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[Order David Horowitz’s new book, America Betrayed, HERE.]
John Zmirak, one of the most powerful and inspiring conservative writers of this era, has published another book, No Second Amendment, No First: God, Guns, and the Government. The Yale-educated journalist and former college professor shows how gun control efforts are misguided, damaging and incompatible with church teaching, in contrast to the right to keep and bear arms, which flows from “the very heart of Biblical faith and reason.”
The ambitious book digs deeply into the history of the Christian church, American history and its precursors in ancient history where the Founding Fathers got their principles. The right to keep and bear arms comes from natural law.
Zmirak dedicated it to three people who lost their lives after around 2020 due to the left’s “anarcho-tyranny:” Jake Gardner, Ashli Babbitt and Rosanne Boyland. It begins with a quote by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard explaining why she had to leave the Democratic Party.
Bestselling author and talk show host Eric Metaxasprovided a foreword, where he relayed how he attended Yale when Zmirak did, but was warned by progressives to stay away from the “conservative Christian fascist.” After becoming miserable listening to his friends’ advice and views in the college full of elitists, he became a Christian, which changed his political views.
In his introduction, Zmirak stated, “The most effective practical tool these elites are using is a weaponized perversion of the concept of ‘public health.’” He cited New Mexico Governor Lujan Grisham declaring a public health emergency last September in order to suspend laws that allow open and concealed carry of firearms in Albuquerque for 30 days. He pointed at the abuse Kyle Rittenhouse and Gardner endured through the legal system for defending themselves with guns from progressive rioters. The Iraq War veteran killed himself after realizing he could end up spending the rest of his life in prison. Zmirak dedicated a heartbreaking epilogue to him.
Zmirak said three legal scholars concluded after an in-depth study, “The historical record shows that, almost without exception, genocide is preceded by a very careful government program that disarms the future victims.” He went over the danger of Red Flag laws, where the burden of proof is wrongly placed on the gun owner.
The first part of the book “explores the degeneration of the Judeo-Christian worldview that made possible the founding of a self-governing, free republic such as the United States of America.”
Instead, “we now see ourselves and our neighbors as termites in a hive — dependent on top-down management and constant protection by our ‘betters.’”
The second part of the book offers solutions, and the third part goes over the historical background of “how the biblical view of man helped create (unique to the West) a philosophy of freedom.”
He derisively observed that “journalists, leftist flaks, and massively funded anti-gun activists might as well have a template on their computers, so interchangeable do the statements seem whenever a mass shooting occurs.” They act like there is an “awakening of common sense” in the face of “an epidemic of gun violence.”
Zmirak denounced the “sold-out churches;” the mainline Protestant religious congregations that issue a “long list of Woke buzzwords” after mass shootings. Cleverly, he crafted his own draft statement that churches should issue instead, which emphasizes the victims and how to stop the societal problems that create dangerous killers, instead of focusing on “gun violence.”
He discussed the history of Christianity in the U.S., and how the state began replacing God as the source of salvation — including as the source of defending yourself. He said the last great Christian moment was the Civil Rights movement.
The book is full of the classic lines Zmirak is known for, like this one regarding wokism: “Go deeper into the cult and the disciplines get more rigorous.” In reference to the Second Amendment, he sarcastically said, “Aristocrats warn the commoners that we are unworthy of the liberties our forefathers deeded us,” so the government must control all the weapons so “we sheep may safely graze.”
He derisively referred to a “brilliant piece of marketing” by Black Lives Matter, which was “weaponizing a perfectly legitimate biblical sentiment in service of a Marxist sect of street thugs and corporate shakedown experts.” It didn’t work. “The rate of homicides with black victims increased 53% since the protests after the death of George Floyd,” Zmirak said.
Florida State University criminologists Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz estimated that defensive use of guns, which includes merely brandishing one, occurs by Americans between 2.2 million to 2.5 million times each year.
Zmirak recommended legal scholar David Kopel’s book, The Morality of Self-Defense and Military Action: The Judeo-Christian Tradition, for more information on Jewish scriptural support for the Second Amendment. Kopel cited Exodus 22:2, which states, “If a thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no bloodguilt for him; but if the sun has risen upon him, there shall be bloodguilt for him.”
Zmirak denounced weak pastors in Hitler’s Germany who used Romans 13 to justify capitulating to the Nazis. While the Apostle Paul said Christians must be subject to the governing authorities, Zmirak clarified, “If your reading of a Bible verse leads to outrageous consequences that violate Natural Law or vitiate the Old Testament, or that seem to condemn the behavior of many saints . . . then you are indeed reading it wrong.”
Zmirak provided a fascinating account of The Crusades, pointing out that the atrocities were committed by “disorganized bands of commoners who attached themselves to the crusaders,” attacking others “[a]gainst the explicit orders of local bishops and Christian nobles.”
Zmirak didn’t just cover the Second Amendment, but related topics to provide context.
The book is full of so many fascinating, little known historical facts and spot-on analysis that it is a must read in order to understand our history and how we got to where we are today.
Our heritage is Christian, not judeo-Christian.
Yeah, to heck with them Jews, eh Beto? I guess you’re not a fan of Dennis Prager.
Baptists recognize that Jesus was Jewish. Our God is the God of Abraham, and the Old Testament is still relevant. So Judeo-Christian works for us.
“Zmirak denounced weak pastors in Hitler’s Germany who used Romans 13 to justify capitulating to the Nazis. While the Apostle Paul said Christians must be subject to the governing authorities, Zmirak clarified, “If your reading of a Bible verse leads to outrageous consequences that violate Natural Law or vitiate the Old Testament, or that seem to condemn the behavior of many saints . . . then you are indeed reading it wrong.”
Says who? Says Zmirak!
And what makes Zmirak’s interpretation of the Bible the true, definitive, and objective interpretation of the Bible? Nothing, because it’s simply his preferred interpretation of Bible.
The Bible is filled with contradictions, but for the Christian the direct words of Jesus Christ ought to carry greater authority and supersede any other words in the Bible and the direct words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount do not counsel self-preservation and self-defense but their opposite. The Sermon on the Mount counsels self-sacrifice and self-immolation.
Now let’s see Zmirak try and interpret these words from the Sermon on the Mount as encouraging self-defense instead of self-immolation!
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[b] and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Dear THX 1138:
You do a disservice to yourself and others when you take scripture out of context in order to prove a point. To properly interpret and understand Holy Scripture one must read and understand the Bible as a whole. In doing so, any seeming contradictions in overall philosophy are resolved.
You seem fond of a rigid reading of the Sermon on the Mount. This sermon, among other things, was given to show each of us the impossibility of living up to God’s standards. Hence, our need for a Savior.
Kent
Since you know nothing of Christianity, except that you hate us, maybe you should actually read the New Testament in its entirety instead of treating it as your personal private hate smorgasbord.
It is Judeo Christian, much to some folks’ chagrin
We can’t use that term because it can be conflated as a green light for butt hurt, post Old Testament Jewish heresy that embraced Babylonian Mystery religions while in captivity there and concoct all sorts of sick, demented filth in their TALMUD.
This is about Good and Evil. You must fight evil, for it does not allow for soft spoken words to dissuade their wicked intentions and deeds.
Luke 22:36 quotes Jesus Christ to His peaceful followers… “Now, however,” He told them, “the one with a purse should take it, and likewise a bag; and the one without a sword should sell his cloak and buy one.”
In Matthew 10:34-36 Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.”
Is this not where our nation is at the crossroads?
Christ finally comes Revelation 19:15, “And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.”
Milktoast Christians, who won’t fight either with words or deeds, have what led us to this point in time, where innocents are murdered every day, by deranged and wicked people, who are being enabled and protected by evil Demonrats.
The toxic pacifist, “Hippie Jesus” THX1138 George Lucas fan-Hippie likes is NOT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST who reigns over all of reality.
Something for Obamas phony Revrand to read the same for Jackson. IF YOU DONT HAVE A SWORD SELL YOUR CLOAK AND BUY ONE