gun violence
Against killing children
We have become a society of people who cannot prevent our own children from being killed in their classrooms—and who do not much mind the killing of other people’s children by weapons of war.
Who could change the story? (John 18:1-19:42)
No one is solely responsible. No one is innocent.
Snakes and scorpions for our children (Luke 11:1-13)
How could Jesus assume that all those who heard him preach would never treat their children in such a way?
Prayer isn’t a gumball machine
Toxic theology in the wake of mass violence
Why and how we beat guns into garden tools
RAWtools began with a blacksmith and a friend’s donated AK-47.
by Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin
Why are the “good guys with guns” so sure they're good?
"It's a sin problem," goes the slogan, "not a gun problem." Whatever definition of sin is operative here, it isn't Paul's.
A Texas church's real talk about guns
What do our baptismal vows have to do with safety?
Can we reclaim "thoughts and prayers"?
Instead of being an excuse for inaction, thoughts and prayers can turn us toward acts of love.
God's hands that stop gun violence
What if we did the work of God in the world?
Can the world be saved by poetry?
I was skeptical. Then I heard a poet read one of his poems.
Breaking the cycle of gun violence
In ministry here in Harrisburg, in the past five years our congregation has lost eight sons—all murdered in cold blood. Gun violence is a national nightmare, experienced locally and felt personally by so many of us. It should be a Civil Rights issue of our day.
Guest post by Henry Johnson
Guns and the illusion of security
Concealed weapons don't make us safer; communities do.
What all Christians can learn from queer courage
As our country asks how to protect itself from the terror of more mass shootings, elected leaders who call themselves Christian might look to the LGBTQ community for inspiration. Queer people have a weapon in our arsenal that no gun will ever defeat.
Why I'm wearing orange on June 2
Here in Connecticut, we have learned about remembering those who have lost their lives because of senseless gun violence. An image, a phrase, a chance meeting, or a date on the calendar so easily brings back the profound tragedy of December 14, 2012, when Adam Lanza shot and killed first his mother, and then 20 school children, six adults, and finally himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Can we agree about gun safety?
On the radio last week, I heard a police officer being interviewed about the shootings in his town of Roseberg, Oregon. He said something like, “We’re just in shock. Things like this always happen somewhere else, not in a town like ours.”
I was surprised to hear this. I take it for granted that, someday, a public shooting is going to happen in a town, school, or church near me, maybe at a time when I happen to be there.
To Ferguson and beyond
As we know the shooting of Michael Brown was not just one incident, in one town. The reason that the fear and concern grew was because it was that proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. It was the outcry of people who have been living under a system that has targeted young black men.
So what can we do about it?
When Antoinette Tuff saw a gunman as a human being
As I read the headline yesterday, my heart began to pound and my throat closed up: “School Clerk In Georgia Persuaded Gunman To Lay Down Weapons.” This was a good story—ultimately a hopeful one—but all I could see was “school” and “gunman."
Law v. justice
The verdict in the Trayvon Martin case shows that a trial can be fair as far as the law goes, while the nation falls far short of offering justice to all.