https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to gun culture en https://religiondispatches.org/2025/09/05/mn-mass-shooting-teaches-us-once-again-its-guns A shooter killed two children and injured 21 people —three adults in their 80s and 18 children between the ages of 6 and 15—at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis last week. The shots came through a stained glass window while the… Fri, 05 Sep 2025 11:36:05 EDT Rachel Wagner 3f9c53aa-07bc-476d-8917-0c8bb454e0e0 https://religiondispatches.org/2023/05/25/what-we-need-understand-fascism-intersectional-and-erotic-thy-rod-thy-gun-hip-thrust In The Family (now also a Netflix series), journalist and author Jeff Sharlet wrote about his experience of going undercover as a young man in a secret, elitist organization of the American Christian Right. It was, in many ways, the… Thu, 25 May 2023 03:23:58 EDT Annika Brockschmidt 301f7139-e774-4da0-b27a-83fa6559b10d https://religiondispatches.org/2023/03/14/ar-15-lapel-pins-are-more-political-provocation-theyre-symbols-violence-heart-white Violence has always been at the center of White Christian nationalism: the vow to impose order on those perceived as un-American, if need be with force, either by the police or by wielding a gun themselves. And while the absolute… Tue, 14 Mar 2023 06:25:02 EDT Annika Brockschmidt 34acd5de-b272-4725-8a29-8fd931ece5bd https://religiondispatches.org/2022/06/13/we-may-be-sacrificing-our-children-god-gun-its-not-god-requires-deaths You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord . Leviticus 18:21 As a nation, we have to ask: When in God’s name are… Mon, 13 Jun 2022 02:53:15 EDT Stephanie Frank 7eb3e12d-8bc0-4d16-9e00-0f898de93641 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/06/07/christian-nationalists-and-holy-gun-crusade In the wake of every mass shooting in this country, we have a brief moment where we talk about the guns used and the need for gun control. And then rapidly, the gun lobby, conservative politicians, Second Amendment absolutists, and… Tue, 07 Jun 2022 01:12:14 EDT Thomas Lecaque 82e36af2-096a-4be6-a863-ff2371c1f66d https://religiondispatches.org/2022/05/26/what-hell-wrong-us-muslim-response-americas-failure-change More times than I can remember, I’ve had to ascend the minbar and address a Friday congregation reeling. Many Imams will do the same painful work this week. But for many American Muslims, Buffalo and Uvalde strike in other ways… Thu, 26 May 2022 05:38:32 EDT Haroon Moghul b45b46ea-2b23-403e-a826-850f61cf9b65 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/05/26/buffalo-and-uvalde-both-appear-have-involved-ar-15-rifle-revered-christian-right For the second time in almost as many weeks, a mass shooter used an AR-15-style rifle to kill innocent Americans. On May 14, PG allegedly used a variation of the AR-15 to shoot 13 people, 10 of them fatally. Just… Thu, 26 May 2022 02:45:10 EDT Brad Stoddard 0f524573-3f00-455b-8bfa-211b5e59e394 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/03/10/gop-candidate-pa-governor-affiliated-far-right-gun-church-rod-iron-ministries-heres Pennsylvania State Senator and retired colonel Doug Mastriano has announced his candidacy for governor. And, in keeping with his participation in the Jericho March movement, the Stop the Steal Rally on January 6 th , and other appearances at Christian… Thu, 10 Mar 2022 12:03:28 EST Thomas Lecaque 0de76d50-8907-4ec3-ae08-8871f4b7493e https://religiondispatches.org/2021/06/24/guns-god-and-government-coming-white-minority-rule In 2012 James Carville was ecstatic on CNN as incumbent President Barack Obama had just won re-election in convincing fashion over GOP challenger Mitt Romney. Carville who co-authored the 2008 book 40 More Years: How Democrats Will Rule the Next… Thu, 24 Jun 2021 02:10:28 EDT A. E. Brooks-Key c01956d4-081c-4c51-b91a-534044e7f092 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/04/10/open-carry-racism-right-wing-fever-dream-predates-trump The idiosyncratic pantheon of Trump administration staffers continues its exodus, a stream of comic book villains exiting stage right. The combination of venality, incompetence, and pathological narcissism, however, remains. And the world lives in the Trump era’s bubble of strangely… Tue, 10 Apr 2018 12:24:11 EDT Jason C. Bivins 75ef01a6-0d43-488b-89a4-805f79987ec1 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/03/07/locked-and-loaded-covenant-religious-roots-americas-gun-culture Garry Wills was being only slightly ironic when he wrote (in the wake of the ghastly Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando) that it is “theologically inconceivable” to implement real gun control in the United States: God gave us guns to… Wed, 07 Mar 2018 04:41:58 EST Peter Laarman ff37285d-aede-4827-8bdf-1856fcc12f16 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/08/18/murder-campaign-trail A history lesson on Trump’s “2nd Amendment” aside about Hillary Clinton. Thu, 18 Aug 2016 04:06:26 EDT Carlos Wilton 1cf54654-4407-4512-a047-380ed42dc824 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/06/17/us-bishops-silence-guns-and-gays The U.S. Catholic bishops met in Huntington Beach, California this week, just days after the Orlando massacre. And despite the fact that the church’s most powerful prelates were all gathered together at a time when the nation is desperate for… Fri, 17 Jun 2016 04:40:36 EDT Patricia Miller 17934b61-6a75-421f-ac01-7c4f18fb9518 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/12/08/dont-call-it-prayer-shaming-our-moral-failure-exposed On Wednesday, December 2, 2015, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 29, murdered 14 people and injured 21 during a targeted attack at Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, CA. In the aftermath of the attack, a number of… Tue, 08 Dec 2015 02:59:48 EST Willie Dwayne Francois c1e70da4-f998-4b28-8ac8-c43c6c409746 https://religiondispatches.org/2014/08/21/google-data-reveal-poor-have-interest-above-dark-religion The estimable David Leonhardt made a media thing happen over the past few days with his Upshot report on what amounts to a NY Times anal exam of web searches, aided and abetted by the non-evildoers at Google. I was… Thu, 21 Aug 2014 04:31:07 EDT Peter Laarman 35949148-01dc-4110-90b8-08eba443212e https://religiondispatches.org/2013/01/29/stephen-king-appeals-gun-advocates-individual-responsibility The divinely human compassion of “Jesus wept” meets the theology of Atlas Shrugged. Tue, 29 Jan 2013 03:49:22 EST Elizabeth Drescher 84df8b7d-21b3-4687-9737-907bcc4f50ac https://religiondispatches.org/2013/01/11/confessions-former-gun-worshipper Time to think critically about America’s religious regard for guns. Fri, 11 Jan 2013 06:45:04 EST Joanna Brooks b9bbc3d7-e088-49ab-9bd5-1ca7a2ad8d71 https://religiondispatches.org/2012/12/20/everything-was-better-when-we-had-god-our-schools Wasn’t it? Thu, 20 Dec 2012 02:39:45 EST Hollis Phelps 8d9a1cb8-2c32-4a3c-93e3-1fc57fba3158 https://religiondispatches.org/2012/12/19/video-why-huckabee-dobson-are-wrong-newtown Listen up evangelicals and conservative Christians. Wed, 19 Dec 2012 04:20:12 EST Anthea Butler 45652193-0bb3-4613-ae8e-a778c1dbe2a8 https://religiondispatches.org/2012/12/17/becoming-forever-lonesome-how-violence-changes-us I knew something horrific had happened just from my friend Lisa’s email: “R U watching the news?” When you report on violence, when your family has been pierced by violence, people assume you are interested in violence. And you are. Very. Mon, 17 Dec 2012 08:25:06 EST Amanda Robb 7550ec7c-9936-4430-a98d-abd69ac9e8a4 https://religiondispatches.org/2012/12/17/guns-and-babies-what-newtown-does-not-teach-us Listen up, conservative pundits. You can’t say that because God isn’t in a classroom, that we have reaped what we’ve sown—and then ask for guns in schools at the same time. Mon, 17 Dec 2012 02:52:21 EST Anthea Butler f96405af-ac77-4fe8-9cd1-b8cdff40aaad https://religiondispatches.org/2012/04/13/right-bear-arms-and-not-get-birth-control Romney at the NRA convention. Fri, 13 Apr 2012 05:52:36 EDT Sarah Posner 3d09536a-1a83-4f14-8c9e-8dd59269e6a9 https://religiondispatches.org/2012/03/22/trayvon-martin-and-american-exceptionalism Is a black person’s life worth anything in America? Not as long as America remains “Exceptional.” Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:02:21 EDT Anthea Butler 5b9d1760-2158-4c0b-9a2c-8a99d5b5008c https://religiondispatches.org/2011/01/27/guns-and-wyoming-legislator-proposing-shariah-law-ban Gerald Gay’s Second Amendment extremism and Islam. Thu, 27 Jan 2011 08:54:25 EST Sarah Posner 921b8b0f-6ba6-4dc1-b0c2-9c60fd542b79 https://religiondispatches.org/2010/07/15/bobby-jindal-squares-packing-heat-jesus Years ago a mother told me a story about her young son who liked to play cowboys and church, his very own role-playing game. One day she overheard him reenacting Jesus summoning Lazarus from the tomb; the little boy, toy gun in each hand, shouted, “Lazarus, come out with your hands… Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:16:48 EDT Welton Gaddy a828d2c9-1ded-425e-a0f9-d09c0bdcf58c