The Southern Baptist Convention is now using its massive sway to call for gun control in Tennessee.
Brent Leatherwood, the Southern Baptist Convention’s president of the church’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), demanded gun control in a letter published by The Tennesseean.
“Yes, it is true we live in a world tainted by terrible acts and deeds, but that is never an excuse for inaction,” he said in the letter. “While it may not prevent every instance of this sort of violence, it will prevent some, and thereby save innocent lives. That should be more than enough reason to advance this proposal.”
He echoed the same sentiment on Twitter.
“Because our lives are so consumed by the political drama of any given day and we ourselves have been turned into unthinking activists, we tend to miss real information about what’s going on around us. The statistics below should grieve us as a society,” he said in response to a graph showing an uptick in teen gun violence.
Because our lives are so consumed by the political drama of any given day and we ourselves have been turned into unthinking activists, we tend to miss real information about what’s going on around us.
The statistics below should grieve us as a society. https://t.co/aP3gKEOBAj
— Brent Leatherwood (@LeatherwoodERLC) April 11, 2023
Leatherwood voiced support for Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s recent call for “Order of Protection” laws in Tennessee.
“Order of Protection” laws are the same as “Red Flag” laws, and would allow authorities to strip law abiding citizens of their firearms based on a certain set of subjective criteria, like whether a person is considered to be a danger to themselves or others.
Lee called for those laws on April 11.
“This new stronger order of protection law will provide the broader population cover, safety from those that are a danger to themselves or to the population,” he said at the time. “It’s going to require coming together, laying down our previously held positions potentially.”
Opponents of “Red Flag” laws, like Executive Director of the Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) John Harris, say the laws are likely unconstitutional.
Harris joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on April 17 to discuss the issue.
He said the following:
The problem is that Tennessee’s governors and our legislature don’t think that the Second Amendment applies to them, and they read that initial phrase well-regulated to mean that the government has the authority to create laws that restrict the access of the people to own or possess or even purchase guns.
We just had, as recently as two years ago, a House member Brandon Ogles who expressly said that in committee hearings that well-regulated gave them that authority. They clearly misread it as we talk in the Constitution book that well-regulated was intended to mean it is critical to the freedom that this nation is founded upon, that civilians own guns, and that they be well prepared to use them if necessary, like in the Battle of Athens, to stand up to our own government.
Just like the founders had done with England. So it’s completely the opposite of where they think that phrase was intended to lead us.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Photo “Brent Leatherwood” by Brent Leatherwood.
