Reading the first paragraph of “ThePrice of Freedom? Child Sacrifice and the American Gun Cult” by John J.Thatamanil, immediately triggered my memory of the ancient practice of sacrificing
children to idols; and lo and behold, this is where Thatamanil went in his
article. The ancient god of Moloch, for
which idolaters “caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire
unto Moloch”[1] is
appropriated to America in this way: “Every year, we offer up our children up
to the [more subtle] god of the gun and to the NRA - the high priests of the
American gun cult.” Think of the many catastrophic events where innocent children/individuals/human
beings are killed by guns and the response of so-called evangelical-minded
people. Just on a daily bases 46 children and teens are shot resulting in 6
deaths by way of murder (4) and suicide (2). In the lens of history, when Israelites
followed Yahweh’s warning about Moloch or any other national cult, they would refrain,
stay apart and live counter culturally. It’s no different today. If we are to
live apart from the idolatrous influences, we must view ourselves as exiles,
living in a sort of the Diaspora culturally, not relying on nationalism to make
any real change without outside, grassroots influence.
Perhaps the day will come when
the living vision uttered many years ago will be realized.
Yahweh [the I am having my way] shall judge among the
nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into
ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up
sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.[2]
The
"Guns Into Plowshares" sculpture, dedicated Oct. 10, will be at
Eastern Mennonite University for two to three years before returning to its
original exhibition site in Judiciary Square outside the Washington D.C.
Metropolitan Police Department. The sculpture contains several thousand
handguns, including 10 from the Harrisonburg Police Department. Esther
Augsburger, wife of President Emeritus Myron Augsburger, and son Michael
created the sculpture in the late '90s.[3]
Close up
view of a section of the above sculpture: handguns dismantled and welded into
the larger whole.
[1] Hebrew
Scriptures, Jeremiah xxxii.35; see http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-cult-of-moloch
[2]
Ibid., Isaiah ii.
[3] https://emu.edu/now/news/2017/10/forging-peace-guns-plowshares-sculpture-dedicated-emu/
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