On Guns, Violence, and the Sacred Way of Peace

I had intended to write a post on Christian feminism, which I still plan to do. However, the recent events in our country have set my mind on other things. The shootings in El Paso, Texas and in Dayton, Ohio are bone-crushing, devastating events. To continue on with what I had planned to write and ignore the matter of guns and violence in our country would be wrong of me.

I am a practicing Christian, have been for most of my life. I’m nearly forty-two years old. I’m a woman and I live in a rural community outside of Seattle, Washington. We do not own guns. I don’t hunt and have never really had an interest in it. I don’t feel the need to gain a deeper sense of security and safety for my home and I am not, by nature, a fearful person. I have traveled to over forty countries, lived all over the world, and walk about this planet like it’s my home. There was a time when I lived on thirty acres in southern Chile that I wanted to buy a shotgun. I didn’t go through with it, but I almost did. I felt conflicted about it, which is what I’d like to write about.

My stance on guns and violence is layered. When I lived overseas for the first time, I discovered that several other countries in the world do not give their citizens the right to bear arms, and many of the citizens in those countries feel absolutely fine about that. They don’t want to own guns, and if they do, most of them keep one or maybe two guns locked up in a very secure safe and use their firearms infrequently. This was revolutionary to me.

As an American Christian growing up, Americans and guns seemed to be synonymous. We are a people who like our guns and somehow, over the years, we have managed to use our Christianity to justify it. As far as I was concerned, there was no issue to be looked at carefully. More specifically, the Christian, in particular, had no responsibility to look to her or his Lord and figure out what Jesus thinks of guns and violence. It didn’t even occur to me there was another option.

Then, as life unfolds, I was exposed to different ideas, opposing views on the subject. I discovered there is an entire stream in my beloved Christianity that opposes violence in every form. The Quakers, the Congregationalists and most of the Mennonites are pacifists and believe this is what Jesus and the way of Jesus asks of them. They believe that non-violent resistance is the most Christ-like way to make a lasting difference toward peace and well-being in one’s society.

When I discovered this, and also came into deeper contact with Dr. King and the writings of some of the abolitionists who actively stood against slavery in America, I realized that I had a skewed understanding of my own faith. If you have only been exposed to one sliver of Christianity, and that sliver is Evangelical American Christianity, you might want to consider getting out a little more. One short class on Church history, or even one conversation with a Quaker or a Mennonite might open your eyes to the wider world of the Christian faith that is out there.

This knowledge that Quakers were pacifists stumped me, but did not move me. That’s all well and good for them, but where would the entire world be if Americans hadn’t fought in WWII? What then? What might have happened if we had never fought the Civil War? Sometimes violence is necessary, I argued, and left well enough alone.

Except, over time I continued to read the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels, and realized that the way of Jesus is non-violent by nature, and that made me uncomfortable. It’s easy to read the teachings of Jesus and quietly move onto the epistles. The teachings of Jesus are radically uncomfortable in every way.

Turn the other cheek. Go the extra mile. Bless do not curse. Love your enemies. Love your neighbor as if you were loving your very own self. Anger, rage, murder, and sexual violence all go hand in hand.

These teachings are upsetting to a woman who has been taught that we can and should carry guns around and shoot people if they try to harm us. How am I supposed to live in this world and also follow the teachings of Jesus?

Where things get even more complicated in America is that we have this really important second amendment, which says, that we have the right as Americans to bear arms. I am not going to fight about this. So Americans have the right to bear arms. If you are a Christian, you answer to a higher law than the law of your constitutional rights. You answer to the law of love, and it is as clear as a bell in the Gospels that to be a Christian by definition is to be a person who lays down your rights and serves. This means that even if we have the right to bear arms it doesn’t mean we should.

A few weeks ago, John and I went to a play at the local theatre and the actors sang an old gospel song, Down by the Riverside.

I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside

I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield
Down by the riverside
I’m gonna study, study, war no more

He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;

they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more;

but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,

and no one shall make them afraid;

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.