Guns, Violence, and Christian Faith

In June we were at the General Assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship when we received news of the shooting at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston. Yesterday I was at a denominational leadership meeting when we received word of the horrific on-air shooting in Virginia. Lunch was spent wondering what could be done in the wake of such violence. What should be our response?

What really bugs me though, is that this feels normal. There is something wrong with our world when these experiences begin to feel commonplace. We live in a society where public and large-scale murders and massacres are so common that we’re used to the conversations and the routine.

What’s more frustrating then that, however, is the fact that we live in such a violent society and there is no will to change. We all know the routine. Gun violence surges to the forefront. One side says we need more gun control. Another side says we need more guns in “good” hands. Still others blame mental health. Then, as always, nothing happens, and, unbelievably, we act as if the violence and hatred and death never happened at all.

It’s time for the church, for followers of Christ to declare, unequivocally, that this cannot continue. We must continue to bind together, holding these horrific, incomprehensible massacres up in front of our nation, our leaders, and ourselves to remind us of the horror of living in the most violent developed country in the world. We must pledge not to forget, and we must bind together to advocate for common-sense gun control reform.

Guns.Kill.People.

And our current ways of trying to keep our country’s weapons of mass destruction out of violent hands clearly is not working.

And we Christians need to be at the forefront, defending the innocent from senseless loss of life.