The NRA is a grass-roots organization made up of millions of decent, patriotic Americans who believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens make our country safer, not more dangerous. To suggest that it is responsible for what happened in Parkland is obscene. Police officers were called to alleged shooter Nikolas Cruz’s house on 39 occasions since 2010. The FBI was warned about the shooter in January and failed to adhere to its own procedures to follow up. An armed sheriff’s deputy was on the scene at the shooting, but he failed to act. And yet somehow the NRA is at fault? Please.I would observe that if the Washington Post is noticing this, the polling about this issue and the progressive response to it indicates that it has not been all that successful.
As I'm a member of liberal, trendier-than-thou form of Christianity, so much so that it is not uncommon to hear sermons in our churches that are based more strongly on the Op/Ed page of the New York Times than on Gospel themes, I've noted over the last three decades our creeping intellectual incestuousness. The fact that it is coincident with a dramatic decline in membership should not surprise anyone in the church's leadership, yet it does.
Once clergy and laity of a particular church or denomination begin to see themselves as morally superior to those who do not share their beliefs, or vote in an "unacceptable" manner, or aren't as "evolved" in their regard for the fashionable issues of the day, they become dismissive of them. Then, the sermons, the ministries, and the common conversations exclude recognition of any perspective that is not in complete harmony with that of the dominant vision, along with those who do not share the narrative of the dominant secular ideology. So, the church's statements or perspectives exist to appeal to the dominant peer group and not those outside of that bubble.
Church Signs that say "Everyone Welcome" should carry the codicil "As Long As You Agree With Us".
This seems to be spreading into the business world. For example, Delta Airlines announced it would no longer grant discounts to members of the NRA because...well, that's still a little vague. In other words, Delta made a business decision that appealed to the values of their leadership's peer group. Since fewer than twenty NRA members have ever sought a discount for their Delta Airlines tickets, it was hardly a popular program. However, by disassociating from the NRA, they disassociated from its 5,000,000 members, most of whom didn't use, care about, or notice the availability of the discount. This was insulting and disaffecting.
Delta's new-found "woke-ness" has cost it in public regard, stock price, and public relations. So much so that the CEO of the airline took to Twitter [the rampart of woke] to affirm the airline's support for the Second Amendment. Desperation, damage-control, and diapers seem to share the same odor.
I realized a few years ago, now that we live in a post-Christian society, how many of our private businesses have decided to preach and moralize out of the apparent assumption that purveyors of burned coffee-muck [I'm looking at you, Starbucks] or toothpaste [the insufferable Tom's of Maine] or fat-burdened ice cream [Benny and Jer, or whatever] are now to serve as our self-assigned moral arbiters.
The world was far less burdensome when over-educated coffee clerks [Baristas? Really? Is that a word?] and disposable ice cream containers didn't carry the mission to make the rest of us aware of what should be our correct response to social justice and other progressive issues. They should really look to mainstream Protestantism to see the results of moral incestuousness.
* I realize that not everyone is familiar with the term "woke". The fact that I am required to be is part of being an Episcopal clergyperson. I quote from the Urban Dictionary:
Although an incorrect tense of awake, a reference to how people should be aware in current affairs.
"While you are obessing with the Kardashians, there are millions of homeless in the world. STAY WOKE"