Timothy Merrill, editor of Homiletics Magazine shared these thoughts about the recent events in Arizona and our times.
IS THERE A CURE FOR THE VIRUS OF VIOLENCE?
A few days ago, up in the International Space Station, Scott Kelly, the commanding officer, spoke over the radio as flight controllers in Houston fell silent.
“As I look out the window, I see a very beautiful planet that seems very inviting and peaceful,” he said. “Unfortunately, it is not. These days, we are constantly reminded of the unspeakable acts of violence and damage we can inflict upon one another, not just with our actions, but also with our irresponsible words,” he said.
“We’re better than this,” he said. “We must do better.”
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday, reminding us that 82 years ago MLK was born and forty-two some years ago MLK was gunned down while standing on a balcony in Memphis Tennessee. A few days ago Scott Kelly’s sister-in-law, Congresswoman, Gabrielle Gifford, was shot in the head in Arizona while staffing a booth where citizens could come to air their complaints. Two different events spanning more than 40 years but in the interval, thousands upon thousands of innocent children, women and men have died, victims of the assassin’s bullet, and many of these have died as part of a mass murder incident.
Of course, the bullets were flying long before King died. JFK had been felled before him, and RFK would drop shortly after him.
America is many things, and much of it good. No argument there. But we’re not here to discuss America’s goodness, but America’s illness. Even to the casual observer, America is a victim of the virus of violence, and America is a patient who can’t seem to recover from this dangerous disease. We are a country that seems to reflect the vision of the ancient prophet Habakukk: “So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted” (1:4).
It doesn’t help to say that the illness is self-inflicted. What matters is to decide how we’re going treat the disease or learn to live with the virus of violence.
When we get sick or our children get sick – a cold, the flu, the chicken pox, the measles, the mumps – we’re surprised, but only with the timing; we know that sickness happens, we’re just surprised that it comes when it comes. Perhaps we’re saddened – we feel badly for the child or those afflicted, we grief for their pain, and we wonder why – what caused the illness? Inside our hearts, we know that we’re going to get sick again and our children will get sick again. It’s a part of the mortal human experience.
This event in Arizona reminds us that America is likewise sick. We’re sick. Granted, we’re not always FEELING sick and while violence is going on SOMEWHERE, in the communities where we live, we might be untouched by violence-for now. But the country is sick. Like some sexually transmitted diseases, the illness lies dormant for a while and then suddenly there’s a flare-up. And then we’re shocked that this has again happened. We knew it would but somehow it surprises us. We’re saddened because we can empathize with those who are grieving, and of course we now take up the national debate as to how we can treat this virus of violence.
But this virus is never really dormant. While your community is at rest, somewhere in our country – in many place, in fact – communities are mourning an outbreak of violence. A child has been hit by a stray bullet, a 7-Eleven clerk has been robbed and murdered for $24 and change, a mail-sorter has been dropped at her station by a disgruntled postal worker, a teenager has been the bully’s victim for too long, a ex-husband murders the ex-wife, the child kills the parent, and so on. Every week, children are dying in cities across America to accidental shootings, gang-related, or in school yards and classroom. Don’t think we’re under siege? Don’t think we’re infected with the virus of violence? The situation has become so bad, that many schools require students, teachers and staff and visitors to pass through metal detectors. Some authorities advocate arming teachers so they can fight violence with violence. These same folks suggest creating textbooks with Kevlar covers so that students can use their school books as shields when the bullets start flying. Security camera are mounting in the hallways.
Can we with integrity say that this will change? Can we preach that the Peaceful Kingdom is coming if we will but treat the mentally ill better, tighten up what pitiful gun control measures are currently in place, try to do a better job in getting young people into a religious culture that effectively teaches the values of love and respect? Can we really preach the vision of Isaiah that someday the wolf and the lamb will lie down together?
No. That’s an eschatological vision that belongs to a kingdom that only God can usher in.
Perhaps that’s why MLK said that we must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.
So how do we deal with the virus of violence? Is an antidote available?
TAKE ACTION
Christians are people who are called to advocate for change. So if you can help educational and government and institutional agencies do a better job treating the mentally ill, do it. If you can lobby for gun control measures that are effective, do it. If you can use your voice to help soften the rhetoric and encourage civil discourse, do it. The Bible says: “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause” (Isaiah 1:17). MLK said: “If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street-sweeper who did his job well.’” If you can take action that will apply the ax to the root, do it. Bonhoeffer is often quoted in this regard, i.e. his view that we must bind the wounds of those the wheel has crushed, but we must also stop the wheel. If you can in any way be a wheel-stopper, be a wheel-stopper.
TAKE NO ACTION
That is, take no violent action yourself. Embrace peace as a life-style choice. Never lift your voice or your hand against another living creature. The apostle Paul, writing to the Romans, urges, “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all (12:18). “A soft answer turns away wrath,” so goes an ancient Hebrew proverb, “but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1). As MLK once said, “Non-violence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.”
BE OF YOUR OWN MIND
Resist the temptation to mimic the masses, to succumb to the contagion of the crowd, to be a sheep in a herd of sheep blindly following a wolf into a den of destruction, to a cog in the machinery of violence. Think for yourself, read for yourself, analyze for yourself. Again, Paul says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2). Notice the oppositional language: conformation versus transformation. Christians are not only those who have been transformed, but who are transformative, i.e. call other to step out of and away from the herd, to step away from the crowd, and to renew their minds.
EMBRACE DISINTERESTED LOVE
The Bible again and again called us to express agape love. The Biblical texts are clear about not only loving ourselves, loving our neighbor, but loving our enemies. This is a principle which we must first embrace ourselves, before we can teach it to others. MLK is right when he says that agape love is “disinterested” love. “Agape does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people, or any qualities people possess. It begins by loving others for their sakes . Therefore, agape makes no distinction between friend and enemy; it is directed toward both.”
Will these actions [and any further you might want to add] remove the virus of violence from the body society? Sadly no. But these actions will make a difference where we live. They will bring healing where it’s possible to bring healing. It’s our only option. As King said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
We must never despair.
As we grieve for 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green who was born on 9/11 and is the grand-daughter of former Major League Baseball manager Dallas Green; as we mourn for Federal judge John Roll, and Phyliss Schneck, Gabe Zimmerman, Dorothy Morris and Dorwan Stoddard as well as the 14 who were injured in this slaughter, and as we pray for a complete recovery for Congresswoman, and as we also pray for the young man who perpetrated this evil, we should always remember the words of the Bible, “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).
We might also remember – on this MLK Sunday – the words of the civil rights leader himself: “The time is always right to do what is right.”
Amen.
