An Evangelical Leader’s Lonely Fight to End an ‘Unholy Alliance’ With the NRA
In an interview this morning, Schenck said that shortly after speaking in Isla Vista he learned of yesterday’s shooting at Seattle Pacific University, a small evangelical institution. “If you [evangelicals] think this was only happening in strange and alien places,” he said, “welcome to our own living room.”
Schenck, a lifelong member of the NRA, admitted that his is a “minority opinion,” but the “unholy alliance” between his brethren and the gun rights behemoth is “a critical theological and moral matter.”
“We need to interrupt the easy access to guns by people who are suffering from mental illness,” he said. “We have to interfere with their ability to access lethal weapons. How that’s done in a technical sense is best left up to professionals,” including law enforcement, legislators, and businesses. Schenck was critical of gun dealers and firearms manufacturers for valuing profits over these concerns, citing the verse from 1 Timothy, “the love of money is the root of all evil.”
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