Anti-Gun Orgs Urge Clergy to Use Red Flag Laws to Grab Their Congregants’ Gunshttps://www.shootingnewsweekly.com/gun-nation/anti-gun-orgs-urge-clergy-to-use-red-flag-laws-to-grab-their-congregants-guns/In September, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Gun Violence Solutions published a tract titled “Extreme Risk Protection Orders: A Clergy Resource Guide” (extreme risk protection orders are the gun control advocates’ preferred term for red flag gun confiscation orders). The document was authored alongside groups including Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence, Faith Leaders for Ending Gun Violence, and Jewish Women International.
Another author was the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness, which the document described as “the public policy information and advocacy office for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).” The “progressive” PCUSA currently hosts the guide on its website. Texas Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, who has put his version of religion at the forefront of his campaign, trained at a PCUSA seminary.
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The guide seeks to inject gun control directly into the clergy-congregant relationship. The document encourages faith leaders to leverage the trust their congregants place in them, noting, “faith leaders are often trusted confidants. You may be among the first to hear when someone is experiencing crisis…”
Of course, the danger that a pastor may work to have the government strip a person of a fundamental right based on a private conversation will prompt some congregants to forego potentially beneficial pastoral services entirely.
IMO, gun owners in uber-Prog denominations like the UCC, ELCA, Episcopalian Church, and some Presbyterian denominations would be wise to move over to less anti-gun churches. I was raised in a conservative mainline denomination, so I know that would not be a trivial choice. That said, betrayal by an activist "pastor" or "priest" should not be risked, IMO.
