[Vision2020] guns, gospel, and guffaws

[keely emerinemix]

Lurking Kirkerss and Blogmeisters can call me an Intolerista -- from them, 
it's kind of a compliment -- but charges that I'm humorless and boring 
really bug me.  I consider myself an inimitably zany gal, but even my 
always-eager sense of humor was clouded by the "Celebrate Diversity" handgun 
T-shirt referred to yesterday by Tom and Wayne from Courtney's blog.  (It's 
a T-shirt that pictures row after row of different handguns, with the 
"Celebrate Diversity" motto printed underneath).  The blogmeister assumes 
that my comment that such a post does damage to the gospel is evidence of my 
dull and plodding, joyless existence.

But since I derive joy from the Gospel, I tend to get crabby when people 
dishonor it.  Here's why I thought a snort and a guffaw about a "Celebrate 
9handgun) Diversity" T-shirt does just that:

"Celebrate Diversity" has come to mean a number of things that are 
critically important to many people, particularly in a college community.  
It should.  While there are unquestionably some silly attempts at 
"diversity," the thrust of the message is that we as a people are made 
richer by the presence and contributions of diverse cultures (by which I 
mean beliefs, traditions, viewpoints, histories, etc., whether racial and 
ethnic in origin or not).  The message also celebrates that the sum of us 
strengthens the "one-ness" of us and speaks against racial, ethnic, and 
cultural superiority; the dominant standard of the age (for instance, white 
Protestant, American, affluent males) has been done away with.  It's an 
important message that Jesus Christ demonstrated with remarkable power and 
that the Gospel can and should bring about.

I think that a "Celebrate Diversity" shirt with pictures of, say, different 
types of coffee, donuts, or Chevrolets is probably not somethig I would 
wear, but it doesn't rise to the level of offense in its "wink-wink, 
nudge-nudge" silliness.  Guns, however, are different.  Guns kill people.  
While not "antichrists," guns are certainly "anti-peace."  Guns have caused 
tremendous damage to our country, our world, and especially to marginalized 
people throughout it.  I don't celebrate the presence of guns; I acknowledge 
their necessity and utility, but I recognize them as a concession to a 
grossly fallen and sin-drenched world when used for defense, a morally 
neutral tool when used for hunting, and a thing of malice and violence when 
used in crime.  Call me a wet blanket, but the proliferation and variety of 
such doesn't make me run to the Dollar Store for confetti . . .

I doubt that anyone who's ever met me thinks I'm humorless, just as I doubt 
that LK's and Blogmeisters who don't know me will ever presume less than mal 
intent on my part in responding to them.  But given that the "JC" I emulate 
is Jesus Christ and not Jim Carrey, I'll plod on in my allegedly lugubrious 
defense of the Gospel, even at the risk of DC's scorn and mockery.

keely

_________________________________________________________________
On the road to retirement? Check out MSN Life Events for advice on how to 
get there! http://lifeevents.msn.com/category.aspx?cid=Retirement