Does The Jesus Army Carry Muskets?

Does The Jesus Army Carry Muskets?

– By Ed Kociela –

If Jesus had an army, do you think he would equip it with muskets?

Would His soldiers tromp around in heavenly camo?

Would the different sects of Christianity, since they pretty much all believe that their particular church preaches the one true religion, target each other as well as sinners?

Should they amend the commandment that condemns killing to read “Thou shalt not kill, unless Jesus says it’s, OK?” I’ve, quite frankly, always had a problem with that one, anyway, you know. That whole business about not taking another’s life sort of loses its punch when you learn that Christians are OK with blowing each other up as long as you are doing so for the good guys.

There is relevance to all of this in the shadow of an ugly, violent metaphor used by Jeffrey Holland, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he spoke at the Brigham Young University Annual Conference last week.

During his speech, he ventured into the tall weeds when he said that faithful members of the church at BYU should pick up their muskets and defend the church against pro-LGBTQ forces.

It is not, of course, the first-time violence has been mixed with religion.

The Bible is a fairly violent tome that is not only filled with a lot of begetting and parables and suspicious folklore but also a frightening amount of violence, the kind of violence that would reduce Freddy Krueger into spasms of fear, especially in the Old Testament.

I never understood how violence could be so prevalent when what we are supposed to be seeking in our journey here is peace, love, and compassion, but it is there and it was trotted out by Holland, who surely should have known better.

And, it was dispensed with prejudice in a manner that certainly shows no peace, love, or compassion for members of the LGBTQ community who have been targeted for violence for millennia by believers and nonbelievers alike.

It seems that the standards of civility and brotherhood/sisterhood only apply if you are a card-carrying member of the same club or your skin color or sexual orientation fit the so-called norms.

Unless you are a member of the Unitarian Universalist, Buddhist, or Jewish spiritual flocks you are pretty much condemned. Most churches, including the LDS, have little in the way of support in allowing an LGBTQ person the right to pursue their heart. There is no softening, no true acceptance. If you do not conform, well, your salvation is on the line big time. It is why faith and spirituality mean so much more to me than which religion you choose to follow. Religion, as I was taught, was rooted in fear and exclusivity. I was flat-out raised to believe that if you were not a Catholic, you had an express ticket to hell, no matter how many good works you performed on Earth because God would only allow the keys to the kingdom to those of the one, true religion. Growing up, I thought Heaven was this really tiny place with only a few pious souls, saints, and martyrs. Honoring those saints and martyrs, I have been told by members of other faiths, defines Catholicism as a cult of sort that violates God’s law of condemning false idolatry. Plus, I have known a number of atheists who display more Christian behavior than many men and women of the cloth, which closes the circle back to Jeffrey Holland and his comments.

With so much hatred and intolerance in this world, you would think that religious leaders in particular would measure their words carefully and not engage in bombastic rhetoric. As we know, it takes little to light the fuse of a looney. We’ve got plenty of them, you know, and many of them have stockpiles of muskets that they are just waiting for an excuse to discharge in the name of God, a misinterpreted Constitution, a wayward political party, or a politician who has gone off the rails. That’s why words like Holland’s can be so disconcerting, so dangerous. Holland is a man of stature within his culture, within his church. His words carry some weight, and as such, should be carefully considered lest he become the inspiration or a whack-job with a musket and religious inspiration.

Holland also seems to be in contrast to much of the public stance of the LDS church which has come forward to encourage its followers to, in this era of a disturbed and warped political sense, and ongoing racially conflicted culture, embrace what are espoused as true Christian values of respect, compassion, dignity and love and that anything “that encourages or incites violence is contrary to the recent instruction given by church leaders.

Of course, the church has remained silent on Holland’s comments. There is a church General Conference scheduled for a little more than a month from now. We’ll see if they can cook something up before then. I mean, this is a church that has a reputation for being able to turn on a dime. I guarantee that about the time the federal government passes greater equality rights and protections for the LGBTQ community a church president will be given a revelation, much like the one in 1978 that allowed “all worthy male members of the church to be ordained to the priesthood without regard to race or color” and which also allowed black men and women access to endowments and sealings in the temple.

Of course, the revelation also coincided with pressure from the NAACP about priesthood inequality and a fear that the church could lose its tax exemption because of its discriminatory practices.

The thing is, I would rather see religious leaders defend their faith on the basis of seeking peace, love, and harmony rather than rousing their followers with talk of muskets or exclusion.

That is more in line with the true tenets of Christianity.

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