Jesus said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.” (Luke 22:36)
I have never heard anyone use this verse as a justification for gun ownership, but the way people act, it might as well be. Gun ownership is an extremely sensitive topic in the United States of America these days, it seems. There’s that pesky Second Amendment, for a start, which states that the right to bear arms can’t be infringed upon. Then there’s public opinion. Studies show that most Americans support some form of gun control, but the most vocal claim that even the smidgiest of controls–closing the loop that means buying a gun at a gun show gets you out of a 3 day waiting period, for example–are but a step off a cliff to where no one can have guns anymore, not even to kill ducks. Politicians claim their hands are tied, and turn the topic to mental illness.
I currently live in a really safe part of the world. I’ve left downstairs windows open at night, and a couple of times I’ve returned home to find one of the doors left unlocked, and yet nothing has happened as a result. I don’t feel afraid out at night. Obviously, I’m no safer than anyone else anywhere else, but carrying a gun here would do me no more good than carrying bananas, and it might do me a lot more harm. (cf the Monty Python skit: What to do if someone comes at you with a piece of fruit? just for fun)
I’m not even talking about the harm that would probably happen were I to attempt to use a gun to defuse a situation in which someone was threatening me. (Yes, I’d get shot. It’s a no-brainer) But I think that we do ourselves more harm by our actions than we realize. As believers, who claim to follow Christ’s teachings and not those of the world, I think that we need to seriously consider whether a love of guns can go along with this unchallenged.
Christ modeled giving himself for the sinners, the ungodly, the ungrateful, the angry, the arrogant, the good citizens, the criminals–all of us. It’s an odd stance for those who follow him to equate God with guns. When we do that, how much harm to we do to our faith? How do we unwittingly stunt our own personal growth, and stifle ourselves from being people who, in following Jesus, are commanded to put others needs ahead of our own? You may argue that your guns are only for protection not violence, but the fact remains that guns are a violent way of solving your need for protection. If it’s a matter of my life being lost–I who have known Christ since I was a child, I who have benefitted from years of good Bible teaching and studying and books and podcasts and more–versus the life of someone lost and desperate, what makes me think God would want me to choose my own safety? Is there a verse for that anywhere? If God wants to keep me physically safe, he can certainly do so. If he doesn’t, who am I to take matters into my own hands? And how dare I put my things, perishable as they are, as more importance than someone for whom Christ died?
Even in the Old Testament, God didn’t equate himself with human violence–not by a long shot. Psalm 11:5 says that God HATES the one who loves violence. When David, the man after God’s own heart, wanted to build God a temple, God refused to allow him because he was a man of violence–even though his wars were often self-defense and allowed by God. (I Chronicles 22:8)
Last summer, my husband attended a conference about refugees held in Lebanon, and he met some Syrian Christians. These brothers and sisters had faced the confiscation of their property, and threats to the lives, in a time of war and sectarian violence. At the conference, they shared how they struggled with whether or not it was right before God to defend themselves. “They don’t have the Second Amendment, so they have to rely on the Sermon on the Mount for guidance,” he told me wryly.
This post was sparked by yet another mass shooting. I wrote this article a couple of weeks ago, and the one I was referencing is already forgotten by the general public as we’ve moved on to more recent tragedies involving guns and mysterious motives. Good people tell me, “When I was a kid we took hunting rifles to school and it wasn’t a problem.” Sure, fine. But we don’t live in a world like that anymore. It’s fine to rail against things that no doubt played a role in those changes, but it’s not fine to not recognize that those changes have happened. It’s fine to say, “What needs to change are hearts.” That’s true. But in the meantime, let’s use our God-given intelligence to do what we can to reduce gun violence.
So am I entirely anti-gun? For myself personally, yes, but I am not necessarily saying that is where the country should go. The Constitution isn’t Scripture and doesn’t need to be upheld with reverence, but it is the law of the land. There are lots of in-between measures: a limit to ammunition, a ban on weapons of war. But I think as believers, we should be willing to give up our rights if there is even a chance that it would keep other ones safe.
Thoughts?
as through a glass darkly 