The root cause of our nation’s evil

OPINION:

As evil actions surge across the United States, the plea for gun control intensifies. But isn’t a root cause analysis in order before restricting our sacred freedoms?

If we take away the guns, aren’t we still left with the individuals who have an intent to cause harm to the innocent? As new House Speaker Mike Johnson rightly stated in a recent interview, “the problem is the human heart, not guns.” Perhaps it’s time for America to consider allowing faith and God to enter the equation.

When we hear about random mass casualty incidents caused by individuals, such as the recent mass shooting in Maine, the first questions we ask ourselves are “Who is this person?” and “What made them decide to take innocent lives?” While the backstory is typically unique to each individual, the prevalent undercurrents are usually isolation, despair, hopelessness, or a combination of the three. If we remove some or even all guns from society, will this fix the mental health issues plaguing these people and our nation?

The resounding answer is no.

For years, “woke” politics and our media have been indoctrinating us with the narrative that our constitutional rights must be curtailed to ensure our safety. We already saw this rhetoric fail during COVID-19 lockdowns, when states such as California took unconstitutional measures to prevent houses of worship from holding religious services while gratuitously allowing citizens to gather for secular activities. In Tandon v. Newsom, the Supreme Court made clear that by taking such measures, the state failed to show that “public health would be imperiled” by employing measures that were less restrictive.

As the rhetoric applies specifically to gun control, in the First Liberty case His Tabernacle Family Church Inc. v. Nigrelli, the state of New York implemented a total disarmament approach in the name of safety, banning guns from being carried specifically in houses of worship, while affording permissive treatment to most secular businesses.

The selective application of these so-called solutions is not only illegal, but they fail to address the root cause of the problem. They are largely targeted at eradicating the rights on which our nation was founded to serve an alternative and malevolent purpose.

The bottom line is that our world and our country are suffering from the grips of evil, and the faster we realize this, the more quickly we can address and correct the pandemic of evil.

In a world and society where truth is being intentionally veiled by a deceitful political smoke screen, we must be encouraged to take a bold stand in the name of faith against the false narrative. Proudly, First Liberty Institute has been successfully battling false narratives and “restoring religious liberty for all Americans” for over 30 years. Each of us has the right to live according to truth and the freedoms and protections afforded to us under the U.S. Constitution. Yet without a moral compass and a strong foundation in faith, we are ill-equipped for the fight to save our nation.

But hope is on the horizon, as long as our hearts and minds are committed to recognizing and standing for truth — even if taking a stand means you are initially a party of one. First Liberty’s successes in recent Supreme Court cases, including Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, where coach Joseph Kennedy boldly defended his right to engage in silent prayer on the 50-yard line after football games, are direct evidence that we, as citizens of the United States, can freely exercise our faith and stand for truth outside of our homes. We are not imprisoned to the narrative that is harming our country’s greatest asset — our people.

As we find ourselves in some of the most difficult and divisive periods in recent history, it’s time for us to unapologetically weed out the root cause of evil that is plaguing our country and to proudly affirm that faith and God are our nation’s guiding lights for truth.

If we are committed to instilling these concepts in our children and praising those who speak only the truth, only then can we defeat the evil that has gnawed at the heels of past and present generations.