On the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of man. 

It is through faith that we are delivered from evil. And the tenants of stability that grow from our faith will sustain us in those times when we have to confront evil, either evil from others are evil from within. It’s the foundations of family, faith and community that guard us from such paths to move into evil. 

And as we’re sadly witnessing what happened in Texas, evil will continue to sprout in those dark corners of man’s soul. We’re seeing it in front of us, men who know no faith, they know no community, and they know no foundation of family stability. And as that happens, it leads to a debate that just continues to rage on every time we’re confronted with evil, we have to move immediately into discussions of gun control.

The gun control is not a new idea in America has nothing to do with the shootings that we’re seeing. Gun control is a philosophy. And we saw that philosophy way back, we can recall Black Codes. We’re talking about a set of laws passed in the 19th century to restrict the freedoms of African Americans. In fact, a quote the black codes in Mississippi, one quote said, No freemen Negro or mulatto shall carry or keep firearms or ammunition”  you wonder why less than 16% of African Americans even take advantage of their Second Amendment rights today? 

You fast forward 100 years from Jim Crow and from Black Codes. 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, who led the civil rights movement to fix what was broken down in America regarding the ideals of freedom and dignity, was not able to get a gun. 

Yeah, in a recent New York Times article, they argued that the modern quest for gun control was born in the shadow of the civil rights movement, that gun rights for whites were a counterbalance to segregation.

Well, there are Democrats that were segregating and now pushing for gun control, background checks, and all these other measures to take away our Second Amendment rights. 

Today’s movement against the Second Amendment aims in the opposite direction of the civil rights movement. The gun control movement claims we have pain and suffering are our nation because we are too free. 

Others are telling us that we can make a better nation by using the force of government to scale back on our freedoms.

Even after his home was bombed in 1956, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. applied for a permit to carry a gun. And despite the potentially deadly threats that he was facing as a leader of the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, the county sheriff there said no, you know, one of the plaintiffs in the landmark – hallelujah – 2008 District of Columbia versus Heller case, in which the Supreme Court confirmed the second amendment, they confirmed the right of individuals to own and bear arms.

You may recall that that plaintiff was a black woman, Shelly Parker, no relation to me, but I wish she were. She’s from the District of Columbia, and she wanted to have a gun.

She took it all the way to the Supreme Court because she wanted to have a gun for protection in her crime ridden neighborhood where she was threatened by local drug dealers and DC prohibited her from having a gun. 

Most places where we see the most violence are prohibiting law abiding citizens from having a gun. 

Look, to be clear, we probably shouldn’t have a discussion where actions may be needed to confront evil that we face, evils in the public square in a free country. We should go toward that debate.

But we cannot get to an appropriate approach for dealing with guns or any other violations of other people’s freedoms without considering the culture. 

What kind of culture have we produced that keeps producing just deranged, violent, detached loners? 

If you look at look at even the Biden administration, they’re so confused. That to get people mixed up, that they continue to find parents speaking out at school board meetings as domestic terrorists. Well, they’re terrorists, that what do we call the people that are our perpetrators of of death, the ones that were recently seen in Texas and Buffalo, New York. And then people want to scratch all over the place to find meaning behind it.

While our culture has totally collapsed. Family has collapsed. Faith has collapsed, community has collapsed. 

So if anything we’re going to do together we need to shine a light on the evil that we must all confront.

Recognizing the collapse that’s happening in our country and through Faith and Freedom we can reach the truth that’s what’s needed to strengthen our nation and our communities