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To those who are in strife,
we call for peace.
To those in poverty, aid we
release.
Yet, our calling for peace
and giving of alms,
Are GREATLY trumped
by our exporting of arms.
Less than one percent (1%) of budgets
for aid,1
GREATLY outstripped by what for
arms we’re paid.
We're the largest exporter
of arms worldwide!
Only Russia is close to
matching our stride.2
With innumerable defense
contractors,
Who wouldn’t eschew the
arms control detractors?
While closing ranks on the
‘nuclear club’,
We keep our place at
the arms selling hub.
Gotta dump the old, make
room for the new.
More bang for the buck;
more we will accrue.3
With conflicts in our world
ever so brute,
Look for our arms
very close to their roots.
Dutifully ignoring God’s Law of Reaping and
Sowing.
Not connecting world arms
sales to home conflicts
that are g-r-o-w-i-n-g.
We’re soooo
comfortable, not connecting
the dots,
As life on our streets
becomes like ‘Gordian knots’!
Deadly deeds America sows
abroad,
Will rebound to our
shores. Don’t think that’s odd.
As America leads in arming
the world to
the teeth,I
Rest assured, at home, we
will need
more arms-related
wreaths!
The same spirit that arms the world to the teeth,
Also floods arms into our
communities.
‘We flood communities with
so many guns that
it is easier for a
teenager,
To buy a Glock than to get
his hands on a computer
or even a book.’ 4 How we err!!
From the White House,
Congress and churches across our land,
Too often we’re called to
‘pay our respects’, as we stand.
In these ubiquitous moments of silence,
what should we think?!
Between our arms sales,
and life on our streets,
consider the link!
May our defense contractors
and policy-makers alike,
Realize their cumulative
actions really are seed-like.
Like a spiritual boomerang,
their actions come home to roost.
‘Sow to the wind, reap the
whirlwind!’
5
That is what I have deduced.
From Jesus we learn living
by the sword means dying by it.6
Yet hawkishly, we keep our
eyes on mounting arms sales profits.
Profits, be as gravel, as God’s judgments on us
are unbound,
With every ‘death-by-gun’ body
we must bury in the ground!
All across America, many folks 'live' by their guns.
Every gun tragedy becomes a gun-buying season,
Therefore, guns now outnumber our population!!!
Living by fear, it's Godly faith we've forsaken.
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1 See: Penny on the Dollar: US Foreign Aid is About One Percent of Spending
2 The U.S. alone accounts for 31% of the world’s arms exports, and Russia accounts for 27%. (2015). See: 10 Countries That Export the Most Weapons
2 The U.S. alone accounts for 31% of the world’s arms exports, and Russia accounts for 27%. (2015). See: 10 Countries That Export the Most Weapons
3 As
technology improvements generate ever more sophisticated and deadly arms,
governments and insurgent groups push to upgrade their stockpiles,
selling/donating old, but still deadly technology… and the whirlwind grows.
4 President Barak Obama, Dallas Police Officer Memorial, 7/12/16. Both legal and illegal arms vendors catalyze and then serve this demand.
5 Hosea 8:7
5 Hosea 8:7
