Gun violence
Photo by Chip Vincent on Unsplash
Gun violence has rung out in two communities across the Mountain Sky annual conference today.
In Evergreen, Colorado, a shooter has critically injured 3 students at the local high school, and in Orem, Utah, a young man aligned with the current administration was shot and killed on the Utah Valley University campus in a politicized rally.
These senseless actions, piercing peace and taking life, shatter the sense of collective trust that is necessary to live well in our world today.
I give thanks for the ministry of Evergreen UMC today in their immediate response of coordination and care, bearing witness to a God who is with us, calling us into community, even in the midst of pain and chaos.
These two shootings are extremely different incidents except for one factor: the violent use of a gun somewhere in the United States where persons have assembled.
Among developed nations, the US is an outlier with extremely high incidence of homicide and gun violence. Violence has become the air we breathe and the water we are swimming in. As a collective, we have become too accustomed to it, until it hits personally.
But the truth is that all of this is personal. As a human community, violence that affects one of us affects all of us.
Some will say that the incendiary rhetoric and hate-filled actions of Charlie Kirk, killed in Utah, justified the violence against him. It is true that has words against women, LGBTQ persons, immigrants and other marginalized groups have done immeasurable harm. This man has done violence.
And yet, we will not shift this culture of violence with more violence.
Just before the violence of this world overtook him, Jesus said, “Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” This violence is not our way.
To be clear, the violence we experience is not only gun violence, but the violence of poverty, of degradation, of greed, and of dominance. Every step we take to bring about the mutual flourishing of all people matters. Every action to remove the life-killing elements around us can save a life.
Specifically, we need sensible gun laws and the courage and persistence to insist on them.
I invite you to join me in holding in prayer the communities of Evergreen, Colorado and Orem, Utah, and the families and dear ones of those in the line of fire, as well as all of those responding.
And I invite you to ask the Holy One to order our steps, every one of them, toward a country and world where schools are truly safe spaces of learning and communities, where churches hold an evening service for daily vespers not in response to the pain of violence and loss, and where we hold one another with the dignity and care with which God holds each of us.
In hope and faith,
Bishop Kristin Stoneking