Beating Guns , livre ebook

Cover
Endorsements
“What does history teach us? Guns and violence offer the momentary illusion of control—the thrill of power—but then we look up and find ourselves seeped through with the stench of death. From the genocide of Native Americans to slave patrols armed by the Second Amendment to the militarized racism of the last century to Columbine and Pulse nightclub and Chicago, guns have promised Americans peace and delivered heartbreak again and again and again. Beating Guns dives deep and uncovers the pathologies of violence in our society. Claiborne and Martin shine light on a path out of the madness. It’s time to never again say ‘never again.’”
— Lisa Sharon Harper , founder and president of FreedomRoad.us
“ Beating Guns fills a spiritual void in our national conversation on guns. This powerful book employs pragmatic wisdom and challenging biblical insight to offer a fresh, humane, and sacred view of our guns, our violence, and the nation’s collective response to human suffering.”
— Otis Moss III , writer, activist, sacred troublemaker, and pastor of Trinity UCC, Chicago, Illinois
“This is the quintessential pro-life book if there ever was one! The tireless, intrepid Shane Claiborne is joined by Michael Martin in a summons to face up to the claims of faith in response to gun pathology. This book is both a bold summons to imagine a gun-regulated society and a mandate to act in the public domain. A must for those who care but who have not yet cared enough to weigh in actively for the sake of an abundant life that overrides the lethal power of fear.”
— Walter Brueggemann , Columbia Theological Seminary
“Outrage about gun violence in this so-called Christian nation is the easiest path of resistance. In fact, outrage is too easy. It is much harder to grieve over those suffering from gun violence and over how Christians have embraced a legal right—called the Second Amendment—as their Christian right. But the most difficult path is hope carried by love, and it is this love that empowers Beating Guns . It is time for Christians to turn from the insane violence of guns and their defense by rights to a cross-shaped vision of how we ought to live.”
— Scot McKnight , professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary
“This book could change America and awaken Christianity! Seldom have I seen such a combination of documented history, compelling narrative, helpful visuals, and practical, readable theology in one book. Read Beating Guns and try to decide whether you need to weep or rejoice. Probably both!”
— Richard Rohr, OFM , Center for Action and Contemplation
“This is a book worth reading and then doing something about.”
— Bob Goff , New York Times bestselling author of Love Does
“Anyone who is worn out by our country’s day-to-day infatuation with violence needs the hope that is contained in this skillfully written tour de force. The authors ask the question, Can one carry a cross in one hand and a killing machine in the other? Some may answer yes. But, if one reads this book, no simplistic answers are possible.”
— James E. Atwood , retired Presbyterian pastor and author of America and Its Guns: A Theological Exposé and Gundamentalism and Where It Is Taking America
“A story behind every statistic. Beating Guns is a book of stories that will crack our hearts wide open—stories that will convince us that if we value life, if we are pro-life, we have to find a way to beat guns. Mike Martin beat a gun at Middle Collegiate Church, beat it into a farming tool. Shane Claiborne’s honest prose will convert you. Together these visionaries show us the way to beat guns.”
— Jacqui Lewis , senior minister, Middle Collegiate Church, New York; executive director, The Middle Project
“ Beating Guns helps gun lovers and gun haters to suspend their assumptions and look afresh at lethal firepower and find surprising solutions to the deadly problems associated with them. A very timely book that can be enormously helpful to individuals, churches, and whole communities who know that something must be done.”
— Rob Schenck , subject of The Armor of Light , an Emmy Award–winning documentary on evangelicals and guns; president of The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute
“The violence epidemic in America that has made guns a part of America’s wardrobe is making our children ‘road kill.’ It comes from a love affair with guns and the deception that they somehow make us safer. In Beating Guns , we are reminded of what Dr. King taught us, that if we can change our hearts we can change our world.”
— Michael L. Pfleger , pastor of The Faith Community of Saint Sabina
“For any who feel helpless in a society that seems to accept gun violence as inevitable, this book will change you. Being faithful to Jesus requires taking seriously the message of this book.”
— Tony Campolo , professor emeritus, Eastern University
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2019 by Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin
Published by Brazos Press
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.brazospress.com
Ebook edition created 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-1707-0
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture quotations labeled CEB are from the Common English Bible © 2011 Common English Bible. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2011
Scripture quotations labeled NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Photo credits for collage on page 263: Shovels: Pedro Reyes, Palas Por Pistolas; Gun guitar: © Sergio Moraes / Reuters Pictures; Steel flower and gun/plow: made by Fred Martin; Saxophone: photo by Jana Meyer, Mennonite Central Committee in Mozambique; Menorah: “Loaded Menorah” by Boris Bally, https://BorisBally.com
Interior design by Brian Brunsting
Dedication
To all the lives lost to guns
To all the families affected by gun violence
To those who are committed to building the world foretold by the prophets
Where people beat swords into plows and turn from death to life
Contents
Cover 1
Endorsements 2
Half Title Page 3
Title Page 5
Copyright Page 6
Dedication 7
Note to th e Reader 11
Introduction: Whispers of Another World 13
1. Turning Weapons into Farm Tools (and Other Lovely Things) 19
2. The Mess We Find Ourselves In 32
3. Gun History 101 45
4. The Gun Empire 69
5. Do Black Guns Matter? 79
— Consider This: Gallery of the Absurd 88 —
6. Mythbusting 99
7. Kids and Guns 110
8. Another Dark Secret 120
9. Dudes and Their Guns 129
10. The Second Amendment and the Sermon on the Mount 145
— Consider This: Laying It All Out There 160 —
11. In Guns We Trust 165
12. Exorcising Demons 181
13. Christians with Guns 189
14. Unlearning Violence 198
— Consider This: Matthew 5 211 —
15. The Third Way of Jesus 215
16. Love Casteth Out Fear (and Fear Casteth Out Love) 225
17. Commonsense Change 238
18. Reimagining the World 255
Acknowledgments 267
Notes 269
Notes to Sidebars 286
Back Cover 289

Note to the Reader
I F Y O U O W N G U N S and want to see fewer people killed, this book is for you.
If you’ve never even touched a gun and want to see fewer people killed, this book is for you.
If you are a victim of violence or have lost a loved one to murder, this book is for you.
If you have hurt or killed someone, this book is for you.
Basically, this is a book for everyone who is tired of violence.
This is a book for people who believe—or who want to believe—that things can be different than they are right now.
Even if you’re a doubter or skeptic, if you have to fight back despair and cynicism, this book is for you.
A man once came up to Jesus and said, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). We all have days like that. That might be a good prayer for us to begin with—“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.”
Our hope is that this book will give you courage and imagination, and stir in you a defiant hope that guns and violence are not the most powerful forces in the world.
Love is.

Introduction
WHISPERS OF ANOTHER WORLD

You see things; and y ou say, “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?”
—George Bernard Shaw
S OME PEOPLE ARE MOTIVA TED BY THEIR HEADS , and others are moved by their hearts. We hope to engage both the head and the heart in this book.
Not many people get argued into thinking differently, but experiences and stories move us, especially when we have the humility to listen and to view the world from a different lens, from someone else’s eyes. We are going to share many stories in this book—many of them from people who have been directly affected by guns. But first, let’s start with a personal story.
I (Shane) grew up with guns in the good ole state of Tennessee. I went hunting and frog gigging (spearing bullfrogs) with my grandpa. He used to throw smoke bombs into groundhog holes and have me shoot the groundhogs when they ran out. I was lethal to squirrels. I remember shooting two squirrels with one shot of my .410 s