Last week’s school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas brings the count to 22. That’s right. Five months into 2018 and there have already been 22 school shootings (slightly more than 1 mass shooting per week) in America.
Widen the circle beyond our schools and there have been 101 mass shootings in this country so far this year, leaving 202 dead and 473 injured (see MassShootingTracker). And these figures do not include the many additional causes of gun injuries and deaths such as suicide, police shootings and accidents. According to the research organization Gun Violence Archive, there have been 22,257 gun related incidents in 2018, including 5,511 deaths and 10,071 injuries. Those numbers include 1,000 teenagers, 238 preteen children and 646 accidental shootings.
Yet, many public officials continue to insist that guns have nothing to do with this problem. In fact, as they feed themselves at the NRA corruption-trough of gun manufacturer campaign contributions, discounts, pay-offs and lobbying efforts, these folks want us to believe that the solution to mass shootings and other gun deaths is to sell MORE guns to more people.
But this is not surprising. It is exactly what I expect lobbyists for the arms industry to say. (See me earlier post on guns, shootings and the NRA here).
American politicians and makers of public policy love guns, and all the cash that comes with it, more than they care about Americans. It is a pop culture form of idolatry.
In the March 14, 2018 edition of the Christian Century, Peter W. Marty penned an article entitled “Guns are Americans’ Golden Calf.” Below is an
excerpt:
“We’re in golden calf country here, elevating a loyalty to the gun over a fidelity to God’s desire for abundant life. More than a hunting or safety device, the gun has become an object of reverence. We bow in devotion at its altar. ‘Sacred stuff resides in that wooden stock and blued steel,’ onetime NRA president Charlton Heston said. And when a gun becomes an idol, it demands loyalty even if it regularly disappoints. Like other small g gods that offer false consolation, a gun’s guarantee of ultimate safety and security is a myth.”
Unfortunately, people calling themselves Christians are no more immune to idolatry than anyone else. If anything, church-goers have even more ways to express this human penchant for worshiping false gods than do atheists and other non-religious folk. Believers have to navigate the many run-of-the-mill secular temptations to idolatry as well as the many corrupting excesses of religious practice and aberrations of faith.
When those two streams of temptation flow together and succeed in sweeping the church away in its turbulent currents (always with a heavy undertow), well, the resulting idolatry is especially repugnant.
Idolatrous, Fake Christianity, Exhibit A – Recently a friend of mine showed me the notes of a church council meeting approving its newly minted plan for well-armed, congregational security guards at its corporate gatherings. Church members were selected for the necessary training in order to become body guards for the Body of Christ. Can there be such a thing as a body guard of Christ? I don’t think so.
In how many different ways can you say apostasy?
Asking for church elders and deacons to arrive packing heat whenever the congregation gathers for corporate worship is one of the grossest expressions of anti-faith I can imagine.
Unless you are part of a church with an extremely high public profile for its incredibly effective, vocal, activist agitation uprooting America’s military-industrial-intelligence-surveillance-corporate media-war mongering empire, then arming your church members reflects an astonishing level of paranoia.
We are all more likely to be struck by lightning than we are to be shot in
church by an anti-religious misanthrope – unless you are shot accidentally by one of the armed elders during an over wrought hymn-sing.
I know that the church’s leadership team will undoubtedly defend itself by
pleading marriage and parenthood. That is, as leaders of their households, these men must remain vigilant in protecting their families against surprise attack in an increasingly violent America.
There is so much wrong with this picture that it would take a small book to address the overflow of theological, Biblical, pastoral and practical disasters revealed by any plan to arm the local church. I will touch on 3 issues but focus on only the last one.
First, the ancient, Christian justification for using violence in self-defense finds its roots in the Just War Tradition that arose after Christianity’s embrace by the Roman Empire. I discuss the many Biblical mistakes
committed by that tradition in chapter 9 (“Does Kingdom Service Permit Military Service?”) of my new book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America. Please take a look. You will find it as helpful as it is interesting.
I also encourage anyone interested in this topic to read John Howard Yoder’s classic little book, What Would You Do? If a Violent Person Threatened to Harm a Loved One…. A violent reaction to violent threats is the default position for fallen human nature. Yoder will help you to think more clearly, more practically and more Christ-like about non-violent ways (and thus more Christ-like ways) of responding.
Second, one of my seminary professors, who was also the pastor of a large city church, would regularly complain about Christianity’s “idolatry of the nuclear family.” Aided and abetted by popular ministries such as James Dobson’s “Focus on the Family” and similar programs, many people in the church have replaced obedience to Jesus with obligations to one’s family.
We excel at finding seemingly unimpeachable, family-friendly ways of abandoning Jesus. So we can conveniently ignore our Lord’s words when he says things like this:
“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37-38)
“If any man come to me, and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever does not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26-27)
Regardless of the details, Jesus’ central point is clear: disciples must have greater devotion to Jesus than to the dearest members of their families, including spouses and children.
The third and final point is intimately connected to the last one above. Faithfulness to Jesus requires every disciple to follow in his footsteps, including his submissive acceptance of suffering and death, for him/herself as well as others, including parents, spouses and children.
“Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:37)
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)
Hear it again. Whoever wants to save his/her life will lose it, but whoever loses his/her life for me and for the gospel will save it. Affluent Christianity’s obsession with self-preservation and the avoidance of suffering arises from a false gospel. A ‘gospel’ that can never save anyone.
Carrying a gun into the body of Christ, for whatever reason, is a grotesque act of unbelief and idolatry. In fact, carrying a gun anywhere and thinking that you are ready, willing and able to use it against another human being, is the quintessential act of an anti-disciple.
Fortunately, Jesus still loves and can save even anti-disciples, just as he can
save all of us faithless believers. But relying on firearms to protect members of the body of Christ remains a consummate act of faithless unbelief, all the same.
Jesus models faithful kingdom living when he goes to the cross without attempting to defend himself. He explicitly tells every would-be follower that we all must be as non-violent and ready to die as he was.
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)
Not only did Jesus not try to defend himself, neither did he defend his disciples, knowing full well that they too might be subject to arrest and execution as his co-conspirators. In fact, Jesus quickly put a stop to Peter’s misguided efforts at defending both the Lord and himself, insisting that he wanted nothing to do with violence for any reason at all (reflect on Matthew 26:51-56).
Jesus praises his followers when/if they are ever killed or injured as a result of belonging to him. He promises that they will be blessed many times over in eternity. What sort of Christian is hell-bent-for-leather on making sure that Jesus’ promises can never be fulfilled, not for them, not for others, and especially not for a spouse or child?
The Answer: a fake Christian. An idolatrous Christian. An anti-disciple who has bowed the knee to America’s Golden Calf of guns.
