I can assume that we are directing our prayers into our worship this Sunday. But do we call our senators back to do their duty in passing legislation sitting on their desks for universal background checks? Do we seek the resuming of bans of military-style weapons?
“Guns don’t kill people; people do” and if so, then let’s detach people from the guns and do the reputation of the guns a favor. Other nations do it well while also honoring the recreational use of guns.
There are deeper issues as well that relate to our addiction to violence and the cultural conditions that stoke racial hatred and create mental imbalance and alienation.
Even as a news show was focusing on the shootings this morning, we switched from a serious interview to a commercial in which a personified “Mayhem” vandalized a person's property and car! While Mayhem laughed as he drove away, the hapless victim was encouraged to buy insurance. It’s time for All State to ban Mr. Mayhem and for us to insist that violence is neither trivialized nor normalized in the media.
And it is time to prioritize the emergency that our own version of terrorist cells of white nationalism pose in our midst. Of course, we could begin to profile young white men but that would only continue to stoke the racial divide that the terrorists seek to promote until a race war breaks out. For a member of an inter-racial family as I am, that’s the worst of all worlds.
And I realize I haven’t mentioned Jesus as yet. Maybe that’s because I think he weeps. Because he knows the resolution to all of this is in our own hands. May we deploy the Spirit of our baptism that is “not of fear but of resolve (or power), love, and sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).
In the peace and love of Christ,
+Alan
The Rt. Rev. Alan Scarfe, Bishop of Iowa
For resources on addressing gun violence visit https://www.iowashare.org/gun-violence-prevention
Gun Violence Archive lists 252 mass shootings in 2019 (defined as any incident in which four or more people were injured or killed by a gun, without including the shooter).
