Anti-Gunners get religion ... to ban guns

I've written separately about the Presbyterians, the Jews, and the Methodists all apparently embracing the bigotry of gun-control as official church policies.

Now we learn that there is an actual "God Not Guns" coalition:

A project of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the “God Not Guns” coalition includes agencies of the United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, and the National Council of Churches, along with several Jewish groups. The American Humanist Association is also a member, suggesting a very wide definition of “god” in the name of opposing gun ownership and “gundamentalism.”

“Gundamentalism encourages fear, teaching us to see each other as "The Other," a potential enemy, a threat endangering our family, our home, our person,” insists Rev. Smith, who is a clergywoman in the American Baptist denomination. “Gundamentalism creates a culture of fear then offers a seductive promise: with a gun one can live with out fear. It offers power, freedom, self-determination and protection all in the metal casing of a gun. With the gun as its icon, the 2nd Amendment as its creed, gundamentalism proclaims that nothing is as sacred as the right to own a gun.”

Good grief! And these are clergy from mainstream churches spouting this nonsense. So sad, so misguided, and so potentially deadly for any parishioners who follow this silly anti-self defense advice. As the article notes:

Scriptures for Christians and Jews fault murder and theft on human hatred and covetousness, not on weapons, which are morally neutral, to be employed for good or evil. But the “God Not Guns” coalition prefers to blame inanimate objects rather the corruptions of the human heart. The Religious Left typically locates salvation in legislation, not God. And its secularized salvation inevitably demands the expansion of state power at the expense of the individual. Who, then, are the real “idolaters?”

I wonder just how widespread the gun-control doctrine really is in religious clergy? Do we not teach virtues like self-reliance, self-defense, and protecting the weak and vulnerable anymore?