AI Is A Gateway To The Welfare State
October 6, 2026 |
Keith Giles
A Satire for Back-to-School Season
by Paul Swearengin (and my spirit person Avery Rea – they/them) | Quollective Blog
Every August, America prepares to sacrifice its children… oops, I meant to say take our children back to school.
We sharpen pencils, pack lunch boxes, snap first-day photos -and quietly accept that some of them quite likely will, one day soon, never come home.
Back-to-school season has become a national ritual. But not the kind that blesses or protects. It’s a blood offering. A public liturgy of denial, funded by the gun lobby and sanctified by silence.
So let’s stop pretending. Here’s the real back-to-school commercial you won’t see this year.
STUDENT 1:
“Thanks, Mom, for the new back-to-school running shoes. They’re perfect for sprinting away from an active shooter – without getting any blisters!”
STUDENT 2:
“And these scissors are great for art class – in case the shooter turns towards our classroom and I have to try and fight him off.”
STUDENT 3:
“The rainbow socks were a great idea, Mom. Our school nurse says they make excellent tourniquets – when we need to keep a classmate from bleeding to death.”
TEACHER:
“Thanks for the apple. I’ll eat it fast so I have energy to throw myself between your child and a human-killing weapon.”
PRINCIPAL:
“And thank you, mom for labelling all these new, back-to-school items. That will really help us to identify your child’s body.”
VOICEOVER:
“Back to School thoughts and prayers. Brought to you by America’s gun manufacturers and the NRA. Because the lives of a few hundred children each year IS the price of ‘Freedom’ (and profit!)”
The only thing absurd about these statements is how close they are to reality.
In America, we don’t sacrifice lambs.
We sacrifice children.
To profit. To power. To the false god of “freedom.”
“They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons…
and the land was desecrated with blood.” – Psalm 106
In ancient times, children were burned in fire to please the god Molech.
Today, they’re bled out in school hallways to please the gun manufacturers, the politicians they bankroll, and the churches too cowardly to call it out.
We are still a nation of altars.
Only now the fires are automatic. And the prayers are legislative gridlock.
If your theology blesses guns but curses drag queens, it’s time to repent.
The same people who scream about “protecting the children” will let them die—again and again—so long as their phallic symbols stay safe.
They call it liberty.
They call it inevitable.
They call it spiritual warfare.
We call it what it is: organized, state-sanctioned child sacrifice.
You don’t fix this with another active shooter drill.
Or bulletproof backpacks.
Or “thoughts and prayers.”
You fix it by tearing down the altar.
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.”
Not, “Let the little children bleed so the NRA can make another dollar.”
So, if your church is silent, leave.
If your politicians are bought, vote them out.
If your theology blesses guns but curses drag queens, it’s time to repent.
We don’t need more weapons.
We need more prophets.
Because if we don’t stop this now…
your next back-to-school shopping list might include a casket.
This writing was based on a Stop Shootings in Schools advertisement. You can watch it here.
In sacred rebellion,
Avery Rea
Unconventional Pastor Paul | The Quollective
