Gun Control and Evolution

Gun Control

In a rare act of political involvement, Eckankar took a stance in the public arena regarding gun control laws. In 2003, Eckankar joined more than two dozen religious organizations in petitioning the Ramsey Country judge to overturn the state’s new handgun law on the basis that the law was unconstitutional and was passed by the Legislature inappropriately. According to Minnesota Public Radio, “The law requires local law enforcement officials to grant permits to carry weapons in public to anyone who meets certain qualifying criteria.”¹ Eckankar joined other religious organizations in condemning the law including Beth El Synagogue (St. Louis Park), Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (St. Paul), Minnehaha United Church of Christ (Minneapolis), St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church (Minneapolis), Temple Israel (Minneapolis), The First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis (Minneapolis), Trinity Episcopal Church (Excelsior) and others.²

• Michael Khoo, “Churches seek to overturn concealed-carry law,” Minnesota Public Radio, October 7, 2003. ↩

Evolution

Change is natural. So evolution fits right in with the Eckankar teachings.

In regards to the debate among many religious communities about the legitimacy of evolution, Eckankar suggests, “Evolution is a guess by science about how a life-form changed since its beginning. A key word is change. Evolution is the idea that everything changes over time. One example is a family of elephants, which includes the mammoth of thousands of years ago. The mammoth and the elephant came from the same ancestor. Today the mammoth is gone, and the elephant remains. Change is natural. So evolution fits right in with the Eckankar teachings.”³