Poor Louisiana

Poor Louisiana, and I'm not talking about the oil spill.

Our local paper, The Advocate, ran two articles recently. The first on the 29th of April about a bill currently before our legislature which would allow concealed weapons in churches, apparently in response to recent shootings in churches in the area. In the meantime, the murder rate in the United States is 6 times the murder rate in Germany. You can look it up for yourself here. Maybe it's just me but do we really need to be carrying guns in churches? Although I am not currently a church-goer I was raised as one and I always considered them to be peaceful and loving places. Obviously more weapons will make us a safer country.

And then, the very next day, The Advocate carried a story concerning a pagan festival to be held in a neighboring parish. For those of you not familiar with Louisiana oddities, our local governments are called parishes instead of counties presumably a carryover from our Roman Catholic heritage. According to Perry Rushing, chief of operations for the sheriff's office, the festival is "under scrutiny" from the sheriff's office because "we vehemently oppose this type of activity in Livingston Parish." The pagan festival is scheduled to be held at Gryphon's Nest Campground. And then the kicker comes when you read the rules for the campground. I quote rule number 6 in part: "Absolutely no firearms!"

I think it's really strange that pagans feel compelled to meet without the need for bringing firearms, but the christians do. Sorry, I'm assuming the bill's sponsor, Henry Burns, is christian. And then of course, we can expect the sheriff's office to keep all chritian gatherings under close scrutiny. I wonder how many boys and girls are going to get raped at the pagan festival? Oh that's right, no Roman Catholic priests there.