A Prayer for Action on Gun Violence

Over the past 24 hours we have watched in horror as, once again, gun violence has shattered lives. This time, it is Uvalde, Texas, where a classroom of fourth graders was murdered, 19 children dead along with 2 teachers. Reminiscent of the Sandy Hook massacre of a decade ago, and coming before the crime scene tape has even come down from the attacks at a supermarket in Buffalo and a Presbyterian church in California, it is too much to bear.

Today, as we sent my son to the last day of school here in Springfield I was afraid, for we know that it could happen here, too. The same forces that allow guns to be used in the mass killings of school children, church goers, and those shopping for their evening meal are at play in Springfield just as they are across all of the United States. As I wrote just last week, we must cry to God, "How long, O Lord?"

Lask week, I asked you to join me in prayer, and I do so again today. Pray for the community of Uvalde, for the families no longer planning summer vacations but now funerals for their children, for those survivors who must live with this trauma, for all those in the emergency services who gave their all to save lives and who also will live with this trauma, and for all those impacted by the previous 28 school shootings so far this year.

Yet, today we are called to more than offering our "thoughts and prayers" as has been done so often in response to the steady cadence of gun violence in our nation; an epidemic of violence that now kills more children each year than any other single cause. We are called to do more than simply wish it were not this way.

Today, I ask you to learn about our denomination's work in the area of gun violence, an area of advocacy for the Presbyterian Church for over 50 years. You can get started by reading this brief "What We Believe" article from the Presbyterian Mission Agency: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/what-we-believe/gun-violence/

If you want to go deeper, near the end of the above article is a link to a longer report adopted by the 2010 General Assembly entitled "Gun Violence, Gospel Values: Mobilizing in Response to God's Call." This report explores in more depth some of the theological conversations around our response to gun violence, although the statistics are now quite dated and under-represent the degree of gun violence in our nation today.

I hope you will prayerfully consider how you can play a role in addressing the epidemic of gun violence in our nation. May God have mercy on us.

Pastor Chris