Christians who idolize guns

Another week, another school shooting--this time closer to my home. It was at Reynolds High in Troutdale, Oregon, and it involved two freshmen--one killed, the other the killer.  There appears to be no connection between the two; the 15-year-old killer simply wanted to kill someone--or many people, judging by the ammunition he was packing.  His victim was just fourteen. Fourteen. This is age of my own sweet nephew, who is a freshman at a high school just a few miles away.

Once again, we say, "how long!!??" Once again, we say, "WHY?"  My Facebook friends erupted in despair and anger and outrage. I am outraged, and saddened, and frustrated. I want to curse and rail against the NRA. I want elected officials who cower under its influence to be brought to their knees. I have had wild flashes of mock shootings of the children of some of these people, to bring home to them the cost of our country's irrational lust and idolatry for guns and violence.

Just how much we love guns is apparent in the chart above, which shows the number of guns per 100 people in the world by country.  It is obscene. It is sinful.  It stares us in the face.  The article explains how it relates to deaths, and it's not a simple correlation.

The bottom line:

The American firearm homicide rate is about 20 times the average among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries (excluding Mexico).

Harvard researchers Daniel Hemenway and Matthew Miller examined 26 developed countries, and checked whether gun ownership correlated with murder rates. They found that "a highly significant positive correlation between total homicide rates and both proxies for gun availability." They also didn't find much evidence that a higher rate of gun murders led to lower rates of other kinds of murder (i.e., stabbings)."

There is indeed something idolatrous about the love for guns in our country, and something very broken about a people who refuse to yield on gun restrictions in spite of their terrible cost.

In my reading I came across this message from  Rev Chuck Currie, a UCC minister who commented on Tuesday's shootings:  "Too many people worship guns instead of God. But God calls us to be people of reconciliation and justice. We are told to turn our weapons into plowshares. Each act of fun violence is another opportunity for all of us - politicians and citizens - to demand a better society. There is too much violence in our society. The dead will not forgive us if we do not seek a more just world for our children." 

I applaud these words.  I agree that the spiritual underpinnings of the gun problem are profound--and yet, surprisingly, some who claim to worship God also worship guns, and that is part of the problem.

In fact, the Second Amendment narrative of many right-wing gun enthusiasts is wrapped up with the idea of our being a "Christian nation."  I so struggle with this juxtaposition of being Christian and loving guns, and worse, of failing to see how the culture of gun idolatry is syncretized with faith.

One day while perusing Etsy, I began to notice there is an extensive category of bullet jewelry.  At first, I wondered if they were made with a redemptive purpose, but the many artists making it seem to be doing so in a completely un-ironic way.  To them, bullets reflect their deep love of gun culture:  they are beautiful, to be celebrated.  The cross motif, in fact, is popular in bullet jewelry.  I found necklaces like the one below, made by Courtney Humes.  Her store, Ricochet Rounds, sells "bullet jewelry with Southern charm." In fact, if you want Courtney to make your jewelry, you can even choose the brand and caliber and bullet you want.

Her bio describes Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. "Two years ago," she writes, "I wouldn't have dreamed that I would be the owner, designer and maker of bullet jewelry…but God's plans for me are so much better than mine!"  Courtney also has three children:  I wonder that she has not connected her craft to the school shootings, where the same bullets she uses in her jewelry are taking the lives of the children of others. I wonder if she has given any of the money she makes from her bullet jewelry to causes which promote gun ownership.

I find this jewelry repellant--it is against everything Christ wants us to be in the world.  There is nothing transformative or redemptive about it.  It tells me that there is a deep need for repentance and healing for so many who, like Courtney, profess to be Christians and yet do not do the will or work of Christ in the world.

In contrast, I remembered that I had once encountered these small crosses, which had been fashioned out of spent shell-cases from the conflict in Liberia.  You could buy them for a few dollars each, as a means to support livelihoods of the people who had crafted them from shells that littered the ground in that war-torn region.

There was something lovely about them; they reflected the power of love and hope and resilience to transform something painful and hellish into something life-giving. How sad that spent bullets are so plentiful that they were a resource. But how poignant to refuse to let them remain instruments of killing. They seemed to be in the spirit of weapons to plowshares of which Reverend Curry spoke.

I pray that all the bullets in the world would be converted to crosses which restore life and livelihood, instead of taking it.  But so much must change. Along with legislation, our culture must change, and our hearts must change--including the hearts of many, many people who claim to be Christian.

P.S. I can't find the Liberian crosses anymore, but I did find necklaces by a Liberian artist made from spent shell cases.  The proceeds go to support the Strongheart Foundation.  Now that's more like it!!