Swords to Plowshares

As someone who has always held firmly to the promise of Ephesians 2, that we are saved through faith and not works, pondering James 2 has always been a deep and challenging one for me. But this week, in the wake of yet another school shooting, that final line hits differently.

Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Children, sitting in a church and practicing their faith, are dead.

The potential and the gifts of these children of God are lost – again.

But it is not their works that were missing friends, it is ours.

As Christian’s, we know the power of prayer, and we have faith in a God that knows no bounds.

But, we have not allowed our faith to move our hearts towards action.

Now, this is not that we don’t want to act. I can not name one Christian who would raise their hand and say “Actually, I am totally fine with the murder of children, can’t we just let this go?” The question is often HOW do we act, WHAT do we do?

That the answer is simple. Give up our easy access to Guns. But, like the rich man who went away from Jesus sad after being called to give away his great wealth, it is, one that we have known in our hearts, but don’t want live without.

Now, I am aware of the long held argument of “guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” and of course this statement is not false. A gun in the hands of someone of sound mind, and a loving heart, and peaceful motives, is nothing more than an instrument for protection.

But, in terms of actionable steps, fruitful works, the only part of the equation we have power over is the guns.

As much as we may want to and wish to, we cannot pass laws that control a person’s mind or heart, not ones that can be actually enforced that is. As a licensed mental health professional, I am obviously aware of the overlap between mental illness and these acts of violence. However, even if we weren’t living in a time where mental health funding was recently slashed at a federal level, when we only speak of mental health as a priority in this country in response to violent acts, or when spreading misinformation about developmental disorders and research backed medications, this only serves to increase stigma behind mental health care. In my profession, we know that this leads to people being less likely to seek out mental health services, out of a fear of being seen as someone “bad” instead of someone “sick”, so this rhetoric absent of actual policy changes in favor of increasing access to mental health care for all Americans does nothing but cause further harm.

And even if we did pass legislation making it easy, possible, and that encouraged all Americans to access good mental health care, I have yet to see a law that can mandate a person into any form of medical treatment (although we have many that criminalize access to certain types of care).

So, if we cannot put measurable actions in place to control a person’s mental health, or to criminalize hateful beliefs, or to eliminate homicidal thoughts, what friends do we have left in terms of “works?”

All we have left is the guns.

We can set and enforce laws surrounding the owning and operation of a fire arm.

We can remove the most lethal of these weapons from our general population.

We can mandate longer waiting periods, and a full psychological evaluation before a person is granted ownership of a weapon.

We could implement a licensure system that includes written and observed assessment of not only the ability to use the weapon, but to store it safely within homes.

We can invest in research into ways to implement technology advances in a way that could reduce these instances, along with accidental injuries and misfire.

We can sacrifice some of our access to these items, in favor of increasing safety within our entire community.

So what is the immediate Christian call?

Who will you contact contact today?

How will you strive to make our communities more safe?

What do you want to ask lawmakers?

What groups can you join that are working on this issue?

How we give our brothers and sisters the thing most needed, the right to continue to bear the Light of Christ from inside a living body.