As A Former Evangelical Leader I Blame the White Evangelical Voter for Every Single Mass Shooting

Posted on 4 Aug 2019

The El Paso shooter said he wanted to stop the immigrant “invasion” of America. As recently as May, Trump used the exact same words: “It’s an invasion.” Then someone in the crowd yelled out “shoot them.” He laughed. Then the crowd of thousands of mostly white evangelicals laughed.

I was an evangelical leader from a family the New York Times described as “evangelical royalty.” It is my duty to tell the truth. Evangelicals keep putting Republican shills of the NRA/Gun Lobby in power and keeping them there again and again and again in the name of being “pro-life.” If only there were no white evangelical Trump voters in America we could begin to detox this sad broken sick nation.

The only variable that can explain the high rate of mass shootings in America is its astronomical number of guns. Period. Why? Because white evangelical Christians “honor Christ” by putting Republican shills of the Gun Lobby in power and keeping them there.

Jerry Falwell Jr. waved a gun from his pulpit at Liberty U demanding his students arm.

In all, there have been at least 32 mass shootings, defined as three or more killings in a single episode, in the United States this year. No more “thoughts and prayers.” To save lives the Republican Party/NRA/Gun Lobby/Trump racists must be destroyed. Let’s call it like it is: the white evangelical voter is the enemy of the American people. May 2020 be the end of this blood-soaked movement.

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Caught between the beauty of his grandchildren and grief over a friend’s death, Frank Schaeffer finds himself simultaneously believing and not believing in God—an atheist who prays. Schaeffer wrestles with faith and disbelief, sharing his innermost thoughts with a lyricism that only great writers of literary nonfiction achieve. Schaeffer writes as an imperfect son, husband and grandfather whose love for his family, art and life trumps the ugly theologies of an angry God and the atheist vision of a cold, meaningless universe. Schaeffer writes that only when we abandon our hunt for certainty do we become free to create beauty, give love and find peace. Available now at Amazon.