The Southern Baptist Convention is now using its massive sway to call for gun control in Tennessee.
Brent Leatherwood, the Southern Baptist Convention’s president of the church’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), demanded gun control in a letter published by The Tennesseean.
“Yes, it is true we live in a world tainted by terrible acts and deeds, but that is never an excuse for inaction,” he said in the letter. “While it may not prevent every instance of this sort of violence, it will prevent some, and thereby save innocent lives. That should be more than enough reason to advance this proposal.”
He echoed the same sentiment on Twitter.
“Because our lives are so consumed by the political drama of any given day and we ourselves have been turned into unthinking activists, we tend to miss real information about what’s going on around us. The statistics below should grieve us as a society,” he said in response to a graph showing an uptick in teen gun violence.
Because our lives are so consumed by the political drama of any given day and we ourselves have been turned into unthinking activists, we tend to miss real information about what’s going on around us.
The statistics below should grieve us as a society. https://t.co/aP3gKEOBAj
— Brent Leatherwood (@LeatherwoodERLC) April 11, 2023
Leatherwood voiced support for Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s recent call for “Order of Protection” laws in Tennessee.
“Order of Protection” laws are the same as “Red Flag” laws, and would allow authorities to strip law abiding citizens of their firearms based on a certain set of subjective criteria, like whether a person is considered to be a danger to themselves or others.
Lee called for those laws on April 11.
“This new stronger order of protection law will provide the broader population cover, safety from those that are a danger to themselves or to the population,” he said at the time. “It’s going to require coming together, laying down our previously held positions potentially.”
Opponents of “Red Flag” laws, like Executive Director of the Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) John Harris, say the laws are likely unconstitutional.
Harris joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on April 17 to discuss the issue.
He said the following:
The problem is that Tennessee’s governors and our legislature don’t think that the Second Amendment applies to them, and they read that initial phrase well-regulated to mean that the government has the authority to create laws that restrict the access of the people to own or possess or even purchase guns.
We just had, as recently as two years ago, a House member Brandon Ogles who expressly said that in committee hearings that well-regulated gave them that authority. They clearly misread it as we talk in the Constitution book that well-regulated was intended to mean it is critical to the freedom that this nation is founded upon, that civilians own guns, and that they be well prepared to use them if necessary, like in the Battle of Athens, to stand up to our own government.
Just like the founders had done with England. So it’s completely the opposite of where they think that phrase was intended to lead us.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Photo “Brent Leatherwood” by Brent Leatherwood.
Amen!
We’ll have to defend them, too, Dave, because apparently , the SBC are not going to have any firearms.
Take note that neither the SBC, Lee nor the General Assembly has dared utter a word about the transgender terrorism behind this massacre. Would transgenderism be cause to throw the “Red Flag?” Who am I kidding?
dont they have anything better to deal with ?
Are they willing to lead by example? No armed security for any/meeting/gathering? Maybe a nice sign out front that proclaims “this is a gun-free zone”.
Grizz – Well said and accurate.
Leatherwood does not speak for the Southern Baptist membership. He, like his predecessor, is a left-leaning mouthpiece who should crawl back into his hole.
Governor Lee, We The People, vote too.
I don’t know if you have future political aspirations, but if you do, this RFL virtue signal, will come nto haunt you.
Red Flag Laws are so dangerous. Your wife could report you as suicidal or homicidal. Rather than being innocent until proven guilty, you be in the position of being guilty without due process.
UNCONSTITUTIONAL
This raises an interesting question: will the SBC allow alcohol to be served at the gay wedding receptions it will be endorsing and encouraging soon?
Using their logic… Liberals/Baptists/BLM/Antifa/immigrants should not be allowed to own a gun. It won’t stop all crime but it will stop some.
Will someone explain just what is so difficult to understand about the term “shall not be infringed”?
Not everyone who reads The Tennessee Star is a Southern Baptist or understands their conventions’ denominational polity. Southern Baptists have a different polity from probably many (maybe even most) Protestant denominations. The national SBC ERLC does NOT ‘speak’ for Tennessee Baptists. According to the latest Baptist Faith and Message statement (i.e., adopted by the SBC at its annual national convention on June 14, 2000), is the following:
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, . . . Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through the democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. . . . . (Art. VI, The Church)
The ERLC in its recent history has often ‘meddled’ in politics when many in the SBC have thought that it should NOT have done so. Indeed, the immediate past president of the ERLC was ‘dismissed’ for repeatedly doing this very thing. It seems to me that the current mindset of the ERLC seems to be that it should always find itself ‘in hot water’. I think that most Tennessee Baptists would disagree with the national SBC ERLC on this most recent of its pronouncements concerning ‘gun control’.
There are approximately 3,200 churches in the Tennessee Baptist Convention. (As an aside, according to the most recent numbers, there are approximately 47,500 churches in the national SBC constituted into 41 separate state conventions (or state-like conventions—in some parts of the USA the Southern Baptists in one State have joined with the Southern Baptists of an adjoining State(s) to form one convention—a few States have more than one convention.) As aforesaid, each Tennessee Baptist church is autonomous, and each’s association with other Tennessee Baptist churches is merely voluntary.
It would be a great mistake for members of the Tennessee General Assembly to place much ‘stock’ in the aforesaid views of the ERLC—arguably the most politically LIBERAL agency of the several SBC national agencies. Tennessee legislators would be much better advised to know the views of the members of the Southern Baptist churches in their own districts.
Mr. Leatherwood,
And how many of those deaths were gang related? Case and point the recent rioting and looting conducted by those 18 and under (children if you will) in Chicago. We have a gang violence problem in America with gang members as young as 10 years old conducting drive by shootings and assassinations of rival gang members. The vague laws you propose would not reduce gang violence, it would however prevent law abiding citizens from protecting themselves. Case and point Uvalde Texas and our own recent domestic terrorist attack in Nashville. Run-hide and fight doesn’t work against a gunman. Armed staff and security does. Are you going to reduce the security personnel at your church and conventions because they carry firearms? The answer is no. Nor will you address the domestic policy failures that have given rise to the tidal wave of gang violence sweeping our inner cities. As usual you’re another politician/celebrity espousing platitudes, not real solutions.
The Socialist Baptist have spoken. Time to defund them.
The Socialist Baptist have spoken. Time to ignore and defend them.