Posted on 01/24/2013 1:05:20 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
[Episcopal News Service] The Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean of Washington National Cathedral, was among those who joined Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) on Capitol Hill Jan. 24 as she announced the introduction of a bill to renew the U.S. ban on assault weapons.
Hall, who was the first person to speak after Feinstein began the press conference at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, said he has spoken in the pulpit, in the media, with fellow faith leaders and “people in my own church” against gun violence.
“Now we have come to the end of the preaching part of our work and we are moving forward with a tangible solution to the epidemic today as we stand with Senator Feinstein and her Congressional colleagues as they introduce this assault weapons ban,” he said.
Hall said people of faith have a “moral obligation” to stand with and for the victims of gun violence and work to end it.
“Everyone in this city seems to live in terror of the gun lobby,” Hall said, “but I believe that the gun lobby is no match for the cross lobby, especially when we stand together as people of all faiths across the religious landscape of America.”
“I don’t want to take away someone’s hunting rifle but I can longer justify a society that allows people other than military and police to own weapons like these,” he said, pointing to a display of weapons that would be banned under the proposed bill, “or permits the sale of high-capacity magazines designed with the purpose of simply killing as many people as possible.”
Hall called the particulars of the Assault Weapon Ban of 2013 a set of “consensual, middle-of-the-road, common-sense legal actions.”
He then led the press conference in prayer, asking in part that God give compassion, vision, courage and wisdom to U.S. leaders and citizens. He noted that God had given humans “hearts with which to feel the pain of others and minds to create solutions for human suffering.”
Feinstein then described her bill, saying she was “incensed” that gun massacres are happening again and again, perpetrated by “grievance killers,” gang members and those who are mentally unstable or ill.
“The common thread in these shootings is that each gunman used a semi-automatic assault weapon or large-capacity ammunition magazines,” she said.
Such equipment has one original purpose: to kill many people in close-combat military settings, she said. Since the last assault-weapons ban expired in 2004, more than 350 people have been killed and more than 450 wounded by such equipment, according to Feinstein.
“We should be outraged at how easy it was for these perpetrators to obtain powerful military-style weapons,” she said.
The bill would prohibit the sale, transfer, manufacture and importation of assault weapons and large-capacity feeding devices that can accept more than 10 rounds. The bill bans 158 specifically named military-style weapons; certain other semi-automatic rifles, handguns, shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine and have one or more military characteristics; and semi-automatic rifles and handguns with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds.
It also moves from the two-characteristic test in the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and various state bans to a one-characteristic test, thus making it harder for weapons manufacturers to modify guns to escape the ban, Feinstein said.
Saying the proposed ban will have no effect on hunting and sporting weapons, she noted that it specifically names 2,200 such weapons that would be exempt.
Targeted weapons legally possessed at the time the ban goes into effect would be grandfathered but their possession would be subject to background checks if they are later sold or transferred, she said.
“No weapon is taken from anyone,” Feinstein said. “The purpose is to dry up the supply over time.”
Other details are on Feinstein’s website here.
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-New York), who will take the lead on the bill in the House of Representatives, told the press conference that the fight against gun violence has been a “very lonely battle for many years.”
McCarthy was elected to Congress in 1997, four years after her husband, Dennis, was killed and her son, Kevin, severely injured on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train when Colin Ferguson opened fire on passengers.
“I’ve watched the slaughter of so many people and met with so many victims over the years and in Congress nobody wanted to touch the issue,” she said.
However, she said “something happened” after Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and six adults on Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. There is renewed attention and intention to end gun violence, McCarthy said, but she added that 1,000 people have died from gunshots in the U.S. since that day.
She said the assault-weapons ban has to be “only the beginning” of what she called a holistic approach. Young people must be helped to avoid drugs and to deal with their psychological problems “so they don’t feel they have to take a gun to kill themselves or take down some of their classmates,” McCarthy said.
Also at the press conference were Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colorado), Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, as well as victims of gun violence and law enforcement officers and representatives of gun safety organizations and doctor and teacher organizations.
Double it.
There is a clear plan of action if I ever saw one.
Washington National Cathedral is circling the bowl.
Wonder if they’re tax exempt.
Tailgunner Joe~: (from the article)”” The Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the National Cathedral in Washington, said Thursday morning that “people of faith” should come together to fight for gun control against the “gun lobby.” “
Hwy Tailgunner ~ Has Very Rev. Gary Hall spoken out publicly on behalf of other Christians or other religions ?
Is his criticism selective ?
The Coptics of Egypt - being killed and raped by muslums ?
The Christians of Mali - being hunted down, killed and raped by Muslums ?
The Jews and Christians of Turkey and Syria who are being raped and killed by Muslums ?
The Hindu ,Seiks and Buddists of India who are being killed and raped by Muslums ?
What do they all have in common ?
HINT : unarmed and Muslums !
Take a hint (see above ) , .. and THINK about it !
Now we have reknowned ( ? ) Democrats seeking gun control under the guise of religiousity
Any firearms I may have are DEFENSIVE
HINT : unarmed and Muslums ! ..and Democrats !!
Tailgunner Joe ~:” (from the article) Feinstein then described her bill, saying she was “incensed” that gun massacres are happening again and again, perpetrated by “grievance killers,” gang members and those who are mentally unstable or ill.
“The common thread in these shootings is that each gunman used a semi-automatic assault weapon or large-capacity ammunition magazines,” she said.”
I didn’t know that Fienstein was an expert in firearms and psychology
Question :What is the common element ?
Answer : assault weapons and mental illness
Then ask an expert :
“The average number of people shot in a mass shooting event when the shooter is stopped by law enforcement: 14.
The average number of people shot in a mass shooting event when the shooter is stopped by civilians: 2.5
The reason is simple. The armed civilians are there when it started.” ~ by Larry Correia
There was likely nothing in that Cathedral that even remotely resembled a true Christian....IMHO.
Son of the Bowery Boys Huntz Hall.
And another anti-Biblical so-called cleric.
Gary R. Hall's Washington National Cathedral is becoming the happening place.
Is the Washington National Cathedral the spiritual center of the nation? In the mind of the liberal Episcopal cathedral's new dean, it should be.
Such an assertion would surprise many of America's churchgoers, the vast majority of whom are not even Oldline Protestants, let alone Episcopalians. But since assuming leadership of the Cathedral in October, Dean Gary R. Hall has frequently spoken of the church's role as being "at the center" of American public life. Hall wants to raise the cathedral's profile as not just a center of worship, but as an organized political advocacy center on a host of liberal issues.
Despite having freshly arrived from a failed seminary and a parish that by Evangelical or Roman Catholic standards would be viewed as somewhat small, Hall clearly has feelings of grandeur about his new office, seeing the National Cathedral as the center of American religious life.
Previous generations of liberal Episcopal clergy often spoke in layers of obfuscation; discovering the heretical teaching buried in their writing and preaching required hours of decoding. Hall represents a younger generation of liberal Episcopalians who resemble nothing so much as Unitarian Universalists decked out in stoles and surplices; they are quick to denounce those who advocate historic Christian teaching-especially moral teaching-as intolerant perpetrators of injustice who must be silenced.
In an October interview with the Detroit Free Press Hall announced that he is, "not about trying to convert someone to Christianity. I don't feel I'm supposed to convert Jews or Muslims or Hindus or Buddhists or Native Americans to Christianity so that they can be saved. That's not an issue for me."
Hall was also forthcoming about the fact that he finds common cause with those who do not profess a faith in Jesus Christ.
"I have much more in common with progressive Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists than I do with certain people in my own tradition, with fundamentalist Christians," Hall declared. "The part of Christianity I stand with is the part in which we can live with ambiguity and with pluralism."
Perhaps unsurprisingly considering his background, Hall has brought politics to the forefront at the National Cathedral, already a liberal congregation that has hosted anti-Israel film screenings and new age worship seminars. In December, the cathedral almost immediately issued a press release following the Newtown, Connecticut shootings, in which an upcoming Sunday sermon calling for firearms regulation was promoted. In his sermon that weekend, Hall dismissed calling the shooter "evil" as "reflexive" and dehumanizing. Instead, Hall touted a political rather than a spiritual solution.
"Our political leaders need to know that there is a group of people in America who will serve as a counterweight to the gun lobby, who will stand together with our leaders and support them as they act to take assault weapons off the streets," Hall sermonized. The dean advised that the best way to mourn Newtown's victims is to "mobilize the faith community for gun control."
The following month, Hall explained how a decision to conduct same-sex marriage is about more than just cathedral policy; it is also a move to influence the country. ...
I have searched for Hall's biography. So far, no mention of a wife and family. There is a whisper out there that he is homosexual. Can any Freepers out there confirm 1 way or the other?
RELATED:
National Cathedral to Officiate Same-Sex Marriages
The wedding bells will chime in the 106-year-old Washington National Cathedral as Rev. Gary Hall affirmed that, effective immediately, same-sex weddings may be celebrated at the Cathedral of the Episcopal Church located in the northwest quadrant of Washington D.C.
The National Cathedral has welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors and held both celebrations and funerals for U.S. presidents past.
In August 2012, the church approved the ceremonial use of a rite adapted from an existing blessing ceremony to acknowledge same-sex marriage. The Episcopal Church will be among the first to recognize marriage for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender couples.
...
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/01/national-cathedral-to-officiate-same-sex-marriages/
RELATED:
Obama Censors God From Thanksgiving Address
BY PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY
It’s hard to believe but, for the fourth straight year, President Obama insulted Americans by omitting any thanks to God from his Thanksgiving Day address. He did thank God in his printed Thanksgiving Proclamation, but in his Thanksgiving address, which he personally read in November from the teleprompter into a camera, Obama continued his practice of deliberately omitting any mention of God. He said that Thanksgiving is “a time to give thanks for each other,” and for our “blessings,” and for “the ability to
spend time with the ones we love,” and several other things, but God didn’t make it onto the list. Obama didn’t say where our “blessings” come from. Obama thus ignored the central message of the great and unique American holiday, Thanksgiving.
President Obama’s peculiar attitude toward religion and his animosity toward public expressions of religious faith are so conspicuous that they are a cause of concern to many Americans. ...
http://www.themoralliberal.com/2013/01/04/obama-censors-god-from-thanksgiving-address/
God is not mocked.
No shepherd, but a hireling!
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