By Their Fruits

Bear fruit worthy of repentance (Mt. 3:8)

Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees;

every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit 

is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Mt. 3:10)

...for each tree is known by its own fruit. (Luke 6:33)

For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord

you are light.  Live as children of light-

for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good

and right and true. (Eph. 5:8-9)

The recent NRA Convention in Nashville, Tennessee was an orchard of bad fruit. You can get sick on bad fruit. In spite of the reality that over 30,000 people die of gun shot wounds each year, that guns in the home double the homicide risk and triple the suicide risk, despite the fact that gun injuries cost about $250 billion a year to treat, even though the United States has the highest rate of gun related deaths among all industrialized countries, even though the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a policy statement recommending that pediatricians urge parents to remove all guns from homes, and pediatricians are calling for permission to talk with patients about the dangers of having guns in the home, the Nashville Gun Bash triumphantly sold rotten fruit to the 70,000 attendees.

Here are some NRA Convention "fruits"!:

All guns on the convention floor will be nonoperational

with firing pins removed....

The Tennessean (local paper)

Yet the NRA supports guns in schools, businesses, on college campuses, state capitol buildings, and everywhere. But not at their convention. Do they know something that we should know? Hypocrisy reigns!

Lt. Col David Grossman lectured:

[Prepare to kill children] Folks, we've raised a

vicious generation of children...Sandy Hook is just

the beginning...We have a million students who are

criminals, gang members, and its exploded...Our

Founding Fathers knew there would be days like

this....and they created the Second Amendment

for just a time like this....

Lt. Col. David Grossman

David Grossman is the man who lent understanding following Columbine, who spoke of video games as "basic training" for learning how to kill, who implied we need to do something to stop a killing culture, yet is now prepping us to kill youth, and assuring us the Second Amendment will assuage our consciences. After all, killing is a practical necessity for a civilized culture. Grossman has coined the word "killology", a study of the psychological and physiological effects of killing. Some attendees at the convention have said his talk was the best! Then he calls upon people to prepare to become "predators," saying "Only a predator can hunt a predator."

Then there is Mr. Rock 'n Roll, Ted Nugent, NRA Board Member, who in 2010 at the NRA Convention in Houston said:

[The Obama administration is] wiping its ass

with the Constitution....If the coyote is in your

living room pis____ on your couch, it's not the

coyote's fault.  It's your fault for not shooting him.

Ted made similar comments in Nashville.

I think most NRA members are good folks who would support reasonable gun laws in the interest of safety. There is abundant "good fruit" in the NRA. Eat up! But bad fruit contaminates good fruit. The leadership and corporate money folks too often sell rotten fruit which sickens society, ruins peaceable homes, spreads the fruit of terror in schools and public places. 

When listening to the NRA, we need not be intimidated and bow in fealty. Instead, we need to discern what kind of fruit they are selling. The shiny apples are on top, but too often underneath the shine is the worm infested fruit. 

Peace!

Ron