Dear Friends,
Once again, our community has been impacted by gun violence. On Wednesday, three people were shot and killed and one person wounded on the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) campus by an older adult man.
Prayers
We send our deepest sympathies to the families of the victims and the students, families, staff, and the entire UNLV community. We hold those who are recovering both from physical and emotional injury. We also hold the entire Las Vegas community in our prayers as they have experienced yet another senseless act of violence. And as we condemn this horrible act, we also hold in prayer the family of the perpetrator.
In the midst of the tragedy, we give thanks for the powerful ministry and witness of University United Methodist Church in sheltering students during the attack. Rev. Stephen Govett, pastor at University UMC, shares that they continue to offer comfort and care to those who need it. He reports that during the incident and into the next day, they provided pastoral care to almost 400 people from the community. Let us be in prayer for Pastor Stephen and the whole congregation as they hold out the light of Christ during this dark time in their community.
Beyond Prayers
We United Methodists are called to put our faith into action and be the embodiment of the answers to the prayers that we lift up to God. If we pray for the end to senseless acts of gun violence, how can we be the very answer to those prayers? If we pray for peace, how is God calling us to embody this in tangible terms through our actions?
In our UMC Book of Resolutions, we, as United Methodists, are called upon to prayerfully address gun violence in our local context. Some of the ways in which to prevent gun violence include the following:
1. For United Methodist congregations to:
a. Make preventing gun violence a regular part of our conversations and prayer times. Gun violence must be worshipfully and theologically reflected on. We encourage United Methodist churches to frame conversations theologically by utilizing resources such as “Kingdom Dreams, Violent Realities: Reflections on Gun Violence from Micah 4:1-4” produced by the General Board of Church and Society.
b. Assist those affected by gun violence through prayer, pastoral care, creating space, and encouraging survivors to share their stories, financial assistance, and identifying other resources in their communities as victims of gun violence and their families walk through the process of grieving and healing.
c. Lead or join in ecumenical or interfaith gatherings for public prayer at sites where gun violence has occurred and partner with law enforcement to help prevent gun violence. Congregations that have not experienced gun violence are called upon to form ecumenical and interfaith partnerships with faith communities that have experienced gun violence in order to support them and learn from their experiences.
d. Partner with local law-enforcement agencies and community groups to identify gun retailers that engage in retail practices designed to circumvent laws on gun sales and ownership, encourage full legal compliance, and work with groups like Heeding God’s Call that organize faith-based campaigns to encourage gun retailers to gain full legal compliance with appropriate standards and laws.
e. Display signs that prohibit carrying guns onto church property.
f. Advocate at the local and national level for laws that prevent or reduce gun violence. Some of those measures include:
- Universal background checks on all gun purchases
- Ratification of the Arms Trade Treaty
- Ensuring all guns are sold through licensed gun retailers
- Prohibiting all individuals convicted of violent crimes from purchasing a gun for a fixed time period
- Prohibiting all individuals under restraining order due to threat of violence from purchasing a gun
- Prohibiting persons with serious mental illness, who pose a danger to themselves and their communities, from purchasing a gun
- Ensuring greater access to services for those suffering from mental illness
- Establishing a minimum age of 21 years for a gun purchase or possession
- Banning large-capacity ammunition magazines and weapons designed to fire multiple rounds each time the trigger is pulled
- Promoting new technologies to aid law-enforcement agencies in tracing crime guns and promote public safety.
2. For individual United Methodists who own guns as hunters or collectors to safely and securely store their guns and to teach the importance of practicing gun safety.
Advocacy and Witness
There are many resources available so that we can be the answer to our prayers. Our Gun Violence Awareness Task Force [dscumc.org] is available to provide resources and support to your congregations. Gerry Hills, Chair of the Desert Southwest Board of Church & Society and the Gun Violence Awareness Task Force, says, “Gun violence is a national epidemic, and shootings are on the rise. It can happen anywhere. The trauma ripples out and impacts everyone in the community. We are called to not only send prayers and support but to take action to stop the violence.”
Billie Fidlin, Director of Justice and Outreach, emphasizes, “Laws need to change, people need to vote, know what your local legislation says about gun use. Bottom line – the vote is more important now than ever when we are averaging two gun violence incidences a day.”
As you discern what to do next, please visit the Desert Southwest Conference Gun Violence Awareness Task Force page at https://dscumc.org/committee/gun-violence-awareness or connect with chair Gerry Hills. In addition to the resources available on that page, the team is committed to journeying with your church by providing an awareness talk, teaching your congregation how to write to your local civic leaders, and sharing resources to help you give support to those affected by gun violence.
A Personal Note
As the parent of a college student who attended UNLV for a semester, this terrible incident hits my core on a very personal level. My heart goes out to the parents of children in different levels of schooling whose anxiety has been heightened even more for the safety of our children while on campus. I call upon us to reach out and check in with parents within our congregations and communities of influence to offer them comfort and care during this time. I also call upon us to reach out to our children and youth, look them in the eyes, and assure them that we will work to make this world a safer one for them.
Friends, this is another reason to take our mission seriously. Our mission as United Methodists is to invite people into journeys of Christian discipleship so that the world might be transformed in Jesus’ ways of love, grace, justice, and peace. Encompassed in our mission as United Methodist disciples is our responsibility to change society for the better, including preventing gun violence and other forms of violence. As a parent and bishop of the church, I recommit myself to our common mission.
A Word of Hope
It is not lost on me that this terrible yet preventable tragedy has happened during the season of hopeful anticipation that is Advent. And so, as we cry out in the words of the psalmist in the 13th Psalm, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget us forever? How long will you hide your face from us?” I offer a word of hope.
May the God of our Advent waiting be with us, offering “a great light “as we find ourselves as “people living in great darkness”.
May that light give us a “thrill of hope” so that this “weary world rejoices” at the promise of “a new a glorious morn” where our children might live their lives freely in spaces that are safe from guns and other forms of senseless violence.
May “there be peace on earth, and may it begin with me,” with us.
May it be so.
Bishop Carlo A. Rapanut serves as resident bishop of the Desert Southwest Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. His Phoenix episcopal area includes Las Vegas.