Together with Dr. David Yamane of Wake Forest University, the Rev. Dr. Katie Day, a PC(USA) pastor, author and retired seminary professor, has been studying how faith communities have worked to protect themselves following mass shootings in places of worship, including at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015 and the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
Day shared some of the research during a “Gun Violence and Christian Ethics” webinar recently put on by the PC(USA)’s Office of Public Witness. More than 50 people attended.
Dr. Andrew Peterson, OPW’s associate for Peacemaking, welcomed those in attendance and noted the webinar is the second in a series of at least four exploring the intersection of gun violence and Christian ethics. Commissioners to the 225th General Assembly (2022) approved an item identifying 2022–2032 as the Decade to End Gun Violence.
Day, the Charles A. Scheiren Professor Emerita of Church in Society at United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia, noted household gun ownership was up 29% from 1994 to 2023, with at least one gun in nearly half of U.S. homes. From 2019until 2023, about 7.5 million Americans became gun owners, and a survey found that about half of non-gun owners can see themselves owning a gun in the future. About half of those surveyed said they believe guns make them safer. “The irony is more guns do not make us safer,” Day said. “If they did, we’d be the safest place on Earth.”
In 2023, 45,000 Americans died by guns, 2/3 by suicide. “These are not just numbers,” Day said. “They are human beings, loved by God.”
The 225th General Assembly approved a limited fund to help PC(USA) congregations, mid councils, worshiping communities and institutions conduct events to combat gun violence. “Trigger: The Ripple Effect of Gun Violence” has a study guide; the documentary itself is set for an update scheduled for next year.
“Faith leaders have had to contemplate this rare but horrific possibility of an active shooter in our houses of worship. It’s not covered in our seminary curricula,” Day said. “Into this vacuum, church security training organizations began to proliferate. Faith leaders have been flocking to them.”
How are congregations making sense of safety and security — theologically and practically — in light of the heightened sense of the threat of gun violence? Day and Yamane were awarded a grant from the Louisville Institute to study how congregations are conceptualizing safety and security.
They conducted research, embedded in several places, participated in national training programs for church security teams, and interviewed clergy and other church leaders in Texas, Philadelphia and North Carolina. “Our study revealed a variety of responses,” Day said. The range of responses ran from flight to fight.
“We found churches who were not concerned. Violence in their sanctuaries was incomprehensible,” Day said. For these churches, the worship space “is a refuge from the world out there. There’s no real theological framework for engaging this changing reality.”
Others told researchers, “We rely on God’s protection.” One pastor told them, “Guns may keep you safe, but only God will save you.”
Some churches said arming was incompatible with following Christ or rabbinic teaching. “Some said locking our church doors [during worship] is incompatible with our sense of hospitality,” Day said.
Many churches have enhanced their security systems. Now more than 40% of faith communities have security cameras, electronic door locks, automatic lighting or alarm systems. “This is expensive technology,” Day said, “and a problem for smaller congregations,” many of which worship in older buildings.
“We need to engage in conversation. We need to get over our fear of offending gun owners, even if they’re big contributors to our congregations,” Day said. She used to ask her seminary students, how many of you own a gun? Many were surprised by how many hands went up. “Then I asked, ‘How many of you have been impacted by gun violence, including suicide?’” Day said. “There was surprise by the numbers of those impacted.”
“That was the beginning of our conversation,” she said. “If we embrace or accommodate the increasing prevalence of guns, we elevate guns to being more important than the victims of gun violence.”
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)
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Gracious Jesus, guide us in this time of challenge and change. Fill us with hope to live boldly into your divinely inspired future. Amen.
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