"freedom to bear arms" a "God given right"?

okay, first off, i know it has been a very long time since i've written anything. laziness, busyness, forgetfulness. . . call it what you will, but due to prompt i got recently (that's a shout out to you travis!) i've decided to write some more.

second, i hope no one gets offended or upset, but this is just me letting it out.

thirdly, here it goes . . .

i am currently sitting in my house in montana eating nachos fresh out of the oven. a very wonderful mufti-faceted blessing. only hours ago i was sitting in an airport reading a book (waking the dead by john eldridge which is pretty interesting and i would recommend it) while being slightly distracted by the cnnpolitcs channel that was on covering the results and subsequent fallout and rumors of iowa's caucus. now if you don't know me, i can't stand politics, i hate politics, politics irritate me immensely, and on and on. romney won by 8 votes . . . ok, it was a close race, but do i really need to be bombarded for hours (it was a 3 hour layover) about it and what it will be mean for all the others running and what might happen in the next state? but it gets worse.

i'm not sure which candidate got video time next, if it was gingrich or bachmann, but i will go with the lesser of irritating clips first, if one was really less irritating than the other.

presidential hopeful michelle bachmann was holding a press release about the status of her campaign. and if you couldn't see that it was her walking up to the podium the announcer had to state, "here she comes now." "she's coming up to the podium." "she's stepping up to the podium now." it was like she was announcing a play by play, only very anti-climactic. the short and sweet version is that bachmann stepped out of the race. the long and ugly version is that she felt (and this is the gist of the impression i got) it was her duty to have run for office to bring the country back to God. it sounded like a bit of an attempt to guilt trip people for not voting for her because now who would do it? she went on several times about how "blessed she is thanks to Almighty God" and "Savior" and however many other ways she put it.
now i can see she believes in God and Jesus (but so does the devil and the devil is afraid). that is not a jab at her or saying she is the devil but the statements she made at least seem misguided. what does God care about the political happenings of the united states. (these are my thoughts, so perhaps i'm wrong) i'm sure God sees and is happy or sad about what it can do for the people of the world, but God does not live in the US nor does He mind if it comes from the US, or france, or denmark, or brazil, or iraq, or india, or anywhere else. i don't think God wants the US or any other country. It is man that wants them. God isn't going to say, "look, I have the US." God made it already and it is His. but i do think God wants the people who live in the US (and every other country for that matter) i also think that it is not going to be the government who provides God with those people.

before i go on with that line of thinking i will head onto the irritation of gingrich and then close up both at the same time.

presidential hopeful newt gingrich also had a press conference though i missed some of what was said because of the political hot water he is in because of the mud-slinging going on with romney has really tuned me out of it. but i caught one part where he was saying that, "the second amendment does not give the right to bear arms." i will admit my heart pumped a little harder at that, but he continued, "it says the freedom to bear arms shall not be abridged." (emphasis added by gingrich.) ok, i can see has angle now. then he continued saying that the right to bear arms is a "God given right." if he'd a been in the airport in front of me i'd have lost it. so let me dissect this first and hopefully you can find the flaws in this reasoning.

one, God was around long before guns.
two, people were around long before guns.
three, any rights God gave man came around long before guns.
four, remember the fifth (or sixth depending on your version) commandment? "thou shalt not kill." i'm imagining the voice of God from charleston heston's movie the ten commandments as i type this.
do i have a gun, yes, i have three in fact. i do not believe that guns are bad, but can be used for bad. "i believe guns don't kill people, husbands that come home early do." a somewhat humorous, somewhat sobering, and somewhat scary line by larry the cableguy from the blue collar comedy tour. not that i agree with that line, but you get the idea.
mr. gingrich . . . remember the line about "love your enemy as yourself." ouch. (here's a plug to read the book tea with hezbollah by ted dekker and carl medearis)

just recently i finished a book called radical written by david platt. it destroyed me life. (thanks dana for recommending it!) by destroying my life i'm saying that it destroyed me way of thinking that i'm living the Christian american dream. you know, the one about a car in every garage, a chicken in every pot, go to church for an hour on sunday, give a bit of my (MY) hard earned dollars to some charity so i have that feel good experience. the book basically brings to light that Jesus called all of His followers to GO! not give an hour a week and pennies so you can buy a 5,000 sq ft house with two bmw's in the garage. no, Jesus said, "sell all you have and give it to the poor, then come and follow Me." and where did Jesus go? He went to places that needed Him most. to the people who were hurting, starving, oppressed, hopeless, crippled. do we have people like that in the US. most certainly. seen any in your church lately? been to church lately? would you allow people like that in your church? i can't fit the 217 page book into one paragraph, but basically i've been stuck in the devil's idea that the expensive american dream is ok, as long as it keeps me here and i feel good about not deepening my relationship with God.
(i highly recommend this book by the way.)

so how does that last section fit in with the above ones? trick question, it doesn't. because they are not the same thing. the first two are politics and political agendas masquerading as Christianity, while the third is Jesus telling us what to do next. there have been many times in history where personal or political agendas have taken the guise of Christianity. the crusades and the inquisition are two horrifying examples. on a less violent scale, it seems the US election process can be added to it.

God doesn't want our political, hair-splitting, law-making agendas. He wants us. He doesn't care about what political party we are affiliated with, we are all humans created by Him. i love the line in the switchfoot song politicians. "i pledge allegiance to a country without borders, without politicians." in that country, all are welcome and there is no one to argue about it. i think that if gingrich and bachmann, and any other "Christian" candidate really wanted to "bring this country to God," they would actually be out "in the trenches" getting dirty and hanging out with the "less fortunate." but then they might get their $400 suits dirty. (ok, that might have been a low blow.)

when Jesus was walking the earth the teachers of the law, most notably the pharisees, were so caught up in looking good and showing themselves off and nit-picking every last legal detail that they missed out on Jesus and God and what was being offered. 2000 years later it appears that we haven't come very far.

i will stop before i get too carried away, because i can go on and on. but the point i'm trying to get at is that the government can't save you. they can't bring this country to God. we don't get a free pass because of the government. it is each individual for themselves in this relationship with God, and God wants to meet with each and every one. we make up the united states, the united states doesn't make us. we are a people, created by God, for God's glory, who were amazingly (very amazingly) blessed to be born in this country with all the freedoms, opportunities, and benefits that it has. we have a phenomenal amount of resources available to us, that much of the rest of the world could only dream about. and Jesus commands us to GO!