God And Guns

I don't want to talk about it either.   

But in spite of the controversy, there's a need to address the relationship between weaponry and our faith; specifically, weaponry in the form of guns, that are readily available not just to law enforcement and the military -- but to us.

Now traditionally there wasn't a problem.  When the availability of guns translated into a hunting rifle on the gun rack -- or a B-B gun in the closet -- things were tame and controllable.   But now a whole arsenal is at our disposal -- legally.

And many of us are accessing 'the arsenal,' primarily for self-protection.

But's it's ironic since a report on guns released just last week revealed a decline in violent crimes in recent years (in spite of the headlines) -- but an increase in gun acquisition, with: "...an estimated 70 million firearms...added to American arsenals [during] the past two decades..." resulting in 265 million guns, half of which, 133 million, are "....in the hands of just 3% of American adults, the so-called 'super owners' who possessed an average of 17 guns each..." http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/22/study-guns-owners-violence/90858752/

Overall, this translates into a climate of fear -- resulting -- in the potential of violence (including gun violence) -- as we utilize violence -- increasingly -- to protect ourselves.

But God wants us to protect ourselves more creatively; not through violence, but non-violence.

But not a non-violence synonymous with being a doormat for a violent intruder or a 'Hitler-like' world leader -- but a non-violence that's wildly successful in stopping evil -- in a brilliant, savvy, fashion.

54 years ago, in October 1962, America was on the brink of war.   Commonly called the Cuban Missile Crisis, it was ‘the real deal’ with nuclear missiles literally pointed at the U.S.  Generals like Curtis LeMay and Maxwell Taylor demanded to use conventional weapons:  invade Cuba and “bomb the smithereens out of them”!  But cooler heads prevailed, and a better weapon was  utilized:  a quarantine or blockade of Cuba, as the U.S. literally surrounded Cuba with ships – containing and subduing the threat – the evil – the enemy.

Where do you need to surround and subdue your enemy, in a more creative fashion? There are any number of savvy/strategic options: non-violent 'capture' (e.g. the U.S. capture of Panama dictator Manuel Noriega in January 1990) -- stun-gun/pepper-spray -- martial arts - negotiation/mediation --  Martin Luther King/Gandhi style, civil disobedience, etc. 

Please don't misunderstand:  I’m not saying there aren’t times when conventional weapons might be needed; just ask any law enforcement officer.  But I am saying, we tend to use them far too quickly and often.  

Christ-followers are called to slow the process down, advocating creative weapons, non-violent weapons, God's weapons.  For scripture is adamant: “Don’t mistreat someone who has mistreated you… [on the contrary] ‘If your enemies are hungry, give them something to eat.  And if they are thirsty, give them something to drink…Don’t let evil defeat you, but defeat evil with good.”    (Romans 12:17-21, Contemporary English Version).

Overall, Christ-followers need to advocate the lessening of guns, to lessen the temptation to protect ourselves through conventional weaponry.  Of course, law enforcement and other protective agencies need to have access to conventional weaponry.  But even among those called to protect us, there needs to be an increase in utilizing non-violent options.   For fundamentally, returning violence for violence escalates and increases violence, as is increasingly evident as more and more urban centers explode even after what appears to be an 'appropriate' utilization of gun violence by police.

And so please hear my heart:  though I do not know the precise way forward, I do believe there is an apparent way forward, centered in Jesus, who modeled non-violence, even when he was threatened, counseling Peter, after he sliced off a portion of the High Priest's servant's ear, to: “Put your sword back in its place...for all who draw the sword will die by the sword?”  (Matthew 26:52).

In 1995, Mennonite artist Esther Augsburger and her son Michael created a 16-foot sculpture entitled:  "Guns Into Plowshares."  Amazingly, it was created out of 3,000 actual guns, melted down, after being collected by the Washington, DC police, through a gun amnesty program.  For years "Guns Into Plowshares" stood powerfully in Judiciary Square, in the heart of D.C.  But then in 2008 Judiciary Square was remodeled and the sculpture was replaced by a fountain.  Ironically, "Guns Into Plowshares" was relocated behind a fence, in a maintenance yard, across the street from the D.C. sewage treatment plant - and then -- in the environs of a far-removed police evidence control facility -- emblematic - we are regressing, not progressing, in our resolve to curb the violence of guns. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/16/AR2011011604146.html  

Let's progress, not regress!  Of course, the topic of gun violence is controversial, with no precise way forward.  But there is an apparent way forward -- Jesus -- and Jesus will not be relegated to the shadows of a sewage plant or a remote city agency -- but 'insists' on being proclaimed, amid the openness of the public square.

Let's continue to look to Jesus, for there is no future, if we feel our only future, is found, in drawing the sword!