A few days following the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Richard Land, recent head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, was interviewed on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” The interviewer was Robert Seigel, whose interest was in garnering Land’s Christian perspective on gun control given the broad-ranging discussion now occurring in our country.
What followed was an embarrassment to Baptists and to the Christian witness in general. Land said that while he was not personally opposed to limiting or banning military-style assault weapons, he did not think it politically wise nor constitutionally sound, favoring the arming of school teachers instead.
Nelson Harris |
In response to Seigel’s question about updating gun laws to limit or restrict semi-automatic wea-pons and 30-round gun clips, Land said this:
“Well, I personally don’t have a problem with sort of restriction [sic] on semi-automatic weapons, but I know many Americans do. But I don’t want the United States restricted to, you know, target pistols and shotguns …. The Second Amendment didn’t make that restriction and neither should we.”
My initial reaction was to think we might actually be a better society if private citizens were limited to handguns and hunting rifles. Beyond this, however, I found it quite interesting that Land’s defense of military-style assault weapons and macro-round gun clips being available to private citizens, albeit with background checks, was (a) that most Americans supported it, according to Land, and (b) that it was a right granted protection by Supreme Court rulings on the Second Amendment. Thus, on the issue of owning assault weapons it is proper because it is culturally popular and already legal. I will bear this Land-logic in mind when he and his cronies pontificate on other social matters.
As if Land could not have been more tone-deaf and insensitive in the wake of Newtown, Seigel appropriately asked Land, “What’s the New Testament justification for owning firearms?”
Land’s response, after a rather long pause, was stunning. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Love your neighbor as yourself.” Land explained that if a Christian saw a neighbor being harmed, then that Christian had a moral obligation to use lethal force if necessary to protect them. Land explained this was the moral justification for police and military to carry weapons, and apparently he believes Jesus’ commands would cover private citizens. To suggest that Jesus’ Golden Rule and Greatest Commandment could and should be used to justify citizens owning semi-automatic, macro-clip assault weapons is exegetically bankrupt. Surely no one would argue with Land that one should rise to defend one’s neighbor, but that misses the point. This is not about basic self-defense, but the exponential proliferation of weapons of mass killing in our society. According to Land, the answer to an increasingly violent society where another Newtown tragedy lurks just beyond the next news cycle is — more firepower.
Given that the United States owns half the world’s guns and that proportionally there is one gun for almost every man, woman and child in the nation are sobering statistics. Assault weapons that can fire multiple rounds in seconds have no place in our society other than with the military and law enforcement. They are not hunting rifles nor for sport. Given the breadth of Jesus’ teachings, the Christian witness should align with any and all efforts to reduce violence in society, (and there are many valid suggestions for this) the most obvious being to limit access to the instruments of mass killings. To suggest, then, that Jesus would have supported private ownership of semi-automatic weapons and macro-round clips is disturbing.
Listening to Land I could only wonder how many listeners were tuned in during the drive time national broadcast. Surely there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Land’s comments were detrimental to the Baptist brand and, more importantly, to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Nelson Harris ([email protected]) is pastor of Virginia Heights Baptist Church in Roanoke.