Posted on 12/22/2012 4:37:51 AM PST by Tailgunner Joe
The Archbishop of Canterbury backed stricter gun controls in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre, saying the ready availability of weapons in a society where fear is already "rampant" pushes people to extreme violence.
Delivering BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day, Dr Rowan Williams also warned that Britain had "better not be complacent" about the gang-related gun and knife crime affecting its own youngsters.
A minute's silence was held in America on Friday to remember the 20 children and six adult victims of the Connecticut shootings which have thrust the fraught gun control debate back into the political spotlight.
In a defiant response, the National Rifle Association said the answer is arming teachers.
Dr Williams said it is hard to "say and sing the words of this joyful season while we think of lives cut so brutally short and of the unimaginable loss and trauma suffered by parents.
He added: "Nearly 6,000 children and teenagers were killed by firearms in the USA in just two years.
"And we had better not be complacent about the issues of gun and knife crime affecting people in our own cities here. In the UK, the question is how we push back against gang culture by giving people the acceptance and respect they deserve so that they don't look for it in destructive places.
"In the United States the question is of course about gun laws - one of the most polarising issues in American politics," he said.
While individuals made the choice to use guns "it makes a difference to people what weapons are at hand for them to use and even more what happens to people in a culture where fear is rampant and the default response to frightening or unsettling situations or personal tensions is violence and the threat of violence," he said.
"People use guns but, in a sense, guns use people too. When we have the technology for violence easily to hand, our choices are skewed and we are more vulnerable to being manipulated into violent action."
So,
The Archbishop of Canterbury going to his flock totally unprotected by his only self? Even in slums?
Oy, he doesn’t meet the ‘ordinary people’, he’s too high and mighty.
As Catholics we are fortunate in having the lesson from the New Testament where Jesus awards the “nice guy” the role of looking after His mother (and being rewarded with the only natural death among the apostles), while the apostle who draws a sword and severs the servant’s ear in the garden became the first Pope of the Church (and insisted on not being crucified in the same manner as Jesus because he was unfit, so he was crucified upside down).
Adding animism to your other heresies, eh what? Small wonder the C of E continues to shrink into nothingness.
Mr. niteowl77
Yep, millions of Americans have been waiting for word from the Archbishop of Canterbury. Perhaps Monty Python can give the archbishop something worthwhile to do and sell him a dead parrot to take care of.
Gun control has worked so well for England.
How much did the crime rate go up when they banned guns?
An apostate church in its death throes embraces the devil in a frantic bid for one more breath.
Jesus returns and then we beat our swords into plow shears.
The Archbishop has nothing to do with Christianity.
The ‘archbishop’ is more interested in receiving his £67,790-a-year and living in a riverside palace. His other perks include a generous expense allowance and a final salary pension plus a chauffeur driven car.
His income is probably tax free.
He steps down in a few weeks and another takes over for the next ten years. Hopefully the new one, who spent much of his life as an executive in the industrial world, will steer the Church back to being a church of Christ rather than today’s church which is not just in the world, but of the world.
I understand your point about animism. What i’ve found interesting is that as a concealed carrier, having a weapon on me has the exact opposite effect. If someone were to insult my wife when i was unarmed I would be more likely to get in a fight. If armed I am simply looking for an escape strategy because I know if I am attacked I may be forced to defend myself.
Yes - like all the other Christian ministers - mostly Methodists, Baptists and Congregationalists, this being noncomformist Wales - who in the last 150 years or so have accepted the same honorary title as Rowan Williams did for their Welsh language poetry. As anybody who takes the trouble to check the background will discover, the Welsh cultural revival movement in the 19th century (largely led, as it happens, by Christian ministers) chose in a fit of whimsical acknowledgement of that culture's ancient origins to bestow quaint titles such as Bard and Druid on the various awards and honours which it established, to be bestowed at the various annual eisteddfodau (festivals of Welsh music and poetry). It has nothing, but nothing, to do with paganism.
Williams is a published poet in the Welsh language. He has many faults, but dabbling with paganism is not one of them. His only error in this instance was naivete in failing to anticipate that acceptance would be misinterpreted on the way it has been by those outside Wales who are ignorant of this background.
Oh dear, once again we benighted Yanks are supposed to care what the little bearded Druid thinks.
Not bloody likely, mate.
Haven’t heard from the arch-shaman in quite a while, and here he is shaking his feathers and rattling his gourds at the American NRA. Since people in the UK pay even less heed to his fossil church than Americans do, he has to do what he can to let them know he still exists. Personally, I think the British tolerate him only for his occasional ceremonial duties and the tourist value of the CoE’s splendid old building.
Also, a fact worth remembering. Just before we entered WWII the Brits were worried about the Germans invading. There weren't enough firearms in the country to arm the home guard. Something about gun control.
They asked for some help from us colonials. FDR couldn't or wouldn't give them small arms, so the people of the US were asked to give up some of their arms for the Brits.
A lot were volunteered by our people which were never returned but confiscated and destroyed by the Brit gov because guns in the hands of the people was bad.
I may not be completely correct as to the facts but it was something like this.
Hint #1 for the Archbishop: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolutionary_War The United States of America is no longer subject to British Authority, and Canterbury is still British.
Hint #2 for the Archbishop: http://secondamendmenttaskforce.com/ The Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land in the United States, and “shall not be infringed” is unambiguous, despite the claims of petty tyrant wannabes.
Hint #3 for the Archbishop: http://bible.cc/luke/22-36.htm “Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.” Jesus approved of weapons. But: “They said, ‘Lord, look, here are two swords.” And He said to them, “It is enough.’” Jesus also advocated that we choose moderation in arming ourselves.
Neither the government nor the church has the right or the authority to disarm us, although we should not allow weapons to crowd everything else out of our lives. Considering the recent disgusting actions of our ruling class, the days when weapons may be needed to protect religious liberty against enemies in power are much closer than I ever imagined.
Politely, the apostate Archbishop of a failed and corrupt “church” needs to mind his own business, assuming he has any.
More and more, homos are going to go after churches violently.
Just as the church advocated for socialized medicine and then got burned by the government as liberals demanded they pay for employee abortion and birth control; they will get burned when they are disarmed by the government and can not defend their churches and people from the Sodom mobs.
Social justice is mandated sin, death and poverty.
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