The Sin of Gun violence
After the deaths of Harper, Fletcher, Charlie Kirk, and the two shooters, as well as the eighteen injured in Minneapolis and the two injured in Evergreen, I shared the following words with Paradox on Saturday, September 13.
Two and a half weeks ago, a terrorist with a gun walked onto a school campus in Minnesota, and injured eighteen people, killed two children, and then died from a self-inflicted gun wound. The two children who died were named Harper and Fletcher.
On Wednesday of this week, a terrorist with a gun committed the sin of murder in broad daylight on a college campus, and the victim was the political activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk.
Just seven minutes later, in Evergreen, Colorado, another terrorist with a gun opened fire and injured two students. He died moments later from a self-inflicted gun wound.
My heart breaks for all of the families affected by these terrible acts of gun violence. I mourn for Harper and Fletcher’s families. I grieve for Charlie Kirk’s children. I lament the recovery for all of those injured and the long road to recovery and/or living with a disability each of them face. And I even weep for the families of the terrorists, whose lives are forever altered by the violent choices their family member made.
Charlie Kirk once said, “I think it's worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the 2nd Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal.”
I respectfully and wholeheartedly disagree. And because Charlie Kirk repeatedly asserted his support for free speech in America, I assume he would applaud me for disagreeing with him, even just a few days after his death.
I will never think it’s “prudent” to accept “some gun deaths every single year” so that we may “have the second amendment;” even if those deaths include the people who I emphatically disagree with. And I would encourage each of you to see that if you are upset, disturbed, troubled, and/or grieved by the murder of Harper and Fletcher and/or the murder of Charlie Kirk, then you also actively disagree with Charlie Kirk’s idea that the second amendment is worth the cost of death.
For my entire life, I have been an American citizen. And over the course of these now 42 years, I do not remember a single political party and a single politician holding as much power as they do now. And, as we gather together in worship this morning, we must not forget, that If this party and this politician wanted to, they could make dramatic changes tomorrow; and these changes would significantly reduce the number of murders, deaths, and injuries from guns.
Unfortunately, the empowered political party in our nation believes the ultimate expression of freedom is found in the ownership of a gun. Which means these powerful politicians will all talk about how sad they are, how mad they are, and how Kirk’s death is an injustice, when they are the ones who can easily prevent deaths like Charlie Kirk’s death from happening tomorrow. These politicians, elected by us, are willing to accept a litany of deaths, even of the murder of their own people, to protect the falsehood that freedom is found in the ownership of a gun.
My friends, as a pastor, I must remind each of you that Jesus Christ never owned a gun, never owned a sword, and never chose to bear arms. And if any American espouses that bearing arms is the ultimate experience of freedom, then they are, by extension, saying that Jesus Christ never really knew what it meant to be free.
But Jesus Christ understood freedom better than any human being who has ever lived. And the source of His freedom was His empathy. Even though Jesus was taxed, oppressed, dismissed, betrayed, and beaten, Jesus responded to these violent acts with love. And what higher freedom can there be than rising above the hatred we receive and then answering with an abundance of compassion, (especially compassion for the people who are our enemies)?
And so I am asking each of you for five things in the wake of these terrible acts of gun violence:
Stop trusting the idea that freedom is found in the ownership of a gun.
Start trusting the idea that freedom is found in the practice and actions of empathy.
See through the lie that nothing could have been done to prevent these things.
See through all of the distractions, the thoughts and prayers, the Facebook posts, and the medals handed out by the empowered political party and recognize that their continued inaction in each of these attacks speaks loudly in support of the terrorists and not the victims.
And if, nothing changes, prioritize the prevention of gun violence on your ballot every opportunity you get.
In the words of the prophet Amos, may justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Amen.