Jerry Falwell Jr. was right. My take...

*Note: I'm a Liberty graduate, a Liberty dad, and a Liberty employee. These words are MY OPINION and not reflective of LU as an institution. 

So last Friday, Jerry Falwell Jr. made a short statement about concealed carry permits and eligible students, and staff carrying on campus.

…and the whole world done lost it’s mind.

In the wake of yet another terrorist attack by peaceful Muslims, we were instantly force-fed more gun control rhetoric. The solution, to liberals, is to remove all guns (That is, all guns that you can find and confiscate, ignoring the fact, of course that you can’t possibly ever remove all guns) leaving only criminals to possess guns. The problem is that, in these shootings…it’s already a criminal who had the gun. Legally or not, he used it in a criminal method.

So the liberals say we should further disarm the populace in order to prevent mass shootings. Hmmm. Let’s look back at the mindset of these folks, shall we? These are the same people who hold that the way to produce better parents is to kill babies.

…Liberals lost they ever-lovin’ minds.  

These are the same people who want to take away guns because of shootings. But then, these are people who think the way to decrease the debt is to spend more money. Liberals aren’t logical to begin with, but I digress.

The point is, to restrict someone’s rights when it fits their narrative is just fine with them, but God forbid you try that with one of their sacred cows.

Back to last Friday…

Jerry Jr. stated what every one of us thinks already, i.e. the only slim chance you have in the event of a terrorist shooting is to return fire. Or as Clyde, the one-armed deputy from the classic movie “Unforgiven” so eloquently stated: “Well I just don’t want to be killed for lack of shooting back.”

Neither do I.

So my boss said it in a way that we all feel in our hearts anyway, but in a politically correct world run amok, nobody has the nads to say it. “If those Muslims ever come here, we need to be able to fire back.”

Those Muslims…

That’s the term that has people losing their hair. Gee, Einstein, there was a mass shooting in California the day before, you think maybe he was referring to THOSE Muslims? Of course he was, but if you admit that, you have nothing left to be worked into a froth over so you can’t scream at Jerry. You literally have to TRY to see his words as “hate” and “bigotry” for them to add up to that. I never batted an eye when he said what he said, so you can see why I was mystified by the uproar.

But why should I have been surprised? This is, after all, what liberals do. They wait for one word and seize it and redefine it and push it down your throat until you suddenly see the word as something new…and dangerous. Don’t believe me? Look at the word “hate” now. As soon as you disagree with someone, they start accusing you of “hatred” and your logical rebuttal has now become “hate speech” and your whole life is examined to see what else you hate. You are a bigot, You are intolerant. If you disagree with the president, it can only be because you are a racist. These days you don’t dare disagree with a black man over anything because you might be labeled a racist forever.

Your favorite baseball player had better be Willie Mays and not Mickey Mantle and you had better roll your windows down and move to the rhythm whenever some 17 year old pulls up next to you with Kanye shaking the trunk lid of his lowered Honda Civic.

You better not even be a NASCAR fan because “racing” sounds close enough to “racist” these days.

Yeah, okay I’m adding my typical Yankee snark to this to make my point, but seriously…I’m not that far off and you know it.

Jerry Jr. didn’t say anything that anyone else wasn’t thinking and feeling and all these hurt feelings and gasping liberals are simply reacting in accordance with the company line. As Scrooge said, “An ant is what it is, and a grasshopper is what it is…”

And libs are what they are.

But there is another group that attacked President Falwell and that group is really where my wrath is aimed. The Neo-Evangelicals.

All I’ve read over the last three days was one limp-wristed, pasty-faced pansy / pastor (or “navigator” or “spiritual path guide” or whatever the heck else they call themselves except PASTOR these days) after another, attacking Jerry and flaying him open as a hateful, anti-Jesus. “Jesus would not hate!” They proclaim, ignoring the fact that Jerry never said he hated anyone. Jesus said to turn the other cheek. Jesus never resisted the brutality of the crucifixion.

Correct…except Jesus came here for the explicit purpose of dying for my sins. I was not born with the same purpose and before you attack me for ignoring the command to “take up my cross…” you’d better understand that the cross Jesus spoke of in that verse was not necessarily the cross of physical death. It was death to self, and to the things you elevate above Jesus in your life. 

You Bible wizards forget the truth that Jesus was the sacrificial lamb, once. He rose from the dead as a King and his next appearance, as told in revelation, will find him riding on a horse with a sword coming out of his mouth (symbolism depicting his commanding an army) leading a charging army and killing everyone who stands against him. Yeah…it’s in Revelation 19: “11: I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.  15 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Call me crazy but that’s not some glaze-eyed, sissy-boy Jesus who sways back and forth at the latest Matt Redmon song. He’s not hip, and trendy, and wearing cool clothes and whining on his blog about social injustice in Poopistan. He comes riding on a fearsome horse, leading the charge, commanding an army with words of death.

That, my friends, is also Jesus.

That’s the “gentle baby meek and mild.” The same man who wept over Lazarus, got so angry at church money-makers that he made himself a whip and beat them violently and then turned over their tables. Remember when “Karl” found out his brother was killed by John McClain in “Diehard?” Remember when he flipped the desk over and said “I want blood!” Yeah…that’s pretty much Jesus in the temple courtyard that day.

Jesus was no pacifist. He was here for a specific time and for a specific purpose but his history throughout eternity is one of power, authority, and, sometimes, force.

Jesus does not hate Muslims. But Jesus does hate murder. He hates when families are torn apart by terrorist attacks at community centers. He hates the collective grief of 3000 people on 9/11. He hates murder of those four servicemen in Chattanooga.

Jesus also dislikes stupidity. How many times did he ask his disciples “Do you still not get it?” Jesus commands us to take care of our families. Paul wrote that if a man does not provide for his family he is worse than an infidel. Provision includes safety and protection. If you don’t want to carry a firearm, good on ya. But if we do have to answer for our deeds, I think that will include answering for being purposefully reckless.

Evil is here folks. Islam is the place where it lives and where it is nurtured. Does that mean all Muslims are embracers of evil? Of course not! It does mean that they all embrace a culture that embraces evil, which puts them one step away at best. The problem is I can’t tell which ones intend me harm and so I have two options…rid myself and the country of all Muslims –which would be unfair to truly peaceful Muslims- or prepare myself for the worst case scenario.

That I must do.

I am a dad. I have a daughter on this campus, besides being an employee and an alumni. I have to think about her safety all the time. She’s already at just about the safest place I could imagine for her college years. I have to do whatever else I need to do to ensure she gets through it all. In this world, maybe that includes carrying a gun, and, sadly, it includes being suspicious of anyone from certain groups. Suspicious. Not hateful. Not bigoted. Suspicious. Wary. Cautious.

As a Christian, I have to admit…it hurts to say those things. It hurts. Nobody wants to go around suspicious of anyone else. We all want peace. We want diverse friendships and cultural patchwork quilts…blah blah blah. But, I fear, there is no Arabic version of Kumbayaah. We apparently can’t all just get along. That’s reality, and it’s life and death now.

Jerry Falwell Jr. only said what realists already knew…that the threat is contained within Islam (notice I did not say the threat IS Islam…not yet anyway) He said what real people think in a way REAL people say it. Not couched and politically correct and sparing of everyone’s feelings. It is what it is.

You hipster theologians who think that having a pair is tantamount to being some hateful Neanderthal, I have one last parting gift for you. This is the real world now and you live in it. Jesus called us to die to HIM…not to Allah. Turning the other cheek means giving someone one more chance to make it right. Jesus did not call us to be chai latte sipping girl-boys, wearing skinny jeans and loafers with no socks while hiding our emasculation behind some faux-lumberjack beard.

He called us to be Davids. Men after God’s own heart, who snatched lions by the hair of their mane and charged headlong at giants with stones and slings and who lopped of that bugger’s head once we knocked him out! David wrote poetry and songs…some of which begged God to smash out the teeth of his enemies and bash their baby’s heads against rocks. David was a man. He had a temper. He got pissed sometimes.

If this picture bothers you…take it up with God. He is, after all, the one who loved that manly man so much that he made him the progenitor of the Savior himself. Ecclesiastes teaches us that there IS a time to kill and a time not to. There IS a time for harsh, often violent responses to humanity. That’s in the Bible too, along with the Beatitudes.  

Live with this, and more importantly…let ME live with this without calling me less of a Christian than you are. Get yourself a pair, bro!

Or to quote the late, great Dale Earnhardt…

“You’d better tie some kerosene rags around your ankles so the ants don’t crawl up your legs and eat your candy a**!”

That’s how I see it.