Faithful Mustn’t Ignore Plague of Gun Violence

America has a gun problem. To appreciate its magnitude, consider these statistics:

* There are about as many firearms in America as there are citizens: 250 million.

* In 1996, according to Handgun Control Inc., handguns were used to kill 9,390 Americans, compared with 379 people in Australia, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Japan and New Zealand combined.

* A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control found that the United States has the highest rate of gun deaths (murders, suicides, unintentional shootings) of the world’s 36 richest nations.

* Over the last year, shootings have occurred on at least four school campuses. In the worst incident, four students and a teacher in Jonesboro, Ark., were killed and 10 other students wounded by two boys.

While the debate over gun control continues to rage, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has made a modest proposal to its own members: to work to remove handguns and assault weapons from their homes and communities. But the moderately worded resolution, passed by a vote of 393 to 120 by delegates to the 210th General Assembly in June, has met with mixed responses from local Presbyterian clergy and others.

The Rev. Jon West of Morningside Presbyterian in Fullerton said his congregants view gun violence as “a very urgent issue that the church should address. And they recognize the distinction between hunting and assault weapons. They are intelligent people.”

The majority of congregants at First Presbyterian Church of Garden Grove also endorse the idea of gun control, the Rev. Peter Del Nagro speculated. But he noted that he and they don’t live in a high-crime neighborhood where personal safety might be a concern.

*

Noting that guns are part of the American ethos, Donald Sturm, parish associate at First Presbyterian of Anaheim, paraphrased Jesus: “Those who live by the pistol will die by the pistol.”

The Presbyterian resolution, however, drew a less enthusiastic response from the Rev. Dr. Richard Todd of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian in Newport Beach, who said the church gets involved in too many nonchurch affairs. Instead, he favors more emphasis on evangelizing and loving one another.

Todd’s view was shared by two evangelical Christian clergymen.

Pastor David Mitchell of Calvary Church, Santa Ana, suggested more could be done to curb violence through “heart-changing than gun laws.”

And Pastor Bill Welsh of Calvary Chapel, Huntington Beach, drew a distinction between assault weapons with no valid purpose and handguns used for self-defense. Welsh said he considers resolutions such as the Presbyterians’ “scary” and advocated harsher penalties for criminals rather than gun control.

The best solution, he said, is for laypeople as well as clergy to “preach the Gospel in the pulpit and the street.”

While respecting their sincerity, I have a problem with the conservative positions on gun control of clergymen such as Todd, Mitchell and Welsh. That is the apparent failure to see the death and mayhem caused by guns in America as a moral issue needing to be confronted by religious organizations just as surely as they confront such problems as drug and alcohol abuse, wife battering, poverty and homelessness, child pornography, sexual promiscuity and pregnancies among unwed teens. (For the record, though pro-choice, I consider the number of abortions performed in this country too high, and this, too, is a moral issue.)

*

It is worth noting that another organization with ties to a religious community, the American Jewish Congress, began a campaign in late May, shortly after the latest school shooting incident (in Springfield, Ore.) urging the entire Jewish community to mobilize public support “for the enactment of effective gun control legislation, which would protect not only students and teachers, but all Americans as well.”

The Presbyterians and the American Jewish Congress are to be commended for trying to raise the consciousness of their respective constituencies about the firearms soul sickness in America. For something is profoundly pathological about a society where so many people die by the gun.

While a solution involves many complex factors, clearly it is time for people of faith to examine their consciences on what they might do to stop the bloodshed. One approach might be for local religious leaders with opposing views to sit down and discuss their agreements and disagreements. Such a meeting of minds and hearts might produce amazing grace.

*

Benjamin J. Hubbard is a professor and chair of the Department of Comparative Religion at Cal State Fullerton. He can be reached by e-mail at bhubbard@fullerton.edu