gun alliances and coalitions, including the new God Not Guns Coalition, about which I will have more to report.

The Roman Catholic Church, through its US Conference of Bishops, has also espoused a variety of anti-gun initiatives over the past 40 or 50 years. And other local and national congregations of various denominations have undermined the moral right to self-defense by trying to turn God against guns.

The God Not Guns Coalition will be celebrating their Second Annual God Not Guns Sabbath on Sept. 26-28, 2008, the same weekend that national, state and local firearms civil rights activists will be gathering in Phoenix for the 23rd Annual Gun Rights Policy Conference.

According to the coalition’s website, the God Not Guns Sabbath is an annual event that asks us to reflect on and respond to the epidemic of gun violence that kills nearly 30,000 Americans every year.

“Our challenge is to call people of faith to action, to awaken them to the spiritual issues at the core of gun violence and to give them the necessary tools to build vital gun violence prevention ministries in their congregations and communities,” the coalition announced.

The God Not Guns Coalition says it calls on every congregation, synagogue, mosque, and gathering of people of faith to work toward a peaceable society where all children have the opportunity to grow and prosper, and where everyone can live without fear of being cut down by firearm violence.

Among the national campaign partners for the Gun Not Guns Coalition which were listed on the group’s website are the following: American Ethical Union; American Jewish Congress; Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes Leadership Team; Disciples Justice Action Network; Equal Partners in Faith; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Hadassah The Women’s Zionist Organization Of America; Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs; Mennonite Central Committee, US; National Council of Churches of Christ in US; National Council of Jewish Women; Presbyterian Church (USA); Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; The American Jewish Committee; Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations; United Church of Christ, Office for Church in Society, and the United Methodist Church Board of Church and Society.

In addition, the group lists scores of state campaign partners. Anyone can check out state and local church groups who are part of this coalition on their website: godnotguns.org.

Needless to say, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has been touting the God Not Guns Sabbath on its website.

The God Not Guns Coalition is just one faith-based anti-gun group. There are others, such as the Chicago-based Covenant for Peace in Action, which includes, among others: Rev. Michael Adams, of St. Mary Star of Sea; Magdalene Bagdonas of Sisters of St. Cashmir; Sister Anita Baird of the Archdiocese of Chicago; Rev. Tony Bianchi of Bethel Mennonite Community Church; Rev. Betty Jo Birkhahn-Rommelfanger of Ravenswood Fellowship United Methodist Church; Walter F. Block, director of Fund Development St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital; Rev. E. Kyprianos Bouboutsis of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Chicago; Rev. William T. Bowden, pastor; Rev. Arthur Brazier of Apostolic Church of God; Claude Christopher, presiding elder AME Episcopal Zion Church; Br. James Fogarty of Catholic Charities; Andrew Georganas of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Chicago, and Jeffrey Muhammad, minister, Nation of Islam.

Of course, Fr. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Catholic Church is also on the list. He is the Roman Catholic priest who has targeted suburban Chicago gun shops with the help of the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Of course all of these religious people ignore the fact that it is not the good people who inflict violence on the nation’s streets, buildings and people. It is the violent criminal crowd, the drug dealers, the gang bangers and others who do not respond to these calls. The criminals don’t respond to the gun buy-ups that are sponsored by so many churches. After all, guns are tools of their criminal trades; they wouldn’t turn them in unless they could get enough money to buy even more tools of crime.

The good people, however, will still need to be able to choose to defend themselves against criminal attacks, and have the means to meet the force of violence with the power of good: guns.

But church groups are not the only ones who haven’t thought through the whole issue of good and evil.

The Brady Campaign recently announced support from IBA Charities, which has contributed $3,000 to the Chicago Committee of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

This year’s Brady Campaign reception fundraiser, held on July 17, 2008, helped to raise more than $30,000, according to the Brady press release. But those contributions have a political purpose. They will be used to “elect candidates who support common sense gun laws, such as extending Brady background checks to all handgun sales and banning high capacity ammunition magazines.”

According to the Brady Campaign, IPA Charities is a 501(c)3 charitable foundation dedicated to the quest of improving communities and people’s lives around the world. International Profit Associates Inc. (IPA-IBA), the largest privately held management consulting and professional services firm for small and medium size businesses in North America, is a leading authority on small business. With annual revenues in excess of $200 million since 2005, IPA-IBA is the 6th largest management consulting company in Chicago and the 61st largest consulting company in the world. To learn more, visit: ipa-iba.com.

These business and religious leaders, who deny that they are against all gun ownership and the right to self-defense, will be playing a key role in the congressional and presidential elections on Nov. 4. Some are campaigning overtly. Others are doing it subversively to avoid running afoul of the Internal Revenue Service.

However, they are united in their zeal to deny good people the right to defend themselves against the bad. One need only look to the United Kingdom to see how bad things can get—and fast—when the basic moral right to self-defense—and the most efficient means—are denied good citizens.
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