Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Guns and Non-Conformity

Guns and Non-Conformity

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters....
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern
what is the will of God-what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:1-2

Brothers and sisters, we have a problem. Each year in the United States, over 30,000 people die of gun violence. The United States has the highest rate of gun homicides, the highest number of guns per capita and the highest rate of deaths in high income countries. Americans murder themselves with guns at a rate 20x higher than people of other high income countries. Of those 30,000 deaths, 2/3 are suicides. In Minnesota, each year about 350 people die of gun violence, with 2/3 dying by suicide. David Hemenway of Harvard University, says that an American child is 13x more likely to be killed by a gun than in Japan, Italy or other industrialized countries. 

Abused women are 5x more likely to be killed by their abusers if there is a gun in the house. A gun in the home increases the chance of being killed by firearms by 72% or 3 times more. A gun is 22x more likely to be used in a homicide, suicide or accident than to be used in self defense. A gun in the home triples the suicide risk. Brothers and sisters, the United States, Minnesota have a problem.

Thankfully, by the grace of God, we are not powerless to address these problems. God has called us, God has transformed us, God has renewed our minds so that we may understand good, acceptable and perfect actions to work towards gun violence prevention. We are transformed in three ways: personally, theologically and politically.

PERSONALLY, my life was transformed from a gun loving kid in the 1950s to an active pacifist by the end of the 1960s. I loved guns.  I played cowboys and Indians, I was a cavalry officer, I had toy machine guns, burp guns, rubber guns. I shot birds with a Daisy Defender BB gun, and learned how to shoot a 410 shotgun and semi-automatic .22. Guns meant strength, power and authority. But then I shot my first sparrow and went home and cried. My step-father came home from a hunting trip with a deer tied to his car and announced that his hunting days were over.  He couldn't kill another beautiful animal. He sold his brand new 30-30 Winchester rifle. And then came the 60s. Civil Rights and the Vietnam War, coupled with the assassinations of JFK, Medgar Evers, MLK, Jr. and RFK tore open my soul and transformed my gun attitude.

My guess is that each of us has a gun story. Some of us hunt. Some of us sport shoot.  Some of us have a gun in our homes for protection. Some of us do not own a gun. As with Paul, I believe each of us is called and transformed to act responsibly out of honoring the safety of our families, friends, neighbors and strangers. We are called and transformed by the grace of God to be nonconformists for gun safety, for gun violence prevention. Guns can enhance life, but we must also be honest about its dangers. It is helpful for us to share our gun stories, because in the sharing we gain perspective about our true attitudes. Our stories are signs of our common humanity which bind us together and help us understand how guns factor into our relationships. Sharing our gun stories is like confession, and when there is confession there is repentance and forgiveness. There is change. There is gtransformation. We can ask ourselves: does my gun story lead me to work towards gun violence prevention? How does my story lead me to a transformed action? If not, why not?

THEOLOGICALLY, my early acceptance of the fun of guns was fueled by my learning that God loved me and forgave me.  Therefore, I was free to do what I wanted with guns. God made me feel good about myself and guns were only for play anyway. At least at first.

Amidst the chaos of the 60s, I began to read Bonhoeffer. From LIFE TOGETHER I learned that God created us to live within loving community, with disciplines of prayer, singing, study and fun. Guns were not part of the equation! Like with God was nonviolent.

From THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP I learned that "When God calls a person, God calls them to come and die." We are not called to kill each other, but to serve. Like is not about me but about WE. Then came the zinger: "We Lutherans have gathered like eagles around the carcass of cheap grace, and thereby we have drunk of the poison which has killed the life of following Christ." Cheap grace was living within ourselves, knowing we are loved and thereby free to do anything that makes us feel good about ourselves. Costly grace is living as if the ethic of love is implied within God's grace. God's grace is knowing we are loved so we can love, we can serve, we can live for others. 

From Bonhoeffer's ETHICS I learned that "We cannot experience the reality of God without the reality of the world, nor the reality of the world without the reality of God." As God engaged the world in Christ, so we are called and free to engage the world's realities by the reality of Christ. We cannot escape from the world.  To be faithful is to live in the world, to transform it that the world may reflect the Reign of God. 

I was theologically transformed from a grace-filled Sunday School faith to a faith which expanded God's grace to include responsibility for the world. As Bonhoeffer said: "We must take our share of responsibility for the shaping of the future." We must ask ourselves: Does my theology empower me to address gun violence prevention? Does my theology drive me "beyond the walls" of the congregation to address gun violence within the home and community? Is my faith broadened and transformed from a Sunday School faith to a community faith?

POLITICALLY, I was transformed from the world of ME to that of WE. My world was expanded to figure ways to unite people to work for peace, and now for gun violence prevention. Really, this is what Church is about. It is about the communion of saints, the priesthood of all believers and the Body of Christ. Ayn Rand would probably not feel very comfortable in a church. Individualism is transformed within the community of faith. We find ourselves among the fellowship. As clergy we are called to minister with the People of God, which means we must know and listen and struggle to seek together to do what is pleasing to God. This is Christian politics: the skill of uniting people to take action to accomplish the will of God. 

What can we do politically? 1) Sponsor a home gun safety course; 2) Support the Latz-Schoen criminal background check bill in the Minnesota Legislature; 3) Support the Latz Bill that legalizes a time out to prevent a person or family member from purchasing a weapon during a time of stress;
4) Attend the Protect Minnesota Lobby Day on 14 April and lobby your senators and representatives to support these bills; 5) Sponsor an ENGAGE event in your congregation to promote conversation on gun violence prevention; 6) Work within your church body to urge congregations to take specific actions. We must ask ourselves: How committed am I to take the time to be God's instrument to transform the People of God to take action to accomplish the will of God in our congregations and in the outside political world?

The ELCA has skin in this GVP game. Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine shooters, was a baptized and confirmed ELCA youth.  Similarly, Dylan Root, the Charleston-Mother Imanuel AME Church shooter was an ELCA kid. The ELCA is not immune from responsibility to ponder what we as a church body, a congregation can do to lessen GVP and keep our kids from murder.

From MLK, Jr I learned: "We must put an end to violence or violence will put an end to us." From RFK I learned a quote from the poet Aeschylus: "Let us tame the savageness of man, and make gentle life in the world." From Bonhoeffer I learned: "Peace must be dared." And from Jesus I learned: "Enough!", "No more of this!" "Blessed are the peacemakers!"

God has come in Christ to transform us, to renew us, to not conform ourselves to the world, but instead to conform to Jesus and work for gun violence prevention. It is time!

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