School Shootings, Gun Violence, and Christian Faith
By Rev. David Wilson Rogers | February 1, 2014
It was only minutes old when I saw the first posting cross my Facebook feed that there had been a school shooting in Roswell. Within minutes, an old friend who personally knows the people involved contacted me. We talked, we prayed, we wondered how this could happen and what it meant to be so close. — We still wonder.
It seems so long ago now when the horrific tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, dominated our headlines. In April, it will be 15 years! Yet, as horrific as that singular event was, or at least seemed at the time, what is truly horrific is the vast number of schools. Columbine was not the first, but up to that date it was the worst. According to one source, since 1980 297 people have been killed in 137 separate school shootings in the US.
Predictably, every time a gun is fired in an act of senseless violence, the back-and-forth debates regarding role of guns in our American society. Some love them and will fight to keep them. Some hate them and will fight to eradicate them. Some get caught up in the debate and question what to believe.
But what about the lives who struggle with loss because of gun violence? What about the people who live in fear because of gun violence? What about the children whose lives are so shattered that gun violence becomes an option they desire to choose?
As Christians, we need to get off the bandwagons that try to promote or eradicate guns and start engaging the lives that are impacted by them. Regardless what gun laws exist, Christ will be with those who feel they have no place to turn. Where will we be?
Reach out and be Christ to this broken and fragmented world. Make a difference in the life of a child who is hurting. Let God’s love, not human fear rule our world.