May 16, 2013
This column is archived here.
A group of influential pastors and ministers recently met with Vice
President Joe Biden at the White House where the Vice President called
on them to use their influence to help pass President Barack Obama's
new gun control measures. Of course, these measures include the
outlawing of all semi-automatic rifles, outlawing high-capacity
magazines, and establishing a government-mandated national gun
registration policy, which is subtly identified as "Universal
Background Checks." These measures were recently defeated in the US
Senate, so now the White House is calling on the clergy to help sell
this gun grab to America's churches.
Here is how Breitbart.com covers the story: "Vice President Joe Biden
wants pastors, rabbis and nuns to tell their flocks that enacting gun
control is the moral thing to do. But another vote may have to wait
until Congress wraps up work on an immigration overhaul.
"Biden met for two-and-a-half hours Monday with more than a dozen
leaders from various faith communities –Christian, Jewish, Muslim and
Sikh, to name a few. Both Biden and the faith leaders encouraged each
other not to give up on what has been an arduous and thus far
fruitless effort by Biden and President Barack Obama to pass new gun
laws in the wake of December's schoolhouse shooting in Connecticut.
"Around a large, circular table in a conference room on the White
House grounds, Biden waxed optimistic about prospects for passing a
bill, according to four participants who spoke to The Associated Press
after the meeting. Biden's chief of staff, Bruce Reed, joined the
group, as did a handful of Obama aides who work on faith-based
outreach. The meeting closed with a meditation and a prayer for
action."
The report continued saying, "Monday's session reflects an attempt to
broaden the coalition calling for new gun laws to include a wide array
of religious groups–including evangelicals and conservative faith
communities."
The report concluded by saying, "A spokeswoman for Biden declined to
comment on the meeting. But Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice
president of the Rabbinical Assembly, said a diverse spectrum of
denominations and religious orders were represented. She said they
included evangelical leaders Richard Cizik and Franklin Graham, the
son of evangelist Billy Graham, as well as Sister Marge Clark of
Network, a Catholic group."
See the report here:
Biden Asks Clergy To Make Moral Argument On Guns
There is nothing new about the White House attempting to use America's
pastors to promote gun control. Both the G.W. Bush and Barack Obama
administrations have had the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) conduct pastor training programs whereby pastors are instructed
to use their influence to convince citizens to completely surrender
any and all rights and liberties to the federal government in the
event of a national emergency or crisis. Submission to tyrannical
actions such as forced relocation and gun confiscation is taught in
these training programs.
See this report:
Secret FEMA Plan To Use Pastors As Pacifiers In Preparation For Martial Law
And here is a local Louisiana television news report on the FEMA
"Clergy Response Teams":
FEMA Training Pastors For Emergency Response
Obviously, the Obama administration's effort to enact more gun control
has already enjoyed the support of the Southern Baptist Convention's
Richard Land (who is a member of the CFR) and evangelist Franklin
Graham. It is noteworthy that Mr. Graham was in attendance at Vice
President Biden's private meeting. President Obama must consider
Franklin Graham a key ally in his quest to enact these new gun control
measures.
Unfortunately, a sizable percentage of America's pulpits are occupied
by men and women who are either extreme liberal and socialist
activists or by conservatives who are sheepishly passive and
compliant, and who would, therefore, say or do nothing to interfere
with or resist any tyrannical efforts by the federal government. There
are many other pastors who truly love freedom and would naturally
resist any effort of government to usurp God-given liberties, but they
have been indoctrinated in the fallacious
"obey-the-government-no-matter-what" interpretation of Romans 13. It
is more than interesting that FEMA is instructing pastors to teach
this perversion of Romans 13 to their congregations. Plus, I seem to
recall that this is exactly what Hitler's Nazi government instructed
the pastors of Germany to also do. But this is just a coincidence,
right?
This is the biggest difference between Obama's gun control measures
and the efforts of old King George III when he attempted to seize the
weapons of the colonists that were stored in Concord, Massachusetts.
When that attempt occurred in 1775, the pulpits of Colonial America
were mostly unified in renouncing this act of tyranny and in boldly
proclaiming the Biblical principles of lawful self-defense to their
congregations. But when Barack Obama and Senator Dianne Feinstein
tried to enact laws in 2013 that were equally egregious to those of
old King George, the silence of America's pulpits was deafening. Yes,
millions of liberty-loving Americans rose to the challenge and helped
beat back Obama's gun grab, but this was done with little or no help
from America's pastors. This fact was not lost to the White House, and
now the effort is underway to convince America's pastors and ministers
to openly support Obama's gun grab.
For the sake of freedom and liberty in this country, it is critical
that America's pastors start sounding forth the clarion call. It is
critical that they become "watchmen on the wall." It is critical that
they join the fight to preserve, protect, and defend those Natural
rights that are safeguarded in the US Constitution–including the right
of the people to keep and bear arms. PASTORS MUST BE ENGAGED.
As I said earlier, there are many pastors and Christians who only know
what they have been taught. And what they have been taught is that the
Bible does not support the right to resist government, that the right
to keep and bear arms is not sacred, and that Christians are supposed
to be pacifistic in their approach to issues that relate to the Second
Amendment. They are taught this erroneous doctrine in Bible colleges
and universities and seminaries all over America–regardless of
denomination.
It is for this reason that my constitutional attorney son, Tim, and I
wrote a brand new book entitled, "To Keep or Not To Keep: Why
Christians Should Not Give Up Their Guns." This book looks at the
right to keep and bear arms strictly from a Biblical perspective.
Books outlining the constitutional and historical principles relating
to the Second Amendment are plentiful. But I know of NO BOOK written
within the last one-hundred years that deals with this subject solely
from a Scriptural perspective. That is exactly what our new book does.
Here are some of the questions we answer in our new book:
*Is the right to keep and bear arms a divine right?
*Should Christians surrender their firearms if the law requires them to do so?
*Does the New Testament require Christians to always be non-violent?
*Did the fact that Jesus and the apostles not rise up with arms
against tyrannical government mean that Christians today should never
do so?
*Were America's Founding Fathers right or wrong when they rebelled
with arms against the British Crown?
These are the questions that Christians everywhere are rightly asking.
These are the questions that America's pastors must be addressing from
their pulpits. And these are the questions that Tim and I show the
Biblical answers to in our new book.
To order this brand new book, "To Keep or Not To Keep: Why Christians
Should Not Give Up Their Guns," go to:
Keep Your Arms
I firmly believe that if enough pastors and Christians would read and
digest this book, it would revolutionize the way churches respond to
efforts such as Obama's gun grab. It might even be an instrument that
could help preserve liberty in our nation for the next fifty years or
more.
We MUST get this book into the hands of as many people as possible.
I'm asking readers to help me get the word out about this new book. If
everyone reading this column would purchase two of these books, one
for themselves and one for a friend, the results could be
mind-boggling. I truly believe this book has the potential to change
the course of America. Why? Because the pulpits and churches have the
potential to change the course of America. And this book has the
potential to provide the instruction and inspiration necessary to
awaken and energize America's pastors and churches. Perhaps your
pastor or Christian school administrator would even be willing to sell
multiple copies of this book in their church or school. There are
discount prices for bulk orders. Why not ask him or her?
Again, to purchase this brand new book, "To Keep or Not To Keep: Why
Christians Should Not Give Up Their Guns," go to:
Keep Your Arms
President Obama and Vice President Biden are trying to enlist pastors
and ministers in their efforts to disarm the American people. I'm
asking pastors and ministers and Christians all over America to join
"the holy cause of liberty." (Patrick Henry) And make no mistake about
it: without the freedom to keep and bear arms, there is no freedom.
And, yes, as our new book shows, that is a Biblical principle.
P.S. Where does your pastor stand? We have asked pastors all over
America to be courageous enough to publicly support the right to keep
and bear arms from their pulpits. We have asked these men and women to
also be willing to add their names to our list of Second Amendment
Pastors so freedom-minded people in their cities can see that there
are pro-freedom pastors nearby. To see if there is a Second Amendment
pastor near you or, as a pastor, to sign up as a Second Amendment
pastor, go here:
Second Amendment Pastors
(c) Chuck Baldwin
