Letter to church re: anti-gun tree ornaments

guywithglasses

guywithglasses

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I belong to a United Church of Christ that puts ornaments on its Christmas tree that on one side picture a gun with a red line through it and on the other side a name which is presumably a victim of "gun" violence. It bugs me to no end every December, and I mean to write a letter... but get caught up in life and then it's January and the tree is gone...

Finally, I've written the letter ahead of time and sent it to my minister and the board of deacons. I'm curious to see what the response will be.

Dear xxxx,

I’m writing in regard to certain ornaments that are placed on our church’s Christmas tree—ornaments that picture a gun with a red line through them. I think political messages are best left out of church in general, and especially our Christmas decorations. If lawful gun owners feel intolerance, then we truly aren’t welcoming to all.

If we are going to politicize our Christmas tree, it would be fair to allow the opposing viewpoint. My suggestion in this case would be an equal number of ornaments that consist of a gun inside of a life preserver. On the back of each would be the name of a citizen who’s life was saved by a firearm.

If we’re not going to allow both sides of an issue on our Christmas tree, I’d like to know the person(s) and procedure(s) that determines which political viewpoints will and won’t be allowed.

Respectfully yours,

xxxx
 
I like it. I think you should suggest putting the picture of the criminal that killed them rather than a picture of the tool they chose..

Nice work..

--Mike
 
Inform them about St. Gabriel Possenti

From the St. Gabriel Possenti society website;

The St. Gabriel Possenti Society promotes the public recognition of , including his Vatican designation as Patron Saint of Handgunners.

St. Gabriel Possenti was a Catholic seminarian whose marksmanship and proficiency with handguns single-handedly saved the village of Isola, Italy from a band of 20 terrorists in 1860.

The Possenti Society offers a variety of materials related to St. Gabriel Possenti and a biblical understanding of self-defense.

The Savior of Isola

In 1860, a band of soldiers from the army of Garibaldi entered the mountain village of Isola, Italy. They began to burn and pillage the town, terrorizing its inhabitants.

Possenti, with his seminary rector's permission, walked into the center of town, unarmed, to face the terrorists. One of the soldiers was dragging off a young woman he intended to rape when he saw Possenti and made a snickering remark about such a young monk being all alone.

Possenti quickly grabbed the soldier's revolver from his belt and ordered the marauder to release the woman. The startled soldier complied, as Possenti grabbed the revolver of another soldier who came by. Hearing the commotion, the rest of the soldiers came running in Possenti's direction, determined to overcome the rebellious monk.

At that moment a small lizard ran across the road between Possenti and the soldiers. When the lizard briefly paused, Possenti took careful aim and struck the lizard with one shot. Turning his two handguns on the approaching soldiers, Possenti commanded them to drop their weapons. Having seen his handiwork with a pistol, the soldiers complied. Possenti ordered them to put out the fires they had set, and upon finishing, marched the whole lot out of town, ordering them never to return. The grateful townspeople escorted Possenti in triumphant procession back to the seminary, thereafter referring to him as "the Savior of Isola".
Click to expand...

There is a page where one could order coin tokens for a one dollar donation but the link appears to be inactive.
There also is an E-mail address and a phone number on the contact page.
 
MrTwigg said:
From the St. Gabriel Possenti society website;



There is a page where one could order coin tokens for a one dollar donation but the link appears to be inactive.
There also is an E-mail address and a phone number on the contact page.
Click to expand...

My CCD class is going to have a new lesson next class[wink]
 
you should meet my priest,he carries all the time.as well as former seal team member.he makes going to church more interesting to say the least
 
I like that guy, alas, Protestants don't have Saints. My wife and I joke that we should go evangelical because they seem more right-of-center.

As a side note, most of the people in my church would be absolutely horrified to know that they've never seen me when I wasn't armed... including when the minister visited my wife and I and our newborn in the hospital. As a side side note, I hope to pass that gun to my daughter someday because it protected her and her mommy when she was born.
 
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I'm waiting to hear the response, keep us posted. I carry to church, to the best of my knowledge I'm the only one, and I'm glad to see you stepping up for this.
 
I loved your letter! Great job. The tone was very decent and respectful.

Please let us know how the church people respond to your thoughtful letter.
 
The Minister at one of our local churches removed the national flag from the altar. It was gently suggested that if he chose to leave the flag out of sight there would be a a noticeable reduction in the size of the congregation. The flag is back on the altar where it belongs.
 
The national body of my church has one of those whiny position statements about gun violence. It seems that at the annual meeting, local groups can write and propose these position statements on different issues. If they've got a small vocal group pushing it, there's a decent chance it will fly in under the radar, since most people aren't paying much attention to these things (sort of like special-interest legislation in congress). Once they're there, it's hard to get rid of them. The only redeeming feature of these statements is that most members pay absolutely no attention to them. While a lot of members of my congregation who know me know that I'm into guns (about a half dozen of them have been in one of my classes), I doubt that anyone realizes that I take what I teach seriously enough that I'm actually carrying pretty much whenever I'm dressed.

Ken
 
Nice to see someone at UCC getting the message out. Good on ya!

UCC is overall a terrific church IMO, but like the Unitarians (my church) they can be pretty doctrinaire "liberal."

Keep up the good work!
 
Find a new Church that matches your beliefs. You wouldn't stick to being a democrat if you had been one.
 

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