Why did Noah build the ark? It was because of violence. God “saw that the earth was corrupt”. (Genesis 6:11) Noah built the ark and the flood came, and creation began anew.
On Monday my father began texting me that there was a mass shooting happening in Nashville. I opened the news and saw that this Presbyterian school was 10 minutes from my son’s house. He worked at a sister church to this one for years. By the end of the day my son called me to lament the state of senseless violence in this country and the seemingly intractable state of the political establishment to do something to stop the murder of innocent children and beloved teachers.
While we can pray for God to send an ark to save us, we have to remember that Noah built the ark – cypress wood thirty cubits wide, with multiple decks. At the end of the story is a dove, a green twig and a rainbow. But we seem to be a long way from that peace and hope in this country where the arguing about gun safety and mental illness gets batted around between conservatives and liberals while the death toll mounts.
I grew up in Texas as the granddaughter of a small-town sheriff and most of our friends owned hunting guns and I could outshoot some of my boyfriends at the shooting range on the ranch. But I do not believe that guns should be so easily accessible, especially to those who are a known risk such as the one we witnessed in Nashville this week.
I am a fan of Nicholas Kristof who thinks that liberals and conservatives have work to do. He reports that 48,000 Americans were killed by firearms in the year 2021. This includes homicide, suicide and accidents. This public health crisis can be addressed with the same kind of strategies successfully employed to reduce death by drunk driving or cigarettes. While cars kill, we do not eliminate cars but we do require a license and insurance and car tags. My husband recently spent a full day getting new car tags. Kristof points out that in Mississippi there is a 7-step process to vote or to adopt a dog but a 2-step process to buy a gun. He says it shouldn’t be easier to buy a gun than to adopt a chihuahua. I think it should be more complex than registering a car.
The line that has been running through my head all week is what Jesus protested when the grown-ups around him, even his closest followers, wanted to ignore the children and push them aside. Jesus said “Let the children come to me . . . For it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs. And he laid his hands on them. . . “.
Our faith does not allow us to remain silent behind stained glass.
Grace and Peace,
Carla
