‘Would Jesus Wear a Sidearm?’

[SecularMotion]

Like most other conservative evangelical ministers, the Rev. Rob Schenck objects to same-sex marriage. He is also vehemently against abortion rights. But as this Op-Doc video shows, he is remarkable in that he takes his pro-life stance so far that he contests death by gun. The way he sees it, the gun violence plaguing our nation is akin to “adult abortion.”

Reducing gun violence is important to us, too. Horrified by the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School nearly three years ago, we were equally stunned by how quickly the national conversation turned away from concern about the lives lost and devolved back to a familiar, futile shouting match over guns.

We decided to make a feature film that pursued a new way to talk about this issue. We were struck that many people of deep Christian faith, especially white evangelicals, are as militant about protecting gun rights as they are about protecting the right to life. We sought to explore what, rhetorically at least, seemed to be logical and theological contradictions in this position. Politics aside, how can a Christian be both pro-life and pro-gun?

Given the ferocity of the politics, it was challenging to find a minister who was comfortable speaking his conscience. But Mr. Schenck, who runs a ministry in Washington, D.C., called Faith and Action, explained his worry that silence from him and other Christian leaders on the topic was creating a “spiritual vacuum.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/opinion/would-jesus-wear-a-sidearm.html