I’m not sure what the right adjective is for the kind of Christianity espoused by Jerry Falwell, Jr, and his adoring fans in the student body of Liberty University. In case you missed it, Falwell gave a
speech at a school-wide convocation in which he said, “If more good people had conceal carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they go out trying to kill us… I just want to take this opportunity to encourage all of you to get your permits… Let’s teach them a lesson if they ever show up here.”
The students went wild like it was a pep rally. Indeed, it felt more like a speech being given about a rival football team than an incitement of violence against people from another religion. I don’t think the students were saying let’s go kill us some muslins. They were saying hell yeah, our college president is a bad-ass who carries a gun in his back pocket. He’s not a stuffy bureaucrat. He probably goes muddin’ in his jeep just like us. Perhaps I’m being overly charitable, but I really think they were applauding Falwell’s lack of giving a f*** more than his targeting Muslims per se.
I’m not sure what any of this has to do with Jesus. I don’t think Jesus is thrilled about a bunch of twenty-year old guys getting conceal carry permits so they can play Clint Eastwood in between classes at Liberty if somebody brown and suspiciously Arab-looking shows up. For a Christian college president to encourage all of his students to go out and buy a bunch of guns is at best tremendously irresponsible. To my conservative evangelical friends who say #NotAllConservatives, you need to rein in your gunslinger friends because their witness is your witness, whether you like it or not.
