Where were
all the protestors and demonstrators? You would have expected thousands of Pro-Life activists to make their
values known to the Supreme Court. The case the court was hearing on March 18 was the most significant
of its kind in 70 years. At issue was an important Pro-Life protection that has powerful Biblical warrant.
But where was the Religious Right? Where were the voices defending our children from violence?
On trial was a Washington D.C. law that bans ownership of handguns and requires other firearms like rifles
and shotguns to be disassembled or trigger-locked if kept in a home. For folks who take their values cues
from Jesus, this one is pretty easy. Jesus is not pro-guns.
When armed solders came to arrest Jesus and
one of his disciples defended him with a sword, Jesus stopped him. "No more of this!" commanded
Jesus in Luke's account. Then Jesus healed the ear that had been cut off of one of arresting party.
In Matthew's version he told them to put away the sword, "for all who take the sword will perish by the sword."
Jesus acknowledged that he had the option of violence, saying in Matthew that more than twelve legions of angels were
at his disposal. In John's gospel Jesus told Pontius Pilate that his kingdom is one in which
his followers refuse to fight. Jesus could have defended himself, but Jesus rejected the option of violence.
The early church took
these teachings literally, and for centuries any soldier who sought to come into the church through baptism had to leave his
military commission.
Jesus instructed his disciples, "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and
a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone
strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also." When he sent his disciples out, he did not send
them armed. When the book of the Revelation speaks of the sword, it is the sword of the word that comes
forth from the mouth of the Lamb, the pen that is truly mightier than the sword.
Jesus is an icon of non-violence.
His story is the story of one who breaks the vicious cycle of violence by refusing to respond in kind, disarming violence
by absorbing it with compassionate, suffering love. Who would Jesus kill?
Guns are for killing.
Handguns in particular have no other significant purpose other than to kill, especially people. Especially
the cheap, ubiquitous "Saturday Night Specials."
Some fantasize that they are safer with a gun in the home.
Not so, according to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. For every
time a gun is used in a legally justifiable shooting (and every self-defense is legally justifiable), there are 22 criminal,
unintentional or suicide-related shootings. The presence of a gun in the home triples the risk of homicide
in the home. The presence of a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide fivefold. Guns
kept in the home for self-protection are 22 times more likely to be used to kill somebody you know than to defend them.
I'm like most
pastors. I've helped families live through gun-related accidents with their children and loved ones
-- a boy who was blinded, another whose nose was shot off. I've tried to comfort too many people whose
loved ones have taken their own lives with firearms. The majority of people who die from firearm-related
deaths in the U.S. (57%) are people who use a gun
to take their own lives. How many might be alive today if a gun were not so readily available to them.
It is time for the Pro-Life lobby to extend their care beyond a fertilized egg and use their considerable political
energy on behalf of another kind of law to protect the lives of living, breathing people.
How about some Pro-Life political action
on behalf of stronger law enforcement tools to crack down on corrupt gun dealers and to curb illegal gun trafficking?
How about extending background checks to everyone who sells guns, not just those who are licensed? How
about limiting large-volume gun sales? Someone who buys a dozen handguns is not buying them for hunting.
Let's get conservative and respect the first phrase of the 2nd Amendment, "A well-regulated militia..."
When it comes to swords and guns, let Jesus' word be obeyed. "No more of this!"
