Why, Pastor Morris - Why?

I cannot think of any member of our national family who has not been affected by the tragic events in Newtown CT.  It was my hope that during this past weekend, all members of the pastoral community would offer words of comfort and healing to their congregations.

This evening I was presented with a story about a minister in Tennessee and his sermon this past weekend that is beyond my professional and pastoral understanding.

Old Paths Baptist Church Pastoral Sam Morris told his congregation that the number of mass shooting were escalating because of schools were government “mind-control centers” that taught “junk about evolution” and “how to be a homo.”  Mr. Morris went on to say “We get all up in arms about 20 children being shot in a day care but we don’t give one good-glory rip about the 4,000 that were removed violently from the wombs of their mothers on the same day,” he explained. “I believe they use children and Christmas and all that to pull on our heart strings about gun control. That’s what it’s all about.”

In additional remarks, Morris said “We’re going to see more of this because notice, the first thing in America we start yelling about is gun control is gun control. Have you noticed that? Gun control. No one’s even thought about the fact that these shootings only happened at places where guns are banned. Have you noticed that? They have never had a mass shooting at a gun show, where you can find over a thousand loaded guns at one time.”

“Why do you still send your kids to the governmental schools?” the pastor asked the congregation. “What’s behind this shooting that we saw on Dec. 14 in Newtown, Connecticut and the other one’s like it? What’s going on. Well, number one, deception… I got news for you, when you kicked God out of schools, you’re going to be judged for that.”

How about that?

A few days ago, I committed myself to working with two of my colleagues from the independent catholic movement to form an ecumenical committee named “Bishops for the Prevention of Violence.”  I hope that not only we will be successful in helping to bring about an end to gun violence, but we may also counteract the damage done by the words of Sam Morris.