Gun-toting Jesus
Image courtesy of James C. Howell
Now, guns – always a hot political issue. When the NRA convention was in Charlotte in 2000, I had an op-ed in The Charlotte Observer that asked “Would Jesus Join the NRA?” I did not answer the question – but as you can imagine, I got hammered with intense criticism; threats were made on my family and on me. For Christians, I still contend, it’s a pretty important question. How do we think theologically about guns? What are God’s feelings about guns?
One of the loveliest Christian men I’ve ever known gave me a gun as a birthday gift, and took me hunting when I was a young pastor. He was humble, careful and respectful of guns and people, and wanted no part of adamant, shrill campaigns for guns. He favored rational changes in gun legislation, and never fretted for one moment any politician would take his hunting rifles away from him.
As Americans, we have yet to answer, and too often shy away from asking, why we have so many mass shootings, far more frequent than in the other countries we would think of as our peers in Western civilization. Can people of faith lead the way in figuring things out – and then changing things?
Theologically, we might be able to shed some light on our inability to cool down the rhetoric about guns, or to pass the reasonable legislative reforms a majority of Americans evidently favor. We can name that the issue is almost hopelessly complicated by how much money is involved in the manufacture and sales of weapons, both in numbers and in potency – and money tends to corrupt our ethical thinking.
Theologically, we can address the fear which clearly drives the gun issue. While we understand and certainly favor people and cities taking reasonable security measures, there is some essential freedom in our system of beliefs that can lessen fear. God and our Scriptures plead with us, invite us, and permit us not to be afraid.
Many of the fears we harbor tend to go apocalyptic, as if the world is on the verge of coming to an end, as if ultimate catastrophe is at the door – and such fears riddle those on both sides of the political and gun debate divide. As Christians, we believe God has our future well in hand, so we need not harbor apocalyptic and all-encompassing fears. In faith, we can all calm down.
A couple of questions: What would Jesus do if he were watching TV, and people started shooting at other people? Jesus would shudder, and then turn off the TV. Isn’t one crucial cause of so many horrifying shootings the fact that we see so much shooting over the years that shooting gets normalized – and so why are we then surprised when someone on the edge loses it and starts firing?
And: Would Jesus shoot someone? I would say No. Some Christians in America depict a muscular Jesus toting an automatic weapon. What could be further from the spirit of the real Jesus we read about in Scripture? No one has yet explained to me why Jesus would insist on the absolute right for Americans to buy and own many guns, and even automatic/assault weapons.
If I’m right, this doesn’t settle what public policy should be on guns. But I am sure that Jesus weeps when he witnesses one mass shooting after another in America, and we do nothing but chatter about “thoughts and prayers for the families of the victims.” As I blogged after one of the hundreds of such shootings, Jesus surely puts his hands over his ears, and whispers, Please, instead of just “thoughts and prayers,” for the love of God and my innocent children down there, do something.