people kill people.

I’ve heard it several times over the past few days, “Guns aren’t the problem; the problem is our Godless society.”

My biggest problem in the last few years of my life has been my ability to see all the sides of any issue, despite my own opinions and thoughts on whatever it is. In this case, as horrific as it is, I can still see both sides.

I think it’s ridiculous how staunchly the 2nd-Amendment advocates will defend their dogma – that every citizen is somehow Constitutionally bound to support the idea that “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

It doesn’t matter that the text was written in the infancy of an unstable rogue nation, by a group of defiant white men in constant danger of being squelched by the most powerful nation on the planet at the time. But – it’s the Constitution of the United States of America, and right or wrong, volumes upon volumes of archaic laws have been founded and defended by the principles within. At least as many good laws as bad ones, I’d propose.

And it’s also quite true that a gun, held in no hands, is itself incapable of harm. It’s an oversimplification, of course. A nuclear weapon in a perfect vacuum is similarly harmless. But of course, a gun, or a stack of guns in this case, rarely causes a tragedy or even makes the news, unless in the hands of a madman.

The problem as I see it is the increasing numbers of madmen.

As far as the idea of a “Godless society” goes, I understand this is meant as a dig towards a liberal agenda as promoted by such institutions as the ACLU, the Kennedy Democrats, Planned Parenthood, and Hollywood. Having grown up as a Yankee transplant to the heart of the Southern Baptist south, I understand the threat that Red-State America feels. Liberals have become emboldened enough in the Clinton and Obama eras to force the extremes of our progressive ideas about equality and morality on the Conservative institutions of Big Christian Ideas as supported by the Ten Commandments and the Old Testament. We’ve kinda rammed our ideas down their throats. We judge our brothers and neighbors very harshly when their ideas of what’s appropriate and demure clash with ours. When their beliefs hold that chastity is virtuous, modesty is wholesome, and sexual activity is best enjoyed behind closed doors between a loving couple. Or that the text of the Bible is sacred. Or that abortion is a sin along the lines of murder. We’ve often sneered – the liberal version of unkindness. Add a little ill-disguised pity for their old-fashioned ignorance, and the seed of resentment is planted and well-fertilized.

Even as I write the words, I realize I’ve created the division between “them,” and “us.” It’s what we do as humans – some leftover vestigial sense of a threat from outside our tribe.

Pointless are the arguments, though. All the arguments. We have indeed become a Godless society. We’ve forgotten the Divine ideas of Compassion, Kindness, and Love. We’ve reverted to a tribal mindset almost globally. In America, we divide ourselves roughly in two, only it’s rarely just two, but rather two again and two again, until there are so many factions that we end up merely concerned with ourselves, because well, self-preservation. I go round and round and round in my own head just hearing the daily news, just watching what’s happening across the globe. The system has seemingly gone haywire. We’ve Eased God Out – a friend of mine used to say that’s what “ego” stood for.

Everybody has an ego. It’s the part of the psyche that tells us we’re different from each other. It tells me I’m smarter or dumber, better than you or the worst person ever, stronger or a helpless victim, etc. It’s the judge – it indicts you for being different from me, for not thinking like I do, for not living where I live or believing what I believe. It tells me I don’t need you or anybody to create my ideal existence. It tells me you deserve to be harmed if you cross some line on the landscape of my beliefs. Ego makes up the rules that you have to follow, but from which I am exempt in special situations, such as are also determined by ego. Ego drives commerce, industry, sports, and politics. Ego feeds on power – the ability to control people, places, things.

So how do we turn back towards our Divine nature? How do we begin to embrace the Big Idea that there’s no “them,” but simply “ALL OF US.” How do we squelch the belief that we are separate from God? We are all God. God is all.

If human nature is inherently egoistic, in that we are hard wired to discern the threat of a member of a different tribe, and our society is daily seeking ways to divide us into ever smaller tribes – liberal or conservative, Christian or Muslim, further even – Baptist or Episcopalian, Shiite or Sunni, Southern Baptist or Missionary Baptist, Calvary Church or Freedom Fellowship? Ford or Chevy, coffee or tea, PFLAG or homophobe? If it’s always Us vs. Them, then what path lay before us but the eventual self-destruction of the species?

People kill people.