Religious Left Lobbies Congress on Gun Control, Pacifism

on March 28, 2014

There’s a scene in Miss Congeniality, the 2000 romantic comedy about an undercover FBI agent pretending to be beauty pageant contestant, where the contestants are asked the most important thing our society needs. One by one, the ditzy supermodels come up to the microphone and say the same thing, “World peace!” But when the FBI agent played by Sandra Bullock approaches the mic, she responds that she wants harsher punishment for parole violators. After a stunned silence, she quickly adds to thunderous applause, “…And world peace!”

It’s a funny scene in an otherwise forgettable movie, and one I kept remembering as I attended this year’s Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD) on March 20-23. Every year, liberal Christians converge in the Washington D.C. area for a weekend of policy workshops, advocacy training, and worship, all topped off with a day of lobbying on Capitol Hill. In recent years, the IRD has written extensively on many of the troublesome things we’ve seen at the gatherings.

The theme of the 12th annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days was “Jesus Weeps – Resisting Violence, Building Peace.” “Guided by the image of Jesus weeping over a capital city that turned from the true way of peace (Luke 19:41-42),” the national gathering’s website reads, “we will expose the violence that pervades our culture and world.” It goes on to give examples of violence that American Christians ought to fight to end, including gun violence, domestic abuse, drone warfare, and other armed conflicts.

I think it’s fair to say that if you asked any Christian, or virtually any American, they would agree that they would love to see an end to all the forms of violence listed above. I nodded along when plenary speakers denounced shootings at home and violent conflicts abroad. When pastors spoke of the solemn duty of all Christians to spread peace, I clapped with everyone else. And when prayers were given to God that our nation’s leaders pursue peace on a global scale, and that we might create peace in our lives, I could honestly say “Amen.”

If Ecumenical Advocacy Days had been Ecumenical Days, I might have left with a glowing profile. But once the world peace pageantry ended and discussions of actual policy began, it became any other liberal conference. ‘Violence,’ it turns out, is a very broad term. Certainly, EAD addressed topics like war and gun violence which can unambiguously be termed ‘violence’. But in a ham fisted effort to include every liberal hot button issue, the concept of ‘violence’ was stretched to its breaking point.

Consider the workshops on:

  • “laws that constrain corporate power and behavior” which “eases the violence that accompanies unfettered capitalism.”
  • “Attacks on efforts to raise the minimum wage, paid sick days, and wage theft, and as well corporate strategies designed to profit employers and violate labor standards and protections” which are “forms of violence against workers.”
  • “How do we transform the violence of sequestration into the promise of a sustained and national commitment to end poverty?”
  • “Economic Violence in the Guise of a Trans-Pacific Partnership.”
  • How “the violence of hunger impacts the international community, and show how better food aid policies contribute to lasting and sustainable peace.”

That list doesn’t even include the multiple environmental workshops, all of which seems to fall under a general banner of ‘violence’ against Creation. I was hoping that a Christian ecumenical conference on violence would naturally address the worldwide persecution of Christians. Unfortunately, that workshop was apparently set aside to make room for more pressing issues, such as the “violence” an Alaskan mine might inflict on the local sockeye salmon population.

While there were a myriad of issues discussed in plenaries and workshops, participants only lobbied Congress on two issues: gun control and reductions in military spending. EAD’s Congressional “Ask” states that they support policies that “Reduce acquisition and use of guns for purposes that cause harm.” In practice, this means a laundry list of gun control regulations, including universal background checks, limiting ammunition capacity and the public sale of semi-automatic firearms with detachable magazines, and mandatory gun locks and gun safes. The “Ask” also supports legislation to ban assault weapons and the “Gun Show Loophole Closing Act,” which would require gun show operators to register with the Attorney General, provide a photograph and fingerprints, and notify the Attorney General of the time, place, and duration of any gun show 30 days beforehand. The bill also grants the Attorney General the power to examine all their records and inventory “without a showing of reasonable cause or a warrant.”

The EAD proposal to reduce military spending has nothing to do with reducing the federal budget. On the contrary, EAD wants to see military funding diverted to “investments in education, healthcare, sustainable jobs with living wages, eliminating hunger and extreme poverty, clean energy,” etc. Those who worry about America’s role on the world stage can rest easy; EAD participants also lobbied Congress for greater investments in conflict prevention. “We have the opportunity to invest in a different way of leading the world, seeking relationship and community rather than living out of fear and violence…”

Both policy goals appear to operate off the simplistic assumption that fewer weapons will mean less violence. And that unilateral disarmament is the way to go. Indeed, throughout the entire weekend, many of the speakers were unabashedly pacifists. Friday’s keynote speaker was anti-nuke peace activist Rev. John Dear, who openly said that “War never brings peace… War is never justified; war is never blessed by God.” That statement earned him a standing ovation.

Of course, the thousands of liberal Christians who went around the Capitol Monday selling their pacifism aren’t just disarming themselves. They’re making it harder for those who believe in traditional Christian defenses of just war and self-defense to defend homeland and hearth. Pacifists are certainly free to refuse to own firearms and conscientiously object to serving in the military. When they interfere with the ability of those who think differently to serve and defend themselves, a line has been crossed.

“World peace!” Everyone wants it, and everyone applauds it. But the devil is always in the details (and believe me, further details are forthcoming in future blog posts). I applaud the constant prayers and speeches during Ecumenical Advocacy Days for imploring Christians to take up peacemaking and an end to violence, in accordance with the commands of Christ. But when “violence” is interpreted as “everything I don’t like” and when peacemaking means unrealistic pacifism, that’s when disagreements form, and the applause ends.

  1. Comment by Daniel on March 28, 2014 at 11:58 am

    Reminds me of my favorite bumper sticker – “Visualize Whirled Peas.” Ranks right up there with “Eschew Obfuscation.”

    How come these clowns don’t go to someplace like China and have their conference? Oh wait – that would put their personal safety at risk. I guess having a panel discussion on “The Church Militant” wouldn’t go over so well at one of these conferences.

  2. Comment by Rev Andrew Gerales Gentry on April 4, 2014 at 10:15 am

    My such a wonderfully “christian” response Daniel! By all means let us attack people who follow the Life of Christ which was and is a life of non violence, let us comfort ourselves in the knowledge that when people die becuase profit is of more value than life especially life for the poor we are still the “righteous nation” and yes let condemn as “clowns” people who take their commitment to Jesus seriously enough to speak truth to power and profit!

  3. Comment by Rev. Bradford B. Wilson on April 7, 2014 at 5:02 pm

    To Rev. A. G. Gentry, I was wondering why you are advocating such violence against those who might disagree with you? Daniel does not once attack anyone in his response. You on the other hand are attacking his character using the violence of sarcasm without actually giving him the benefit of actually responding to his actual statements. You throw around half truths and falsehoods about the death of poor people being caused by capitalism. At the same time you are advocating for hatred, violence, and bigotry against the very system that has raised more people out of poverty around the world than any other economic system that has ever existed in all of time. Any time I see people who sit back in their neat little ivory towers and throw sticks and stones at the straw-man of “evil capitalism” I am reminded of the Biblical fact that Jesus was never and never will be a pacifist. You’re ignoring so much of the Gospels and the rest of scripture as to be laughable. It is a shame that this is not a laughing matter. I don’t know where you went to seminary, but you clearly need to spend more time actually studying Jesus complete ministry. Forgive me for not spending more time explaining where you’ve missed the mark, but I have to go work in my church’s soup kitchen. I have no more time for those who think the rest of the world exists in their ivory towers.

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