Marilynne Robinson has written an essay on Christianity, America, guns, and fear that is deeply powerful and moving—so much so that it has moved me to propose the following restriction on firearms:
WHEREAS anyone who is overbroad in generalization, scattershot in argument, unsure in target, and wild in rhetorical aim is unlikely to perform better with bullets than with words, let whosoever
1) Charges others with espousing Christianity “vociferously” while doing the same,
2) Writes that fear is unchristian in an essay that exhibits a holy terror of other Christians,
3) Denounces “make-believe wars against make-believe enemies” after conducting a sort of straw man mass sacrifice
Be denied the right to buy, sell, possess, or operate a firearm, if not also a pen.
I invite all to join me in support of what I hope comes to be called “Marilynne's Law.”
Matthew Schmitz is deputy editor of First Things.
