A Little Local Gun Control By Ron Sisk
[Dr. Ron Sisk is pastor of the Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.
It started with an "Amen!", several "Amens!" actually, an almost unheard of revivalistic outbreak in our properly sober Baptist congregation. But it was the Sunday after the shooting in Fort Worth. Our people were mad. And when the preacher let loose with a tirade against gun violence, you could feel the energy level in the room skyrocket.
Afterward, on the way out the door, several stopped to say, "OK, preacher, now what are you going to do about it?" Normally I hate it when they ask me to practice what I preach, but this time I felt different. That afternoon I got the chance to touch base with the head of our local interfaith council. She said, "We should see what the faith community wants to do." So I did.
The next day I began calling ministerial friends–white and black Baptist, Presbyterian, Jewish. Eventually we got the Catholics, Methodists and UCC aboard as well. Without exception, they were ready to do something too.
The plan itself was simple. On a Sunday afternoon we would sponsor a nonpartisan political forum on what could be done to address the issue of gun violence. We would invite the religious community of Louisville and Jefferson County and every local, state, and federal level politician whom we elect. The forum would be a time for people of faith to talk with our elected leaders about what could be done. We set the meeting for Sunday, October 3, from 4 to 6 p.m. at our church.
Our first problem was how to send the right signal. We decided to set the tone with brief initial statements from the broadest possible spectrum of religious leaders. In this town the Roman Catholic archbishop is a key personality. He agreed without hesitation. The Catholic bishops have spoken strongly about the need for gun control. Our large Jewish population and the recent violence in Los Angeles meant a Rabbi of the local Reform congregation was eager to help. For the Protestant perspective we got an African-American Baptist and the General Presbyter of the local presbytery, who is a female.
We also wanted to offer something practical that people could do immediately, regardless of the political success of the meeting. We came up with three ideas. First, we sought initial contributions from the sponsoring congregations and bought several hundred trigger locks. They became the altar piece at the forum itself. We took an offering, and before the afternoon was over we had a total of $9000 dollars to purchase about 1500 locks. They will be given free to local gun owners.
Our second idea sought to involve the local arts community. We asked for volunteers to form a task force to work toward a "Guns to Plowshares" sculpture to be offered to our city. The idea was to develop a gun buyback program in which local congregations would offer money or children`s toys in exchange for unwanted guns. The guns would then become the raw material for the sculpture. And we would seek the city`s cooperation in displaying it in a prominent place. Dozens signed up.
Finally, we developed a petition which could be used by churches to send a message to local, state, and federal level politicians about measures which need to be taken. The petition calls for an outright federal ban on assault weapons. It asks our state to repeal a recent law allowing ministers to carry concealed weapons in the pulpit! It also suggests some more stringent measures, such as requiring all guns to be licensed, and all owners to attend a safety course in order to get their license renewed.
Once we had the meeting planned, our biggest question was, "Will the politicians show up?" Not all of them did. Our two senators rest comfortably within the deep pockets of the NRA. But our local representative, a Republican who is a practicing Catholic, did come. Also both her likely Democratic opponents in the next election showed up. The city and county police chiefs sent representatives. And some city aldermen and county commissioners came, as well as state representatives and senators.
Even more important , several hundred church members showed up, along with the news media, the local "militia", and a few victims of gun violence. Twice that weekend,, once before the meeting and once afterward, we got "above the masthead" headlines in our local paper.
Has it made any difference? I think so. The local faith community has been energized and unified by our common commitment to address the issue. The petition we created is making the rounds. The politicians were put on notice that we intend to pursue these priorities in the next election. Our interfaith task force is meeting to figure out how to distribute ,all those trigger locks. Our own denomination was seen as working with the rest of the religious community rather than displaying embarrassing exclusivism. And I got more hate mail than on any other subject I`ve ever dealt with as a pastor. Surprise. Surprise.
It started with an "Amen" and ended, as Simon and Garfunkel once sang, with "words I never heard in the Bible." But that`s OK too. As another rabble rouser once said, "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account …." It`s time a lot more of us got blessed about gun control.
