In July 2012 Ellen P. Dollar wrote the piece below advocating tougher US gun controls following the slaughter of innocents in a Colorado movie theatre during that summer. The same piece could’ve been written this weekend in response to the massacre of 20 innocent children in a Connecticut elementary school. US Evangelical Christians’ views on guns are a paradox:
· White US evangelical Christians are more likely to have a gun in their home than white Americans in general (58% versus 51%) [US Public Religion Research Institute, 2011]
· People living in the “Evangelical Epicenters” of the US (e.g. Dallas, TX, Atlanta, GA) gave a higher priority to protecting the right of Americans to own guns (66%) over the control gun ownership (29%) compared to the US population as a whole (which is evenly split (46% vs. 46%). [Pew Research/Patchwork Nation]
· A clear majority of US evangelicals—60%— oppose tighter gun controls (versus a slim majority—51%—of all Americans). [US Public Religion Research Institute, 2011]
These figures are disturbing given Jesus’ unambiguous instructions about non-retaliation (“turn the other cheek”) and the use of weapons (“all who live by the sword will die by the sword”). Do US believers really trust God as their “fortress, tower, shelter & shield”? Or do they trust in their handguns and semi-automatics?
An added concern raised by Ellen P. Dollar’s article is that the leading US evangelical publication Christianity Today wasn’t willing to take a stand by publishing this piece. One would hope that Christian publications, like Christianity Today, would work to change Christian opinions, rather than merely accommodating Christian views which mirror those of society, rather than Christ’s teachings—Nigel Tomes
US Gun Control Should Be a No-Brainer. Why Isn’t It?
By Ellen Painter Dollar, July 22, 2012 [Edited]
Again, I awake to news of an inexplicable mass shooting, innocent people gunned down in the most mundane of places, this time a Colorado movie theater. Again, the anti-gun control folk use the same worn arguments; they insist that a legally armed citizen might have stopped alleged Colorado gunman, James Holmes, before he killed a dozen people. Again, I wonder if this time the ready availability of firearms in the US will become a topic of thoughtful discussion rather than a mere blip in the news cycle. And again, I wonder why US Christians aren’t bringing the same dedication to talking about guns as we do to other issues, notably abortion and homosexuality.
When it comes to gun violence, US Christians too often either say nothing, or parrot the political position of the pro-gun NRA & Co. who insist that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens are more likely to prevent senseless violence than enable it….
The gun-wielding-citizen-as-protector ideal is nonsense. Police officers go through hours of specialized training to discern when deadly force is justified. …even so, at times the best-trained police officers don’t always get it right. Yet we’re asked to believe an armed citizen with a few hours of shooting-range practice can make split-second judgments so only bad people end up dead. Look no farther than the Trayvon Martin/ George Zimmerman case in Florida (Feb. 2012) to see this belief is sadly misplaced.
Perhaps some well-meaning gun-toting citizen could’ve stopped James Holmes before he murdered 12 people in the Colorado movie theater. Or perhaps that gun-toting citizen would’ve been seen as a threat and gunned down by the police (or another gun-toting citizen). Perhaps that citizen, shooting in a dark theater of panicked people would’ve missed the target and upped the death toll to 13+. Perhaps he would’ve accidentally killed a teenager innocently holding a box of Skittles.
Jesus Spoke Clearly about Weapons
Christians ultimately look for guidance to Jesus and Scripture. On issues of sexuality and babies, Jesus and the Bible can be a bit murky. Yet Christians consistently speak on these issues with certainty and passion. In contrast, Jesus was not murky, but crystal clear on whether to respond to violence with violence; Jesus addressed whether we should arm ourselves with swords or guns to protect ourselves from swords & guns. Nonviolence—turning the other cheek, keeping your sword in its scabbard even under threat, loving your enemy—is a centerpiece of Jesus’ message.
Yet US Christians (at least, conservative US Christians) have largely been silent on guns as the front-page stories have piled up—lone gunmen expressing their rage, alienation, and mental illness by mowing down human beings in seconds, because they could easily obtain weapons that make fast and furious violence possible.
Christianity Today Rejects Gun Control Piece
For 18 months, I regularly contributed to a women’s Blog hosted by Christianity Today, the premier magazine for US evangelical Christians. In Jan. 2011, I wrote about guns in response to Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting in Tucson, AZ. It was rejected; some higher- level Christianity Today editors felt they “cannot win” on the gun-control issue with their evangelical readership.
I guess the Christianity Today editors really meant, “We might lose subscribers if we post an article suggesting that it’s time to reconsider a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines designed to mow down as many human beings as possible in the shortest possible time.” [My tenure as a Christianity Today blogger, ended 8 months later, when CT editors decided my views weren’t sufficiently pro-life— the term “pro-life” applied to a particular view on abortion, but not (apparently) to broader pro-life concerns like gun control.]
Christianity Today’s position on gun control shouldn’t be determined by whether it’ll retain its readership; it’s about following Jesus, the One who left no question about how his people should respond to violence. He said we should set aside our weapons, even when our instinct is to use those weapons. Jesus said to him, “all who draw the sword will die by the sword” (Matt. 26:52). And (by extension) those who live by the gun—who look to guns for protection from guns—will die by the gun. We’ve seen this time after time recently in the US. When will US Christians wake up & take a stand?
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