A Short History of Violence in America (Pt. 1)

August 17, 2007, 10:15 am; posted by
Filed under Articles, David  | 6 Comments

Sometime in the late 70s, while reading a Bible commentary on Isaiah, I found a section that interpreted chapter 18 as an end time prophecy about the United States. We are described as a “land shadowing with wings (the eagle)… that sendeth ambassadors… people scattered and peeled… a land the rivers have spoiled.” It goes on: “…a people terrible from their beginning hitherto.” It interpreted that last phrase to mean a nation plagued with violence during its entire existence.

In the 1770s we rebelled against a European monarch who believed in the divine right to rule, and fought a bloody guerrilla war for our freedom in the 1770s; then we fought them again in 1812. We fought each other over states’ rights and slavery in the 1860s and fought Spain in Cuba during the 1890s. We fought a German coalition in 1918 and again in the 1940s in Europe; Korea and China in the 50s; Vietnam in the 60s and 70s. We invaded Grenada and Panama in the 80s, Iraq in the 90s, and we are now fighting wars in Iraq & Afghanistan simultaneously.

I’m not judging any of these uses of force as bad or good, just making the point that no generation has seen a cessation of hostilities in our entire existence — and I’m only counting major wars, neglecting the subjugation of Native Americans and other uses of force.

“A nation terrible from its beginning hitherto.”

It’s in our blood. We have the right to bear arms, form militias, and carry weapons in public, and we don’t want to give up those rights for anything. After all, we may need to take out our own government again. Okay, fine. But from what I hear on the right, when it comes to gun control, the best thing for society would be to return to the days of the Wild West. Every man with a six-gun strapped to his thigh, a shotgun slung across his back, and a 30-30 Winchester lever-action carbine rifle tucked under the seat of his buckboard, or in his saddle. “I ain’t fixin’ to start nothin’, Sheriff, but if trouble breaks out, I’ll finish it — sure enough.”

I’m sorry. I’m not buying it. I can’t believe the only way to deal with a killer is to become one, to kill or be killed. There has to be another way. When our soldiers survive combat overseas, only to be gunned down in the streets of their own hometowns (I know of two cases that made the national news and a few here at Ft. Benning), something is wrong.

“A people terrible from their beginning hitherto.”

All I ask is this. As conservatives, when we embrace this idea of gunning down the bad guys ourselves, are we drawing from our Christian heritage or our secular American heritage?

When the two conflict, I would hope our devotion to Jesus Christ would inspire us to look to the Lord for our answers, not to the conservative platform.

To be continued…


Comments

6 Comments to “A Short History of Violence in America (Pt. 1)”

  1. Phil on August 19th, 2007 4:42 pm

    If I might make a suggestion. DROP THE SALMON QUESTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is the second time I’ve worked on a spirited answer only to have it deleted because I either forgot to fill it in or answered wrong.

    Anyway, I simply wanted to say that I agree and once wrote an article in college suggesting a link between our culture of violence and the violent foundation of our country. I did not however realize how many wars we’d been involved in.

  2. Brian on August 19th, 2007 9:53 pm

    I believe the salmon question is there to prevent spammers. Without it I imagine we would become inundated with spam.

  3. Steve on August 19th, 2007 10:28 pm

    Brian is correct. Before I installed the salmon plugin, I was deleting five to ten spam messages a day, a few of which would actually appear on the site, rather than sticking in our queue. With the salmon addition and two other minor changes, we haven’t had any spam hit the queue for over a month.

  4. Tom on August 20th, 2007 9:44 am

    It’s the one question to which no robot knows the answer. I’m proud to say I authored that bad boy.

  5. David on August 20th, 2007 11:58 am

    Robots have always been noted for their lack of “fish” knowledge. That’s why Aquaman could easily defeat them whenever they attacked him.

  6. A Short History of Violence in America (Pt. 2) : Bweinh! on August 24th, 2007 12:43 pm

    […] Read part one here. […]

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