Posted by
Playful Walrus on Monday, May 14, 2007 9:47:03 AM
I’m presenting a series here called Exposing the Religious Right.
The introduction/first installment is
here.
The second installment, discussing the motivations/starting points of the RR is
here.
The Religious Right on Defense, Law Enforcement, Capital Punishment, & Gun Ownership
The RR believes that we are obligated to defend ourselves from attack, with force if necessary. A husband is obligated to defend his wife and kids (and to defend himself so that he can continue to protect them). Collectively, we are obligated to protect ourselves through law enforcement and militarily force. Therefore, the RR tends to respect and support a strong military (including most military actions/war efforts) and law enforcement personnel.
Some in the RR have expressed disagreements with some approved actions by Federal law enforcement agencies, however. Examples of this include the “Waco” and “Ruby Ridge” incidents. The RR is not united in these opinions.
Indeed, many in the RR are wary of the Federal government having too much power and becoming oppressive, and so promote gun ownership, perceiving that an armed populace is less likely to be oppressed.
Mostly, however, the RR support for gun ownership has to do with the Second Amendment, self-defense, and family defense from criminals. Most people in the RR do not have a moral problem with hunting, either, even if they do not do it themselves.
Perhaps one of the areas where the RR is least unified is capital punishment. Churches such as the Roman Catholic Church are officially against it, others join in on “pro-life” grounds, and others in the RR may agree with capital punishment in principle, but think our government may be too flawed or corrupted to be trusted with properly implementing capital punishment. Capital punishment supporters in the RR do not see it as being in conflict with their pro-life convictions, because they maintain the criminal’s actions warrant the punishment and that executing those criminals protects innocents from further threat from those criminals.
The underlying principles the RR employs in this area is that it is okay to use force to defend your life, the lives of other innocents, your country, and law & order.