Guns in Cultural Context

The Dallas Morning News ran an article on the recent school shooting in Sante Fe, Texas. It noted that in the aftermath of the shooting not only explicitly religious responses, but religion (almost entirely Christian) in the school itself was increasing. The instinctive response of this East Texas community was to turn to God for both answers and solace. Prayer meetings, vigils, memorials, and now Bible studies and prayer groups are an outcome far more visible than Texas governor Gregg Abbott’s three hastily called meetings with lawmakers and community leaders. We don’t know which will be more consequential,  but its clear nothing will happen quickly in the realm of public policy.

This is a stark contrast to the responses following the shooting at the Douglas High School in Parkland Florida. That shooting led almost instantly to student outrage turned to political action. And consequential political action. The state of Florida quickly changed some of its gun laws and the students went on to Washington DC. For weeks there was hardly a day that activism for gun control wasn’t in the news thanks largely to these students and their parents. 

In these two very different responses to very similar events we see cultural differences that are a fundamental part of contemporary American society. What we do in a crisis is a good indicator of how our culture understands the human person in relation to both society and the larger and largely unseen forces at large in the world. It indicates how we both realize and express our collective identity and solidarity. And it tells us where we find a connection with past and future.

One American culture places humans most immediately in the context of both Divine love and concern, and in the context of unseen and largely unmanageable forces that govern personal behavior. For Governor Abbot and his supporters the solution to school shootings is essentially defensive, more guards and more guns. 

The other American culture places humans most immediately in the context of the social and political networks that make up the common life. And those are manageable through tougher laws controlling gun ownership and use and identification and treatment of mental illness. From within this American culture prayers are, if not totally pointless, at least desperately misguided. If you want to change things you talk to your legislators, not to God.  

If we are wise we recognize that ours is a culturally plural society, and that this cultural pluralism isn’t just a result of ethnic or religious identity. Thus accomplishing any desirable goal will require dialogue and negotiation. Such dialogue and negotiation is tiresome if you are an activist who wants to change things immediately. And its tiresome if you happen to control the majority of the votes in a City Council, State Legislature, or Congress.  Yet without such dialogue and negotiation we accomplish nothing and find ourselves in the hands of those best able to negotiate and manipulate cultural difference. The current president of the United States is proving to be masterful at this. He met the Parkland students and talked about gun control then prayed with the families at Santa Fe and denied what he had said earlier.  In both cases he gained political credibility without committing to any political action.

And in the meantime? We Christians continue to fight the culture wars. The recent Supreme Court decision on the baker who didn't do a wedding cake for a same-sex marriage was essentially a rebuke to a government agency that refused to take the religious commitments of the baker seriously. But progressives, instead of actually learning something about religion and religious freedom have continued to post their teardrop emojis on Facebook and denigrate the religious beliefs of everyone who doesn't agree with them as irrelevant in relation to the need of LGBTQ persons to be affirmed in the public realm. And conservatives continue to act as if religious freedom is the preserve of evangelical Christians - trumpeting America as a Christian nation and looking for new ways to oppress Muslims (not to mention Jews and Mormons and yes, LGBTQ persons.) Small wonder that Christianity is declining; who wants to sign up for an ecclesial extension of a civil war?  

The founders of the United States understood that the new nation was multi-cultural. They set up mechanisms to both respect cultural difference and find a common good. As it happens cultural difference at that time was primarily mapped to geography, and thus a political system balancing geographically defined states in relation to the federal government made sense. Today while geography remains important, there are other markers of cultural difference, most obviously urban versus rural but others as well. It remains to be seen whether the leaders we elect whether in our government or in our churches (and we are ultimately responsible for them) are able to reshape our political systems for the diversity we are experiencing in the 21st century.