Shameful

 

I am a pacifist.  I honestly do not understand how people who believe in Jesus like me do not think the same way as I do when it comes to using guns or any weapons- or when it comes to the idea of war, in general.  Isn’t Jesus a pacifist? Did he not say, “blessed are the peacemakers?”  If this is true, why do so many Christians believe in owning and using guns so much? I seriously hate guns.  I hate they even exist.  The only purpose of guns is to cause death. Of course, people use them to disarm and disable people in order for them to be detained, but, for the most part, guns are meant for total destruction and pain. I hate them.  Every single time I hear about another school shooting, I think again about how much I hate guns.  The incident that happened this week in Nashville is no different.  A shooter ended six innocent lives and destroyed countless others this week.  The reports are saying she was transgender and there seems to be a ton of focus on that, but I am wondering what her gender or sexuality has to do with any of this.  It has nothing to do with it.  An old high school friend was interviewed and reported that she was happy in high school and caring and essentially that this was completely out of character. Her parents have reported that she was receiving treatment for a severe mental disorder and that they did not think she owned any guns. 

What is the answer to all of this?  It is difficult to say.  Many Christians will say that we just need to pray, that the world is broken, and that this is the result of that. This is all true; however, we also can- and must- take other actions that would help. Why have we become so complacent as believers that we choose to pray about everything and do nothing else? If we are to pray without ceasing anyway then why are we taking actions on anything at all in general?  Why not just pray for a cup of coffee, rather than pour a cup?  In other words, we should be praying throughout the day anyway, and we take actions along the way based on how we want our day to go.  So, why not act in these moments? In the things that really matter and can make a huge difference in the world?  There is a huge amount of untapped world-changing potential that exists in each of us.  I truly believe we will be held accountable to Jesus in the end, not just for what we did, but also for what we did not do.  For the actions we could have taken that would have helped the world but that we chose not to take.  In this situation, many Christians are choosing to focus on the shooter’s sexuality rather than on what we can and should do about the gun problem in America.  Shame on us. We need to do better.