To the editor:

I wonder:

• Why do people in the so-called “Bible belt” seem to trust guns more than God?

• Why does the “right to life” that protects babies in the womb disappear when these babies enter a classroom?

• Why does my freedom to carry a gun “trump” my brother’s freedom from the fear of gun violence?

• When did the playground ethic I learned as a child — that I had the right to swing my fist freely around in the air so long as it did not collide with another person’s nose — get “trumped” by the Second Amendment?

• Why were the citizens of Australia — where church attendance is among the lowest in the world — able to pass a National Firearms Agreement that banned the importation, sale and possession of automatic rifles, shotguns, and handguns, and to enact a compulsory gun buy-back scheme, while last year alone, here in the U.S. — where church attendance is high — mass shootings occurred 372 times, killing 475 and wounding 1,870?

• Why do “Bible-believing” churches put up signs, “Guns Welcome Here” and have pastors who carry guns into the pulpit, seemingly rejecting admonitions like “they that take the sword shall perish with the sword” (Mt.26:52); “the war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it  cannot save” (Ps .33:17); and “thou shalt not kill” (Ex.20::13)?

• Why are politicians who preach hate and fear able to amass a following among people who believe in a Bible that proclaims: “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1Jn.4:18) and “God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind” (2 Tim.1:7)? Will wonders never cease?

Doug Wingeier,  

Waynesville