The husband and wife wandered through

Cabela’s on Sunday. He had seen an ad in

Sunday’s paper and even though they had

every outdoor thing imaginable with the big,

intentional, exception of guns, they thought

it offered a nice excuse for a Sunday ride and

the opportunity to stare at the hiking boots

and trail runners. He is the Amelda Marcos

of running shoes.  She found a great deal

on a base layer hoody for hiking and jogging.

On the way out, after the requisite tour of

the aquarium, he glanced at the area they otherwise

never gave a thought – hunting.  Did he bother

because of all the talk of gun control? He

wondered if they just sold hunting rifles

and small-caliber guns. What they saw

looked like a mob. The store was crowded

but the hunting section was jam-packed.

The ad in the paper didn’t mention great

deals on guns. Guns weren’t mentioned.

Winter clothes for the family were.

So, on this day, four years into Barack

Obama’s presidency, a week or so

before his second inaugural, about a

month after the Sandy Hook slaughter

and just another day when thirty-three

people will be mowed down by guns

in America times 365 days for 12,045

murders a year, the hunting section was

jammed.  Hunting animals is

down nation-wide.  Hunting humans

is up.  Were all these people lined

up to reverse the trend in declining

numbers of deer, bear, squirrel,

rabbit and bird hunting?  They

wondered as they wandered up

and down the aisles, excusing them-

selves as they squeezed among the

shoppers.  He looked over at the fishing

section and wondered why no one was

there except the clerks and salespeople?

As they made their way for the exit, they

realized on a Sunday afternoon where the

worship was happening – in the hunting

section of Cabela’s.  On a Sunday afternoon

they saw god in a glass case.  They saw

the golden calf in high-powered assault

rifles and $2000 handguns. They saw

the real, true, honest, disgusting,

abhorrent, shameful, sacrilegious,

heretical truth that America’s god

is a gun. Lord, have mercy! Christ,

have mercy! Lord, have mercy on

a Sunday afternoon in gun country.