GUNS AND JESUS:
ONE PASTOR'S RESPONSE
(Originally posted the week after the 2012 Newtown, CT killings)
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Below is a brief letter addressed to the congregation and friends of Burke United Methodist Church in Burke, VA by the church's lead pastor, Lawrence W. Buxton, D.Min. Burke is in Fairfax County, as is the national headquarters of the National Rifle Association . . . two organizations with vastly different narratives about the tragic deaths of so many in Newtown, Connecticut.
On Friday, the NRA's Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, said "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." He called on Congress to fund the placement of "armed police officers in every school in this nation." His narrative was to meet violence with violence.
Later that day, Pastor Buxton posted his letter, observing that Christianity has a very different narrative. In so doing, he has crystalized a dimension of this debate that doesn't often appear in the press . . . yet it is fundamental to our identity as Christians.
We applaud what he has written and commend it to you.)
Dear Friend of Burke UMC,
It becomes increasingly obscene to balance the American desire to cling to guns with the message of Christmas. We observe a holiday centered in the birth of a powerless and vulnerable child who lived a life of nonviolence. He chose weakness over power, love over force, sacrifice over self-will. How this life squares with the insistent demand to own weapons without restrictions is beyond me.
And while today's church is obviously made up of human beings who live in the "real world" of the 21st Century and not first century Palestine, trying to square the message of Christmas holiness with the "God-given" right to arm ourselves grows increasingly offensive.
We are confronted with two stories by which to live. There is the "American" story that offers violence, force and self-protection at all costs and that clamors for our rights as means to our salvation. And there is the story of Jesus Christ, one who was born in vulnerability and lived in trust. That story insists that ultimate victory belongs to "the lamb who was slain" by the violence of the world. That story insists that our responsibilities trump our rights, that community trumps self, and that forgiveness trumps retaliation.
Only one of these stories is true and worthy of our commitment.
We cannot have it both ways.
Pastor Larry
