The Darrell McClain show
Independent media that won't reinforce tribalism. We have one Planet; nobody's leaving so let’s reason together!! Darrell McClain is a Military veteran with an abnormal interest in politics, economics, religion, philosophy, science, and literature. He's the author of Faith and the Ballot: A Christian's Guide to Voting, Unity, and Witness in Divided Times. He was born and raised in Jacksonville FL, and went to Edward H white High School,l where he wrestled under Coach Jermy Smith and The Late Brian Gilbert. He was a team wrestling captain, District champion, and an NHSCA All-American in freestyle Wrestling. He received a wrestling scholarship from Waldorf University in Forest City, Iowa. After a short period, he decided he no longer wanted to cut weight, effectively ending his college wrestling journey. Darrell McClain is an Ordained Pastor under the Universal Life Church and is still in good standing as well as a Minister for the American Marrige Ministries . He's a Believer in The Doctrines of Grace, Also Known as Calvinism. He joined the United States Navy in 2008 and was A Master at Arms (military police officer) He was awarded several awards while on active duty, including an expeditionary combat medal, a Global War on Terror medal, a National Defense Medal, a Korean Defense Medal, and multiple Navy achievement medals. While In the Navy, he was also the assistant wrestling coach at Robert E Lee High School. He's a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under 6th-degree black belt Gustavo Machado, Darrell Trains At Gustavo Machado Norfolk under the 4th-degree black belt, and Former Marine Professor Mark Sausser. He went to school for psychology at American Military University and for criminal justice at ECPI University.
The Darrell McClain show
Children Under Fire: The Minneapolis School Shooting
A horrific act of violence shattered the peace of what should have been a joyful back-to-school celebration at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. As children gathered for Mass, a gunman positioned himself outside and fired through the stained glass windows, killing two elementary school students and injuring seventeen others, including fourteen children.
The tragedy unfolded with terrifying swiftness, leaving parents desperately searching for their children and a community struggling to comprehend the senseless violence. Through the words of survivors, including a brave 10-year-old who described hiding under pews as his friend was shot, we gain a heartbreaking glimpse into those moments of terror that no child should ever experience.
What makes this shooting particularly disturbing is the digital footprint left behind by the 23-year-old perpetrator. His manifesto revealed a disturbing amalgamation of hateful ideologies, references to previous mass shooters, and possible connections to online death cults that prey on vulnerable individuals. This modern creation of internet radicalization raises profound questions about how we monitor dangerous online spaces while protecting free expression.
The familiar, painful cycle has again emerged: grief gives way to outrage, which gives way to political debate. Some call for enhanced security measures like metal detectors, while others emphasize the need for meaningful gun safety legislation. Religious leaders have joined the conversation, arguing that "thoughts and prayers" without corresponding action represent an empty response to ongoing violence.
As we grapple with this tragedy, the core question remains: what are we willing to sacrifice to protect our children? Our schools and houses of worship should be sanctuaries, not targets. The time for meaningful action is now. Join us as we examine this heartbreaking event, honor the victims, and search for pathways toward a safer future where our children can learn and grow without fear.
Absolutely so. Two children killed in a shooting at a Catholic church and school. We do have the shooter also killed himself, and so we have his identity and some information emerging about who he is and at least what he says he was up to here. Let's go and take a listen to the local police chief describing the horror of the scene Earlier today just before 830 am, our city experienced an unthinkable tragedy.
Speaker 2:Minneapolis police officers responded to a report of a shooting at a mass that was happening at the Annunciation Roman Catholic Church on the block behind me. This worship service was marking the first week of school for children that are attending the Annunciation Catholic School. During the Mass, a gunman approached on the outside on the side of the building and began firing a rifle through the church windows towards the children sitting in the pews at the Mass, church windows towards the children sitting in the pews at the mass. Shooting through the windows, he struck children and worshippers that were inside the building. The shooter was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. Two young children ages eight and ten ten were killed where they sat in the pews. Their parents have been notified. 17 other people were injured, 14 of them being children. Two of those children are in critical condition. The coward who fired these shots ultimately took his own life in the rear of the church.
Speaker 2:The question from Matt was how are the injured students doing? I believe all of them have their parents with them now and they are all expected to survive. All of the remaining victims are expected to survive. There is a range of injuries, however.
Speaker 1:At least some good news there at the end that the remaining victims who were injured are expected to survive, but two lives taken here, um, just absolutely horrific. Apparently, what had unfolded is at this catholic school, uh, which you know is for kids two grades k through eight. They have an annual tradition of a back to school mass, and the murderer here actually had attended this school and was likely familiar with this tradition, and he shot through the windows. So he didn't come into the school, he actually shot through the windows and that was the way he was able to create this mass carnage. Cnn actually interviewed one of the fifth grade students who described what he saw unfold and the way one of his close friends was actually shot and injured during the melee. Let's go ahead and take a listen to that.
Speaker 3:The shots fired and then he kind of like got under the pews and kind of um, they shot through the um, the stained glass windows, I think, and it was really scary.
Speaker 4:What did you do after that? Um just for some context, guys, the voice you hear speaking right now is a 10-year-old. A 10-year-old young man in fifth grade, Weston Halency. Young man in fifth grade, weston Halsey. And so you're listening to a 10-year-old describe this horrific event.
Speaker 3:Well, we waited like 10 to 5 minutes, I don't really know and then we went to the gym and then the doors locked just to make sure he didn't come. And we waited to the gym and then the doors locked just to make sure he didn't come. And we waited in the gym for more news and everyone was okay. Where were your friends? My friend got hit in the back.
Speaker 5:Did he go to the hospital?
Speaker 3:Yeah, he went to the hospital. What went through your mind when you saw that I was super scared for him?
Speaker 1:And obviously it breaks your heart to think about the families who have now lost their children, the kids who were, you know, directly injured, hit by gunfire and are, you know, now having to deal with these horrific injuries that may impact for their whole lives. But then you also just think about a little kid like this and what sort of trauma he's going to experience. I mean the horror of, you know, having to interview kids about experiencing these mass shootings and what this is going to do to them for the rest of their lives.
Speaker 6:Yeah, that's right. It's very, very difficult, you know, to just not only we've covered a number of these and to watch, kind of the way that it all unfolds. You know, just so horrific to target children literally first day of school. There's not, you know, not much else at a human level that you can really say about it In terms of the stuff that we've learned about the gunman here. Almost immediately some of the social media postings came out and some of the identifying information which has caused a lot of discussion.
Speaker 6:The local news actually in Minneapolis did quite a good job of compiling some of this together. I know there's been quite a lot floating out there. Some of it actually was incorrect, but they did a good job of combing through the YouTube video that was posted, some 22-minute long so-called manifesto. I'm going to warn everybody, it is very disturbing to watch, you know. I mean it's very unfortunately, having covered so many of these, all the hallmarks of many of the previous ones and in fact some explicit ones of callbacks to previous mass shooters. We'll get into the potential, you know, quote inspiration and all of this in a little bit, but we're just going to show you in their own words. Again, I'm going to warn everybody.
Speaker 5:This is disturbing to watch, but let's go and take a listen. One of the more jarring images from the videos is this one the arsenal of guns and ammo on display. Something many of you may have noticed is the written words and names on some of the weapons. One of the guns says kill Trump, and others have the names of notable mass shooters, including Rupnow, likely a reference to Natalie Rupnow, the suspected mass shooter in Madison last year. The name Robert Bowers is also written on one of the weapons. He was responsible for the deadliest attack on the Jewish community. We don't know when this video was shot, but there is a reference to tomorrow. Take a listen.
Speaker 2:Tomorrow.
Speaker 6:I'm sorry to my family, but that's it. That's all.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry to those kids.
Speaker 5:It's really disturbing to listen to. In addition to the guns and ammo, the video also flips through these pages of what appears to be a manifesto, looks through these pages of what appears to be a manifesto. It's addressed to my family and friends, saying in part I'm a sad person haunted by these thoughts that do not go away. I know this is wrong, but I can't seem to stop myself. In another video, this one, Westman shows a different letter, written in another language and ending with this map. It appears to be of a church, possibly a critical clue for investigators.
Speaker 6:So we were seeing there the drawing of the map, as you said, crystal, the connections there to the school, including the mother of the gunman who apparently had works there. But all of the I mean really all I could take away from this and this really fits with our chat chief PT story is just the way that the internet is, I'm not going to say enabling, because it's blaming, but like we are just witnessing these like darkest corners of the internet encourage, inspire, you know, work together, perhaps in some case for people who are full-blown mentally ill, you know, to fulfill their worst desires and to try and get some sort of notoriety. Like I don't think it's an accident actually that many of the Hallmark's or the Christchurch shooting to Robert Bauer, so many of these other people, were included in there. I know, you know, part of the discussion here is that this I mean, and this is part of also kind of the sickness of our culture almost immediately afterwards, uh, there was, you know, kind of the using of the markings and of the manifesto to immediately start to try and make points. So, for example, like many of the anti-israel sayings were immediately picked up by people who are pro-israel to say, see, this is an inspiration of the anti-israel you know movement. Or, for example, you know the shooter appears to have been transgender, changed the name sometime in the year, around 17, with a signature by the mother.
Speaker 6:But if you put it all together, I mean effectively what we all witnessed was like the creation of the Internet. You know, you were, I think you said something around. It's like almost like a Jubilee-style creation. You know we have a trans nazi, uh here who murdered two children. Uh, all of the markings and everything there is purely a creation of the absolute worst dregs in part of the internet.
Speaker 6:And so I really I I don't know. Like you know everyone's trying to make bigger points and all this, and obviously you know we've had debates and my feelings on transgenderism and all that are clear. But, like, my biggest takeaway here really is just about the role of the internet and I don't know if there is a plea or whatever to be made, but it's like please just watch what people watch, what your children are doing on the internet. Like there's almost just certainly that this is something that has been going on for years and years all the hallmarks of mental illness, drug use apparently in the past, which you know could possibly have contributed to a psychotic break which you know connects to all of this and I don't know to the extent that there's a national conversation or whatever like that's the only. That's my biggest takeaway. I don't know what else to say.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think you know what everybody wants to know immediately is okay, how are the guns procured? The guns were purchased legally, so that's one piece. And then you start digging into the social media postings and I did watch this entire manifesto, which, if you want to find online, you can. There were all sorts. You saw the markings on the, you know, on the weaponry that was used, and yeah, it was all over them, it was. You know, on the, the weaponry that was used, and yeah, it was, it was all over them. It was, you know, hatred towards donald trump, it was hatred towards jews, it was anti-black, it was anti-hispanic, um, it was had symbols of the occult, um, there were all sorts of. There was all sorts of like internet slang. One of it, one of them, literally said skibbity and I mean, and that's why, to your point, this murderer feels like this very modern creation, right, and that's not to say look, we don't know. He writes in his manifesto about how sick he is in the head and how depressed he is and how suicidal he is and obviously ends up killing himself. As you know, part of this horrific mass shooting that takes the lives of two innocent children, um, who were there, you know, at mass at their school on first day of school and traumatizes all the rest and traumatize the entire community, which I also want to mention just as a reminder. Minneapolis was also the site of where that gunman murdered a state legislator and her husband and you know, and attacked a number of other state legislators, so the city has really just been going through some absolute horrors lately. But I have no idea if this is truly the case.
Speaker 1:A lot of people are theorizing that he may have been radicalized or, you know, his whatever sick ideology sort of exacerbated by this online cult. Frankly, I'd never heard of it before yesterday, so I'm far from an expert, but there is a sort of online telegram and other social media network cult called 764. It's affiliated with another one called 09A. It's affiliated with another one called 09A. Both of them are these sick death cults where people egg each other on to commit violent acts on camera and the more horrific the violent act, up to and including shootings and suicide the more clout you gain in the community. There seemed to be some indications in his writing that he was looking for this sort of notoriety and certainly the callbacks to other shooters you know would indicate that sort of desire, which is part of why, guys, I'm making an intentional choice not that it's a like, you know, not that it's a big thing but not to say this individual's name, because why give him what he really wanted, which is this level of fame and notoriety? And so there are a few pieces that people are pointing to when they're drawing these conclusions. As I said, it's like the neo-Nazi stuff, the online internet slang, the symbols of the occult and also and this is another weird one there was a bunch of writing in the Russian script, cyrillic, but I actually think it was like it was like a phonetic version of Cyrillic that translates into English, but anyway, the like affiliation with the Russian language and this Russian symbology as well.
Speaker 1:Apparently, you know, people were drawing this connection to this sort of like online cult. And here's where the fact that this individual is transgender might fit in, because apparently these you know these like death cults online. They intentionally prey on people who are struggling with their identity or going through mental health challenges, like targeting the LGBTQ teenagers who are, you know, who may be going through a lot in dealing with that queer identity. So there may actually be a connection, it's just not necessarily the one that you know that the right ones to jump to draw. That, just like being trans, makes you an evil murderer, which obviously there is zero evidence to support. That and other identity characteristics you would not draw a similar conclusion. Um, I actually saw trey gowdy get himself potentially into some trouble on fox news talking about how these shooters tend to be white men, um, but in any case, there's a I think it's a connection that's worth digging into. Whether or not this is actually what was going on with this guy or not, I suspect we'll learn more over the coming uh, weeks and months.
Speaker 6:Right, you know, and I think this is important because you're right, you know, this is immediately the what I think is unfortunate. And look, I mean, I my feelings on transgenderism are very clear. Like I think you know, mental illness is a massive part of the rise in all this. But, looking at this, I really don't know how you could take away a quote-unquote, one-dimensional view, because this is just internet to me. By the way, I think that's a big part of the trans story. But unfortunately, looking at what you were talking about again, I have covered so many of these. I watched Christchurch Live, which I really wish I had never done that because I was covering that in the newsroom and then just to see that all being redone again.
Speaker 6:Or, for example, that Texas church shooting. I did a lot of reporting actually on the background of that individual and how they were never supposed to be able to purchase a gun. It was a massive screw up by the united states navy and the reporting into the database. And now there's all this conversation, etc. But, like I, I broadly I truly believe this is an entirely, like you said, a modern creation of the internet where the trans part, that neo-nazi, the whatever I mean all of the russians, satanic, occult, including apparently you were saying we were digging into this and and there's like pedophilia, you know that apparently has been linked to all of this as well. This is a sickness which is all 100% empowered by these court. Now, I'm not some disinformation censorship person at all. I'm not, and I know I'm. Honestly. I'm thinking about all that stuff. Like, in the context of this, context of this, I want to hammer on to people about the sickness of what mental illness and the internet and how those two things have come together to create this deeply sick phenomenon. And, like you said, there's still a lot of questions. I'm not immediately going to go out. This person is 23 years old and so, of course, they're an adult and at the end of the day, you know someone told you to do something or not, like you own and have total responsibility, of course, but you know you don't just acquire all this weaponry and all these guns and have all these signs of full-blown mental illness for like five years and nobody knew anything about it, and so you know that's where some of the community and perhaps family members and all these people need to answer some questions here as to what exactly new and when.
Speaker 6:Interactions with law enforcement. I also want to hammer that home. In almost every single case, these mass shootings known to law enforcement is always, it always happens. It's like oh, there were like ninety nine different. This happened in Parkland. Like I said, it happened with the taxi shooting. Different this happened in Parkland, like I said, it happened with the taxi shooting. It's happened with so many of the December 1st where there were many opportunities actually to the very least have somebody either said something and if somebody didn't say something, I think that also. I would hope that that comes to light, because a lot of these people always get off scot-free.
Speaker 1:Well, you raise a really important point. I don't have this confirmed, but people online have surfaced some of this individual's postings where he was out and out saying I'm going to go and shoot up a church, right, I'm going to be a mass shooter, I'm going to go kill children how, what music should I post? And asking for advice.
Speaker 1:And if that was truly out there on the internet, you also have to ask some questions about where the hell is the FBI? You know, how is yeah, I mean, how is this not? And then, when you know, which does connect to potentially a broader conversation about, we see these FBI agents who are, like you know, picking up garbage in the streets of DC when maybe they should have been focused on what was going on. You know, in this sick individual's head who was out posting in the open Again, I don't have it confirmed, but this is what people are sort of looking online. Yeah, it looks likely this person was out there posting in the open what their intentions were and law enforcement, as far as we know, didn't see it or did nothing about it or whatever.
Speaker 6:Yeah, and we're going to hear, and that's the thing. Again, I want to hand this over. Parkland, known to literally a pulse. I have covered so many of these over the decade that every single time it comes forward, oh, known to this, known to that, and same with the parent, anybody else in the community.
Speaker 6:If you knew this person, he didn't say anything. Or if you had any influence whatsoever, I don't know. I mean, again, I think that that should be a real living in infamy moment. So I don't have much else to say other than please, you know, watch what your children are doing on the internet. I mean, I know that sounds crazy and almost testy or whatever, but you know this does not just happen overnight. It also it takes hours, potentially years and more likely, you know, considering the track of how it's all gone, of years, of these signs of like full again, full-blown mental illness, and you know to the extent that people look the other way or wanted to empower mental illness or whatever.
Speaker 6:I think that is all very, very important for the conversation. So, you know, you know the last thing is just, you know, two children are dead and, like you know, the worst part is all the, all these kids. You know it's. It's incredible that they survive, but they're going to have to live with this forever, and the parents and anybody else you know. As a new parent, for me I guess it's just hitting home. This is the first one I had to cover. I can't imagine.
Speaker 1:No, no, no. You truly, you truly can. And you know, my kids public schools this year and we live out in the country very safe area, same town I grew up in. They decided they needed to install metal detectors this year. And it's like you know on the one hand it's I'm glad they're taking their safety seriously. On the other hand it's such a second indictment of our society that that is a necessary thing to do at an elementary school. So in any case, we'll continue to follow the story and you know, anything that comes to light that helps inform a national conversation so we can avoid some of these horrific tragedies in the future. But it also feels pretty hopeless, given that they just continue and continue and nothing changes. It also feels pretty hopeless given that they just continue and continue and nothing changes.
Speaker 4:Now, of course, I wish that this were not something we have to talk about periodically, and I do wish we were here to talk about. You know, everyday life, the little struggles and the small triumphs, but today the shadow hangs heavy over us. We Get the headlines that should never exist Children gunned down in school, catholic parish school, a place that's supposed to be a sanctuary. The very word sanctuary, actually translated, means safety, sacred ground, and yet bullets tore through that sanctity, turning classrooms into morgues and prayers into cries of anguish. There's no easy way to dress this up. A Catholic school should be a place where faith and learning meet, but this week we saw it became another entry in America's shameful register of mass shootings. We cannot gloss over this, we cannot normalize it. These were children, teachers, staff, human beings made in the image of god, and their blood cries out now from the ground. This is not an isolated incident and though it is in part, somewhat of a pattern, so predictable that journalists have templates ready to publish before the bodies are even cold. Breaking news school shooting insert town. Insert victim. Insert grieving parents faces.
Speaker 4:America, it seems, has accepted what no other wealthy democracy accepts Children regularly slaughtered at school. Every nation has crimes, every society has disturbed individuals, but only here does the combination of firepower and political paralysis and cultural idolatry of guns lead to this ceaseless bloodletting. Think of it we run drills in school, we teach eight year olds how to hide from shooters, shooters. We do active shooter training instead of how to conjugate verbs. We post armed guards at church doors instead of greeters, and when a shooting happens anyway, we send thoughts and prayers as though God hasn't already given us common sense to pass laws that protect life, us common sense to pass laws that protect life. We cannot keep saying this is the price of freedom, it is the price of our cowardice. And just for some context here, the children were praying when this happened, and so the anguished question Rises. It rises every time some of this happens.
Speaker 4:You're going to hear somebody say when was God In that school when the gunfire erupted? And I can say back God was there, as close to the children, as close as their own breath. God was in the teacher who shielded their students with their body. God was in the trembling voice that prayed Hail Mary's in the closets. God was in the first responders who read towards the danger. God was in every heartbeat that survived. But God is not a magician who snaps his fingers to override human ego. God gives us agency, freedom and therefore moral responsibility. The question isn't where was God? But where were we? Where was our courage to prevent this? Where was our love for our neighbors? Where was our love of our neighbor when we refused to demand change? Jesus said let the little children come unto me. He did not say let the little children be martyred in their classroom. Every bullet that entered that school was a blasphemy against the gospel.
Speaker 4:And here's the blunt truth. The Catholic school shooting is not only a spiritual tragedy, it is a political failure. We have wrapped the Second Amendment around our neck like a golden calf. We treat guns as sacred objects. Some Americans revere firearms more than they revere the Beatitudes. Politicians who claim to be pro-life can't pass the simplest background check law. Leaders who weep on Canberra for dead children will still cast checks from the gun lobby. And the church itself, of course, has been quiet, too cautious, too afraid of offending. But if the church will not cry out after its own children are slain in the pews and in the classroom, then what is left of the church's prophetic voice?
Speaker 4:This is not about who's on the left. This is not about who's on the right. It's about life or death. It's about whether we love our children enough to do we rage. And even as we mourn, we must remember evil does not get the last word. Resurrection follows crucifixion. Light pierces darkness. The shooter's bullets could take lives, but they could not and will not erase people's worth.
Speaker 4:We honor those children and the teachers, not by despair, but by the radical thing we have to do, by having a defiant type of hope. A hope that insists tomorrow can be different. A hope that turns into action. Voting Tomorrow can be different. A hope that turns into action voting, organizing, challenging lawmakers, preaching truth without an apology. Hope that refuses to let cynicism harden our broken hearts. We honor them with love, love that comforts the grieving, love that shows up with meals, with prayers, with presents. Love that refuses to give in to the hatred. So we have to grieve. Let us grieve, let us rage, but let us not grow numb. Let this Catholic school shooting break our hearts, not shut them down. Let it call us back to the gospel and what it commands Love your neighbor as yourself. And may the memory of those loss move us, not someday, not eventually, but now, not eventually, but now To build a country where a sanctuary means a sanctuary and where children can learn without fear.
Speaker 7:Our system is reactive. Something bad happens, we react to it, and what people are crying for now is how can we prevent this, how can we stop it? And the only way to stop it is to identify the shooter ahead of time or keep the weapons out of their hands. And so we're going to have to have a conversation of freedom versus protecting children. I mean, how many school shootings does it take before we're going to have a conversation about keeping firearms out? It's always a young white male, almost always. I mean, did anyone this morning think, I wonder, if that was a female? Did any of y'all think that? I mean, there's been one school shooting involving a female. It was in Tennessee, tennessee. But other than that, it is usually young white males.
Speaker 3:Do we not worry about laws on the books?
Speaker 8:Now someone off mic is yelling about laws that are on the books. Now there is some additional controversy to Trey Gowdy's comments about it being a young white male, because it appears as though the perpetrator in this case had a trans identity. I don't even want to get into that. We can discuss those elements later. I just wanted we can discuss those elements later. Trey Gowdy even remotely willing to say maybe keeping guns out of people's hands in the first place is something that has to be balanced with the so-called freedom to have guns? Now Sean Hannity has a very different idea. He wants metal detectors at the schools. The problem these kids were in a church and the gun person fired through a window. So I don't know what a metal detector in school would do. And here's the saddest part.
Speaker 9:School shootings are preventable and simple, basic common sense actions can mitigate these tragedies. If we have the desire to stop school shootings, this is the first thing you should do. Every school in the country should have a metal detector. You have them at airports. You have them when you're around elected politicians. By the way, they have armed guards around them. You have to control the entry of kids and the perimeter around every school and, by the way, the way I would do it, I would hire retired military trained law enforcement, retired with concealed carries. They should be in every school in the country, along with metal detectors, along with a secure perimeter. Now, for these people that you hire, you could even do it and not pay them. What do you mean, hannity?
Speaker 8:everyone's going to work. All right, hannity. Now let's talk about volunteer people or whatever the case may be. We have a situation here where there is one side that never wants to talk about the gun aspect. It's either the doors that were unlocked that's the problem, per Ted Cruz or it's there was no metal detector, or it's mental illness, or it's video games, it's woke or whatever the case may be. At a certain point, if the tool that continually is used is guns, we've got to look at access to the tool.
Speaker 8:Now I'm the first to tell you mental illness is often a component. Most mentally ill people, as loosely defined, are never violent. Most Sometimes mental illness is an issue. But these very same Republicans are the ones trying to cut social programs, who don't want the possibility of having mental health professionals rather than armed police respond in certain scenarios to people who have 911 called on them.
Speaker 8:Right, these are the people who insist when we want to talk about guns, the problem is mental illness, but when we want to talk about funding programs to treat mental illness, they say no, we don't have the money for that. Let's actually strip care from people. So I'm not pretending that Trey Gowdy is now the ultimate arbiter of truth on gun safety regulations and gun violence, but he's at least at the point where he's ready to say all of the talk about freedom, the freedom to have guns, right. The second amendment, as the highest and most the top priority virtue, is freedom to have guns. There has to be some, some balance, and that balance may be keeping guns out of the hands of certain people. Maybe we're turning a corner in terms of this discussion with Republicans, but I don't really think so.
Speaker 10:Prayers of officials mean nothing to God without action. As children gathered at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, minnesota, to pray, a 22-year-old white male gunman stormed into the sanctuary, killing two elementary school children and injuring 17 others, and despite the systemic nature of gun violence, particularly against our children at school and worshipers in churches such as Mother Emanuel AME, the nation was once again handed nothing but the emptiness of thoughts and prayers from political leaders who could take action. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was immediately attacked when he accurately instructed the nation to quote don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers. Right now. These kids were literally praying. So let's get something biblically straight.
Speaker 10:Number one God does not hear nor accept all prayers. The word of God in the book of Isaiah declares even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood. Stop doing wrong. Seek justice, defend the oppressed. Jesus himself warns us when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites praying to be seen by others. They have received their reward in full.
Speaker 10:Number two the Bible is clear Faith without works is dead. The book of James, chapter two, verses 15 through 17, says quote if you say go in peace but do nothing, what good is it Faith without works is dead. The first book of John drives the point even further, saying, quote let us love with actions. And in truth. Number three God requires justice and love over thoughts and prayers. The prophet Micah makes it plain what does the Lord require of you To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Ezekiel warns our leaders saying, quote if the sword comes and the watchman does not sound the alarm, I will hold them accountable for their blood. Politicians who vote to loosen gun restrictions are lifting up bloodstained hands raised in hypocrisy, and heaven turns away. The Bible says that your prayers are noise, your condolences are detestable, your rituals are rejected. And until you free the United States from the idolatry and worship of guns, god will not hear nor answer the prayers of a people who sacrifice their children on the altar of the NRA.
