As bells toll, clergy push Congress on gun control
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(RNS) As bells tolled across the country on Friday (Dec. 21) in memory of lives lost in Newtown, Conn., religious leaders gathered outside the Washington National Cathedral to push congregants and Congress to prevent further gun violence.
“Is the need for sensible gun control a religious issue?” asked Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. “Indeed it is, for our worship of guns is a form of idolatry.”
Saperstein was among 20 faith leaders who gathered outside the Washington landmark Friday to mark the one-week anniversary of the mass killing at the Newtown elementary school. They paused as the cathedral’s funeral bell tolled 28 times in memory of the 26 children and adults from Sandy Hook Elementary School, as well as the gunman and gunman’s mother, who also died.
Washington Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde said prayer alone was not a sufficient response to the massacre.
“Now is also a time for us to show up in ways that will prevent such deaths in the future,” she said. “If we only pray and offer comfort now, and do not act, we are complicit in perpetuating the conditions that allow these crimes to occur.”
The National Council of Churches has declared Jan. 6 “Gun Violence Prevention Sunday,” and is providing its members with a tool kit of resources, said the Rev. Michael Livingston, former NCC president.
From mosques to Sikh temples, clergy are being encouraged to support gun control in their pulpits, send their sermons to newspapers and Congress and start interfaith community discussions to reduce bullying and address mental illness. [More]
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3 Comments
Good for our Clergy – as the ones who deal with the families of those killed by guns, they know first hand the grief, horror and dysfunction it causes. We as Catholics and Americans must stand behind our Clergy in this matter.
In the article, Rabbi Saperstein is quoted as saying that “our worship of guns is a form of idolatry.” I would go so far as to say that our attitude towards guns has become blasphemous. The continued wanton killing in this country by lunatics and criminals bearing arms is depraved, and our political leaders, indeed our very culture, are also depraved in that they have simply refused for so long to do anything truly meaningful in this regard. Political posturing, which is what we’ve seen for many years, is nothing but hypocrisy.
The US Constitution is not a divinely inspired document (hello, NRA, anybody listening?). The Second Amendment is not a “God-given” right; it is a human-given right. I will go so far as to say that the Second Amendment is now obsolete and it should be abolished. The Amendment reads: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” (1789). When this was written, our new country had no standing army; indeed, all adult male citizens made up the “army”, which is what a militia is. We now have an established military (army, navy, air force, etc.); we do not have, neither need, a militia. If our Founding Fathers could see the carnage that has resulted from their Second Amendment, I am sure that they would be utterly horrified at how far we have descended into barbarity. May God have mercy on our twisted souls.
Richard Andrew: two things. First, if you make guns illegal in the USA, it is a guarantee that criminals will keep theirs. Could you imagine a drug dealer saying, “Well, now that guns are illegal, I better get rid of mine.” Second, complete safety cannot be assured. If we give our freedoms over to our government — and we are in full-speed-ahead mode in doing so under the Obamination — governments historicaly have been much more brutal (considering the impact on every member of society) than individuals.