Abortion/Guns & A Bunch of Dead Children

Like everyone else in this country, I was horrified by the killing of the teachers and children in Uvalde, Texas. In an already chronically divided country, a thing like this only makes the gap between all of us so much wider. Honestly, it is a tortuous time to be the peacemakers. There simply is no peace.

A person I’ve always respected got upset with me enough to flip me off and tell me “F-ck you” because of a minor disagreement about politics, and it really set me back. And, as I’m wont to do, I had to take some time to process just what that incident means to me.

I’m not a withering flower that I can’t take someone losing their temper with me. My husband was 1%er in a major motorcycle club for nearly a decade. I’ve had many people lose their tempers and curse at me. What struck me different this time is it was coming from a very devout Christian man who has lost his temper with me before about abortion. During that discussion, he told me I wasn’t a Christian because I see God as the same in the Old Testament as in the New Testament. Brutal. Consistent. Not pro-life but pro-salvation. Mostly, he does all the talking and runs away when I try to say anything. I let it go because I get it. It is hard to let other people brush up against what you want to believe.

But this time, it was was so over the line that it made me pause. He defends the second amendment like it is a built-in facet of Christianity. He parrots what extreme right-wing talking heads tell him to say.

“Now isn’t the time to discuss gun control.”

“The only way to stop bad guys with guns is to have good guys with guns.”

“This isn’t about guns; it’s about mental health.”

If outlawing abortion is about dead children, then isn’t outlawing automatic and semi-automatic weapons also about dead children? The difference, as far as I can tell, is that one is controlling women while the other is controlling men. And that won’t stand in the country. Basically, if women kill children by having abortions, that can’t stand; but if a narcissistic, egomaniac man kills a bunch of them with an AR-15 because he’s having a bad day, well. That’s just the price of freedom. How does anyone miss the hypocrisy in all of this?

Men and boys, who regularly joke about women being unable to control their emotions, have such incredibly fragile egos anymore, they kill other people to express their anger and frustration. You don’t see women doing this. It is almost 100% males who freak out and shoot people. Girl won’t go out with you? Shoot someone. Didn’t get the president you wanted? Shoot someone. Think you’re being marginalized by black people? Shoot someone. It is pathetic how so many of our men are so hellbent on making the rest of us pay for their insecurities, hypocrisy, and low self-esteem. Grow the hell up.

The worse part of this incident is realizing that so many of the Christian men I know are almost self-righteous when it comes to outlawing abortion in all cases, over-simplifying a hard decision for women across America, while being completely unable to do something as simple as admitting they were wrong and just apologizing.

Being able to admit you’ve done something wrong that hurt someone else is Christianity 101. Apologizing is too. If you are so fragile that you can’t do that, then spare me your thoughts on abortion, or basically anything else that pertains to Christianity. You’ve lost you credibility with me.

~ Bird