Jesus with an Assault Rifle

A mixture of infatuation with guns, Evangelical Christianity and paranoid hatred has become a factor in U.S. politics.

How many semiautomatic assault rifles would Jesus have had? This question was recently asked in a campaign during the U.S. midterm elections. Huh? Wasn’t Jesus the guy with the Sermon on the Mount and the pacifistic saying, “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also”?

But that was the old interpretation. The new interpretation is that of the extreme far right Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert from Colorado: “How many AR-15s do you think Jesus would have had?” The answer: “Well, he didn’t have enough to keep his government from killing him.” That is the mixture of gun infatuation, Evangelical Christianity and paranoid hatred toward the government among American ultraconservative, or rather far-right extremists, that one long thought would never be possible. But it has become a factor in U.S. politics that needs to be taken extremely seriously.

Boebert ran for reelection to the House of Representatives in the midterm elections. She ran the Shooters Grill restaurant in Rifle (!), Colorado, where wait staff carried revolvers and open carry was encouraged among guests. As of the press deadline for this piece, Boebert looked like she was about to lose her seat by a very thin margin*. That will be funny to watch, because Boebert also does not accept that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Jesus Christ …

*Editor’s Note: Though the Associated Press had not yet called the race on Nov. 21, Lauren Boebert’s opponent, Democrat Adam Frisch, conceded the race on Saturday, Nov. 19.