If you are not in the USA this will give you context.
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What a sad reflection on the US. Give people guns and they’ll use them…
They have had guns for 247 years, but it has only been in the last few decades that this has happened. It suggests that there is something wrong with the people. And, if they weren’t doing it with guns they would be doing it with knives, or purposely running into crowds of people with cars.
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There’s been a conflict of faith versus those without or those who have one faith versus another or faith versus reason since we were colonies. I call it the battle of anti-intellectualism for short.
Faith has gained over the last 50 years, including spiritual practices, and there has been backing politically that hasn’t been as strong before.
That’s what’s wrong (putting aside Russian influences to destabilize). We’ve always been in this fight regardless of how much we say we want to have the liberty to be as we choose, we really want to favor theocracy. More than scary.
My two American cents.
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We (Québec) don’t have guns (other than hunting riffles – and heavily legislated), and we just so happen to have had 2 of those in a relatively short time, lately.
One guy purposely drove a van full force into numerous pedestrians.
Another (purposely, again) drove is city bus into a kindergarten, then proceeded to undress before fighting with whoever came running in.
Both had a couple of loose bolts in their head though.
Really? I spent over 20 years in the USA and I find that hard to believe. And I lived all over the country.
Aside from that what is the connection to mass shootings?
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I never heard about that, which part of PQ was that in? A few years ago some incel in Toronto ran down a bunch of people in broad daylight. That was in the news even in India. Maybe the body count wasn’t high enough in PQ to be newsworthy – the media is jaded.
People are going nuts, is what it is.
You can see it on the streets.
I have always been observant. I see it.
Else, violence is on the rise pretty much globally for industrialized countries. That’s the numbers (or at least the impression anyone with a head gets). Say thanks to your friendly corporations.
This I believe, there is a lot of mental illness. And when you combine that with drugs. And access to weapons or a car. 
I was an expat for more than 40 years and the Canada I returned to is not the one I left that is for sure. More people have been murdered since I got back about 3 years ago than the whole time I grew up here several times over. It really reminds me of living in the USA except that here only the criminals have guns (smuggled in from the US) not the rest of the population. The government’s gun control policies are definitely not working. And drugs are everywhere. Legal and otherwise. There is practically a pot shop on every block. Still, they want to do illegal drugs. I have seen some real lost souls wandering around the city center.
You don’t have to be mentally ill to be pushed on edge.
And when people on average are more on edge, it blows up bigger and more often.
So you restrict even more.
Making people more on edge.
This strangulation is the direct counterpart of corporation profit.
You work your ass off for money that, once spent, instead of rolling around in the community, disappears up the ladder, never to be seen again.
In the past: you need a tomato, you buy it at the neighborhood merchant. Who’s happy he/she sold a tomato. Later being in a good mood, by events smiling to your neighbour, who in turn in a good mood, happens to smile to you. (A metaphor, somewhat.) But now this cycle is broken. Tapped. Milked dry.
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From my perspective, this happens because people have no higher purpose in life.
Well then we agree.
. . . .
As part of my research, I’ve perceived that, as bizarre as it may sound, there may be a connection between climate change and the proliferation of guns in the US … more later if I can make a definitive connection.
As for the question posed, I understand that as part of the women’s movement, there is an reassessment that the word NO. is in fact a complete sentence … that no follow-on apologies need to accompany the word that is already a complete sentence, No.
So in answer to your original question Do I really need Jesus to go to heaven?, my answer is simply:
No.
scrive
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I’m rarely looking forward to climate research findings, but I can’t wait for this one.
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I would suspect that the real correlation is between Climate Change (hysteria) and mental illness because the media keeps pushing it leading to all kinds of stress-related maladies. It kind of reminds me of what the press must have been like when the Black Death came out, lots of doomsday talk and very little you could do about it.
And there is nothing that Americans can do about it because climate change is a natural phenomenon that has happened in the past. And even if this current climate change was totally caused by humans you have to get every country on board to make a change and that is not going to happen as is explained in this talk.
The question is, who benefits from pushing CC hysteria?
To get another very funny take on this subject. Stick with this…it builds slowly, but by the time he gets to Greta Thunberg…
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I was born in the US, if it matters. (Not really:)) The friends of the Family, The Heritage Foundation, VP Pence’s efforts, Bush jr.'s efforts to blur church and state are that to which I refer. The HF helped block gun legislation, but I was speaking of a broad trend from the start of the country.
According to Pew Research, there has been a dramatic decline in religious affiliation in the USA. In 1990 90% identified as Christian now it is only 63%. You can read about it in the following article.
Here is one about members of Congress.
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I’m going to allow this post, but just wanted to chime in that there is no serious disagreement about (1) an overall global warming trend due to (2) human-generated emissions. You’re certainly welcome to debate the effectiveness of potential solutions, but arguing about points 1 and 2 plunges into the realm of denialism and pseudoscience. Expect your friendly moderator to act accordingly.
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Both things can be true. There can be a decline in religious affiliation while at the same time those who are religiously affiliated are becoming more and more determined to see their beliefs given the force of law.
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The way he made his point suggested that religion was on the increase in the USA when it is not.