What response should Christians have to those advocating firearms proliferation in the name of Jesus who advocated love not hate?
Growing up we often heard that Christianity should be the light on the hill or simply be seen in good example and not heard. When we were children in post World War II America you never dared mix discussion of politics and religion. Today however, the essence of what is Christianity and it’s role in societal governance is now placed front and center by new political coalitions. Was Thomas Jefferson’s warning that “all tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for men of good conscience to remain silent” a warning not heard today? Or has it been hijacked by those with a lust for power?
As a small child in Sunday School I first heard Matthew 26:52 “Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” As a young Army officer I learned about rules of engagement guided by the principals of jus belli of Saints Augustine and Aquinas still taught to military chaplains by the Episcopal Church.
Today, however, the essence of what is Christianity and it’s role in societal governance is now placed front and center by new political coalitions. The members of these groups are driven by an idolatry that has been growing for decades. For them the New Testament of Jesus Christ has been wrongly interpreted by “left wing church leaders”. Love thy neighbor gets in the way of establishing authoritarian order ruled by a new Sanhedrin of conservative purists. They are the new Israel whose manifest destiny is to crush the heretical “socialist Christian communities.” The communal sharing and concerns for fellow Christians described in Acts was for another time and not relevant to today they say. The journalist, Tim Alberta, the son of a paster, in his book, The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory: American Evangelicals in the Age of Extremism recalls an Oklahoma preacher with his congregation proclaiming the Beatitudes were “weak” and “too liberal”.
Their emphasis includes urgency to take actions including seeking personal violent solutions to challenges previously dealt with by law enforcement , preparing for potential civil war, replacement of democracy by a new Christian “representative government” as proposed in Texas as well as other states , and censorship of any views opposed to their “Christian” goals.
A clear demonstration of the emphasis on violent solutions which encourage “living by the gun” are a growing number of Christian gun clubs in America. Some of them are named using Christian themes such as “Shooting for Salvation” and “The Born Again Gun Club” which boast it has three guiding C’s for Christ, Crosshairs, and Constitution. Some Christian churches are even opening gun clubs on their property.
I have seen ugly civil war as a young man in Central America as a translator, then in Iraq as an allied foreign medical military consultant to United Arab Emirates, and finally in the recent Tigray Ethiopian war. Jesus recognized that violence can easily become an uncontrollable epidemic with no winners. We cannot remain silent but we cannot be drawn into violent confrontation. We must pray, proclaim the word of Jesus Christ, and hope reason will reign over the greed for power. I often remember the sacrifice of the Episcopal Seminarian, Jonathan Myrick Daniels, in 1965 who deflected a shotgun blast to himself saving a black child during a civil rights protest. A recent tragedy demonstrates the another point. Two veterans, one in favor of a Black Lives Matter protest and one against, confronted each other with both carrying guns leaving one dead. If neither had brought a gun no life would have been lost.
Jesus specifically told the Disciples he was not a military Messiah sent to conquer the world with an army. He was sent to change the world by loving God and loving they neighbor which cannot be done by escalating threats of violence to others.
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