Q. Why do people let teenagers have access to guns and kill so many people?

I wonder…

As we live in the aftermath of yet another mass shooting at an American school, I ask for a point of personal privilege this month as we diverge from the questions from Doubting Thomas Sunday 2017. 

Q.     Why do people let teenagers have access to guns and kill so many people?

There is a section in our Confirmation worship notes that asks for questions.  I received the one above shortly after the Parkland shooting.  It is a variation on a question that comes up after every such shooting, “Why does this happen and how do we prevent it?”  I have listened to the responses of folks on both sides of this issue throughout the news media.  I was also listening closely to the conversation at our Synod Assembly as we debated passage of a resolution related to gun violence in our nation.  While answering this problem deserves a much fuller discussion than can be had here, I do have some initial responses to our conversation around this and other challenging issues.

First, it is the place of the church, both the assembly of believers and the institution, to speak into our lives together in the civic realm.  Because our lives as Christians should shape our civic actions, because while it has a role to play, we know the left-hand reign of government cannot save people.  However, care should be taken in how we talk to and with those members of society and our own brothers and sisters in Christ about this and other challenging issues.

As a nation we do a poor job of modeling a way of talking with and listening to each other on this and other challenging topics that seeks understanding.  This understanding each other is what leads to the possibility of action.  Instead, we shout our talking points at each other, secure in the knowledge that we know what is best and that everyone else is just wrong.  Consequently, nothing gets done, because the assumption is the other side has nothing to offer.  Our conversation in the Synod Assembly was better; respectful, careful about not characterizing each other, but I continued to hear a lack of understanding for each other.  We were still, in many ways talking past each other.

Jesus calls us to be one as he and God the Father are one (John 17:11).  To love one another.  We do not have to agree with one another, but we are to love one another.  That doesn’t seem like a bad place to start when the root of the problem is hate, fear, despair, violence.  We also are daring enough as Christians to declare that love is stronger than hate.  That love, ultimately, wins.

So, can we dare enough to listen to what our neighbors are saying?  To listen not just to their words, but to their fears and hopes?  Can we listen closely enough to try and find common ground?

Can we agree that this ought not be so?  That children should not die violent deaths, certainly not in our schools?  Can we agree that the full solution to this problem will be on many fronts and take many years, but that we need to act now to make these episodes less frequent and less lethal?

For the sake of our children, if not ourselves, can we do these things?  Can we be vulnerable enough to leave behind our talking points and keep an 8th commandment attitude that considers that the person next to me may hold an opinion I disagree with for the right reasons?  That they may, indeed, have something to offer into this situation.  Can we agree to disagree on some things, but still work together to protect our children?  Can we do these things without demonizing each other?

I believe we can.  The promise to us is that together, with God, all things are possible.  So let’s get to work.

Let me know if you have further questions by contacting me.

God’s Blessings,

Pastor Brian