On the Neutrality of Stuff and Guns

We live in this post-enlightenment age.
American Christians stereotypically fight the sciences.
But we are shaped by this nonetheless.

We look at stuff as neutral, having no value in an of itself.
But our parents in the faith viewed things differently.

Rich foods like dairy, meats, desserts were eaten during feasts
and abstained from during fasts.
They were thought to make us too comfortable here.
Making this earth our home and not the Kingdom.
They do.

Money always comes to mind.
We think it is a value-neutral object corrupting only corruptible people.
The saints always saw its potential for evil.
Even Jesus calls it "deceitful" and compares it to a false god.
"Get rid of it lest it find a way to my heart."

TV, technology, media
We consume to be consumed. Vegging out to "rest" (read: escape).
But to our forebearers, everything brings us closer to or pushes us further from Christ.
Neutral things and neutral time are not good.
they impede or worse.

So I think of guns
I see the way some/most American Christians defend guns
"They're only tools. No better or worse than the person holding it."
"Guns don't kill people. People kill people."

And I know why people defend in such a way.
They believe that "their rights" are being infringed upon.
That the government is trying to take away their constitutional freedom.

"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's."
I don't care if the government takes them all away or makes them all legal.
There is no room in the Kingdom for such violent things.
such violent tools.

No room at all.
It is not your business to defend.
It is not your business to promote.
I don't care what your granddad did or had or said.
there is no room in the Kingdom for such as these.

Things are not value-neutral.
Neither is time.
Not because stuff is good or bad, but because we are good and bad.
We are not removed from the equation of stuff. It does not exist on its own.

Choose good.
by the power of the Holy Spirit
choose good.

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