Tag Archives: San Bernardino

national news, religious news

More guns to ‘end those Muslims’ … yeah, that’s it

falwell

Jerry Falwell Jr. sounds a good bit like the late Jerry Falwell Sr.

The elder Falwell founded Liberty University, a leading Christian-based institution of higher learning. His son now runs it.

Falwell Sr. once produced a video that alleged Bill and Hillary Clinton were involved in the murder of their close friend Vincent Foster. You remember “The Clinton Chronicles.”

Falwell Jr. now says, and this takes my breath away, that more students on the Liberty U. campus in Lynchburg, Va., should be carrying firearms so they could “end those Muslims before they walked in.”

All … right.

Did he really mean that? Does he really mean that “more good people” should be carrying weapons to kill Muslims?

Jerry Jr. says he didn’t mean that. He says he was referring to radical Islamic terrorists. OK, but he didn’t say that. According to the Washington Post: “I just wanted to take this opportunity to encourage all of you to get your permit. We offer a free course,” he said. “Let’s teach them a lesson if they ever show up here.”

By “they,” does he mean Muslims, or just those who commit acts of terror?

It’s not entirely clear to me.

Falwell’s language defies understanding.

I get that he’s angry and frightened over what has just occurred in San Bernardino. But I have trouble grasping that a leader of a prominent Christian university would actually use such inflammatory language to whip up a crowd in the manner that he reportedly did in his speech at Liberty U.

Virginia’s governor, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, said this in a statement: “My administration is committed to making Virginia an open and welcoming Commonwealth, while also ensuring the safety of all of our citizens. Mr. Falwell’s rash and repugnant comments detract from both of those crucial goals. Those of us in leadership positions, whether in government or education, must take care to remember the tremendous harm that can result from reckless words.”

Yes, I know that Falwell’s message will resonate with many other Americans.

Such a message, however, simply saddens me at a time when millions of Americans are filled with overwhelming sadness over our nation’s latest mass-shooting tragedy.

national news

Gun death toll keeps mounting

barack

I totally understand that President Barack Obama has his share of critics.

Moreover, I respect and honor Americans’ right to criticize him, even though I remain generally a supporter of his policies, his vision for the country and the manner in which he has led us.

It’s hard for me to watch this brief compilation of the number of times the president has had to go before the nation in the wake of mass shootings.

San Bernardino, Calif., was just the latest. I am frightfully certain there will be more of those kinds of massacres before the president and his family check out of the White House on Jan. 20, 2017.

And, yes, there will be more of them for the next president to confront.

I am not going to make any partisan statement here about how we should end it. I’m not going to enter the fray that’s erupting already about whether to clamp more gun control laws, or whether the latest shooters were jihadists.

This is a terribly complex and hear-wrenching problem that has gripped the nation by the throat. It won’t let go.

I’m just one American who’s grown weary of watching these events unfold. I try, with no success at all, to imagine how a president musters the will to corral his emotions with every violent spasm that grips the country he governs.