"My Gun and I," by Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman

Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman is the author of a fascinating new Times of Israel article, "My Gun and I." In this profoundly vulnerable piece, Rabbi Hartman reflects on his love/hate relationship with his firearm, and at a time when Israeli-Palestinian tensions are exceptionally high. 

A few words about Rabbi Hartman. He is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, a renown educator and thinker, and a combat veteran of Israel's armed forces. His educational experience is broad and deep: He did his Ph.D. work in Jewish Philosophy at Hebrew University (Jerusalem), studied political philosophy and religion at New York University and Temple University respectively, and received his Rabbinic Ordination from the Shalom Hartman Institute. 

According to its own website, the Shalom Hartman Insitute is "a pluralistic center of research and education deepening and elevating the quality of Jewish life in Israel and around the world. Through our work, we are redefining the conversation about Judaism in modernity, religious pluralism, Israeli democracy, Israel and world Jewry, and the relationship with other faith communities." Full disclosure: I was a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute for two years, have profound respect for the work of the scholars, leaders, and students there, and have had many interactions with Rabbi Hartman, who is, regardless of how one responds to this article or anything else he might say/write, a passionate, insightful, and provocative thinker. Even when one disagrees with him, he is always worth listening to. 

What I appreciate about Rabbi Hartman's article is his utter honesty about his love-hate relationship with his gun. However you evaluate the argument, I hope that you, the reader, will leave with a sense of appreciation for Rabbi Hartman's willingness to give us a glimpse into how the intersection of faith, firearms, and ethics are manifest in the life of a particular Jewish intellectual, whose country is currently experiencing a serious and troubling uptick in violence. 

Faith, Family, and Firearms: Duck Dynasty

A&E's Duck Dynasty is one of the most popular series on television today. Now in its 8th season, the show provides one of the clearest, most prominent examples of how one family (the Robertsons) holds together the realities of faith and firearms. While I've never tried it, I'm willing to bet that one could not find a single episode in which guns and religion are not given some air time. In fact, concerninng the latter, faith is always showcased at the end of each show, when one of the family members leads a prayer around a typically full and festal dinner table. 

As I talk with gun owners from around the country, I would have to say that the Robertsons are both typical and atypical of American gun owners. The Robertsons poverty-to-privilege narrative is clearly exceptional, and their fame remarkable. However, the family's deep appreciation for hunting, the outdoors, family, and "redneck" living is certainly not--and neither is their faith. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, "Americans who are most likely to own guns or share a household with a person who owns a gun include members of the Tea Party (63%), white evangelical Protestants (58%), and Republicans (60%). Americans who are least likely to own guns or share a household with a person who owns a gun include Democrats (34%), Catholics (32%), Northeasterners (27%), and non-white Americans (23%)" (http://publicreligion.org/research/2012/08/august-2012-prri-rns-survey/#.ViAJhZRHarU). The Robertsons certainly fit into several of these categories. 

I referred above to the Robertson family's "privilege," but they would almost certainly prefer the term, "blessing." In their view, the position they now find themselves in is not simply the result of winning the economic lottery: They have been given a calling, and they now have responsiblities to the One who provided that calling. 

In a recent edition of the popular magazine Guns & Ammo (November 2015), Willie and Jase Robertson were asked, "What are the top three things that you'd credit your family's success to?" (p. 75). Willie replied,"Faith for sure, our family's willingness to stick together and our incredible good looks . .. (laughs). Perhaps the third thing we've been blessed with is the gift of storytelling" (p. 76). Jase's answer: "God is number one. The best part of the show has been exposing people to Christianity through our prayer at the end of every episode. Phil has gone on to baptize hundreds of people into the faith. It makes us humble and proud" (p. 76). Jase goes on to tell a story about his uncle Si, also an outspoken Christian: "When Si took the director of the first 'Duck Dynasty' show on a tour of the river,Si told theman, 'Technically, you're not directing this. God is" (p. 76). These two Robertson men clearly believe that the platform they've been given is a divine gift, and one they intend to use. 

Phil Robertson in particular takes his newfound platform very seriously, unapologetically using it to comment  on matters of faith, politics, and values. One finds Phil Robertson commenting on everything from ISIS ()http://youtu.be/qhYbxCRcLCM) to homosexuality (http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/12/18/phil-robertson-suspended-after-comments-about-homosexuality/). The Bible plays a central role in how Phil interprets society and its woes. 

He is unmoved by controversy, or even by the disciplinary attempts of A&E. Phil Robertson is like Donald Trump: he speaks his mind with little to no regard for the well-patrolled borders of political correctness. 

Jase also seems to share Phil's concern that the Bible be given a central place in American politics. In response to the question, "What do the Robertson's look for in a presidential candidate?" Willie: "Obviously the 2nd Ammendment is big to us, and their spiritual platform. When you read the forefathers, our country was founded on those two principles" (p. 74). Jase, similarly, linked faith and politics: "I think it was George Washington who said, 'It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible" (p. 74). As far as I can tell, the Robertson men share a common conviction about the Bible, namely that it provides a clear standard by which to judge society and the government charged with its care. The Bible provides a guide, not only for the lives of individuals but also for American society. This conviction is further grounded in a particular interpretation of America's founding fathers, whom they see as ideological allies. 

Whenever I interview people, I usually ask what guns symbolize to them. While my own minimalist public profile all but guarantees that I will never get to ask the Robertson's that question directly, the aforementioned interview in the November 2015 version of Guns & Ammo may give us a glimpse into how Jase and Willie might answer this question. Both were asked, "What does the 2nd Ammendment mean to you?" Willie, the businessman of the family, responded with a typical nod to family and industry: "We are a family that hunts and works in the gun business. It's our life and our livelihood. We've always been about the 2nd Ammendment" (p. 64). Jase's response actually provided the interview's first reference to guns as tools of self-defense against human violence, a topic rarely broached in the television series: "The Second Amendment means freedom to me, freedom to provide for your family and protect yourselves from evil" (p. 64). The freedom to bear arms is tied to one's responsibilities to family and self.

For Willie and Jase, guns are also clearly related to family history, legacy, and patriotism. When asked about their first guns, they not only provided answers (a .410 shotgun), they told stories. Willie:"Our first guns were a couple of family guns. We didn't have a lot of money, so we only had a 16 gauge and Dad had bought me a .410" (p. 62). After a jovial argument about for who actually owned the gun, a number of stories spilled out about how Willie damaged the gun as a child, and how (after sawing off the damaged part), it became a snake-slayer (pp. 63-64). 

The Robertson family is in many ways typical of gun owners in America. In other ways, however, they are exceptional. At day's end, one thing is clear: They represent one of the most public examples of a family that is entirely comfortable at the intersection of faith and firearms.  

Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey (R): Serious Christians Need to Get Serious about Gun Ownership

Religion stands at the very center of the recent school shooting at Umpqua Community College. According to many accounts, the shooter asked his victims about their religious views before shooting them (see the following ABC News article). As the investigation continues, more details about the shooter will no doubt emerge. 

Religion has also played a role in the response to this shooting, at least for Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, a Republican from Tennessee, according to a Washington Post article by Elahe Izadi, Lt. Gov. Ramsey ("Christians ‘serious about their faith’ should consider getting guns, Lt. Gov. says"). On his Facebook page, Ramsey posted a NY Post article about the shooter's targeting of Christians and then makes the following statement: 

"As I scroll through the news this morning I am saddened to read the details of the horrible tragedy in Oregon. My heart goes out to the citizens of Roseburg -- especially the families and loved ones of those murdered.

The recent spike in mass shootings across the nation is truly troubling. Whether the perpetrators are motivated by aggressive secularism, jihadist extremism or racial supremacy, their targets remain the same: Christians and defenders of the West.

While this is not the time for widespread panic, it is a time to prepare. I would encourage my fellow Christians who are serious about their faith to think about getting a handgun carry permit. I have always believed that it is better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.

Our enemies are armed. We must do likewise."

Ramsey then posts a link to Tennessee's Handgun Carry Permit page, providing people with instructions on how to obtain the permit. 

The story of the Umpqua Community College shooter is one in which religion and guns tragically intersect. The discourse that emerges at this intersection, however, will only become denser as Americans register their responses to this tragedy. If the responses thus far are at all telling, "religion" will not, and indeed never does, provide a single response to human suffering and violence. 

Guns as Idols?

Are guns idols? According to a number of Christian leaders and theologians guns certainly are, at least for some people. The gun, they, claim is a particularly American idol, and one that must be challenged and called out. This post looks at some of those figures and the various ways they have made their cases.

Rev. Dr. David Gushee (Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics & Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life) has recently published a "prayer" on the website, religionnews.com, titled, "Let us all now pray to the Almighty Gun." (I use the quotations marks around "prayer" intentionally, and in a way that I think reflects the spirit of Dr. Gushee's post.) 

At the top of the poem, Dr. Gushee includes a warning to his readers:

"Some will find this post sacrilegious. What is truly a sacrilege is our devotion to an Object that keeps killing us and our children."

His poem begins this way:

"Early in the morning we rise to greet You, O Gun Almighty. With all due reverence we bow before You.
You alone are great. Mighty are Your deeds. Awesome is Your power.
There is no one like You. In You do we place our trust.
With one press of Your trigger, we unleash Your power, a power almost too great to imagine.
Power to pierce flesh and shatter bone.
Power to bring down the strongest man.
Power to end the most vibrant life.
Who can fail to bow before Your great power?
Who are we that You should entrust Yourself to us?
We do thank You for delegating Your power to us, mere mortals.
However weak we are in body or in mind, when we hold You we share in Your great power.
However insignificant we are, when we hold You we are great indeed.
We too gain authority over life. We too can bring death with the mere press of a trigger.
We are grateful, O Gun Almighty, that with the exception of just a few bad humans, we can be trusted with Your great power.
There are doubters, O Almighty Gun.
They do not trust You as we do.
They certainly know Your power, but they do not trust Your goodness as we do.
They claim that You make us less not more secure.
But we know, O Gun, that only in You can we find true security.
They claim that it is too easy for people to get access to You.
But we know, O Gun, that only when everyone has access to You will we find true peace.
They claim that You kill, and often kill wrongly.
But we know, O Gun, that it is not You that kill, but instead we who kill, and certainly we who kill wrongly.
They claim that we would be safer if there were fewer guns.
Be we know, O Gun, that it is only a well-armed society that is truly secure.
And so we implore you, O Gun, to strengthen your priests and ministers as they pursue Your work in the world:
May they find success in weakening Gun control efforts.
May they find success in deflecting blame from You after every mass killing in which people wrongly use You.
May they find success in securing the right to bear arms in all public places: schools, churches, malls, airports, bars, restaurants, streets, movie theaters, train stations, buses, airplanes, post offices, city halls, and everywhere people gather.
May they find even more success in funding and electing legislators who will faithfully serve You, O Gun.
When we doubt, O Gun Almighty, strengthen our faith in You.
When the number of killings rise, strengthen our faith in You.
When children are murdered in large numbers, strengthen our faith in You.
Though You slay us, yet will we trust in You.
As for me and my house
As for us and our nation
We will trust in You alone, O Gun Almighty."

See more at: http://davidgushee.religionnews.com/2015/08/31/let-us-all-now-pray-to-the-almighty-gun-2/#sthash.wbywBnoc.dpuf

By offering this "prayer" to the gun, Dr. Gushee joins a number of other religious leaders who claim that guns can be treated as idols or gods. Gushee doesn't use the word, "idol" in his poem, but a brief glance at it indicates that he doesn't need to; that he thinks guns can be idolatrously worshiped is clear from the text's prayerful tone. Form speaks just as loud as content. 

Other faith leaders who have also adopted the "idolatry" argument include the Presbyterian Church USA pastor emeritus, James Atwood, whom I recently interviewed. Atwood's arguments are most comprehensively stated in his book, America and Its Guns: A Theological Expose (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2012). Atwood is clear that "Not for one minute do I believe all guns are idols, but I do believe that some guns are idols. I'd never say that all gun owners are idolatrous, but I insist some gun owners are" (Atwood, 20). In Chapter 3 of his book, he offers a detailed description what he means by "idol," and why he interprets some guns in this way. The interview I did with Atwood lays out these arguments as well, albeit in a more conversational tone. 

Rev. Peter Marty (St. Paul Church, Davenport, IA) makes his case in The Lutheran, a subscription-based magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. His article, "Guns in a Culture of Idolatry" (The Lutheran, Nov 2014), claims that, "Among many Americans, the gun now claims nearly divine status. Our fascination with its powers has turned it into a small ‘g’ god. If Martin Luther’s definition of a god has any enduring truth to it—’A god is that to which we look for all comfort and take refuge in every time of need’—the gun has risen to achieve godlike prominence . . . You don’t question a god that requires human sacrifice and guarantees your security and safety. You revere this god even when it can’t sustain such guarantees. You enshrine its divinity in an impenetrable temple called ‘my rights.’” A review of this article was done on the Faith and Firearms Project You Tube Channel.

Finally, I would draw your attention to a YouTube video by the online preacher, David Williams, who has posted hundreds of videos on a whole variety of topics related to Christian living, including guns. In his video, "God and Guns: What Jesus Stated," Pastor Williams refers to the use of guns in self-defense as "false religion"(see 4:36-4:50)--not quite idolatry but close! He goes on to say, "Either Jesus is gonna protect me, or he's not . . . It's my faith that prevents me from having a sidearm" (5:12-5:24). Later in the video he says, "You take the gun, you take the spirit of death attached to it" (9:08-9:12). Even though Pastor Williams doesn't claim that guns are idols, he comes close enough to warrant his inclusion on this ariticle. 

The use of idolatry in religious polemic is deeply grounded in the faith of these four Christian men, and most especially in the literature of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Many texts in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible label unacceptable worship practices as idolatrous. The Ten Commandments themselves condemn idolatrous worship (Exod 20:3-6; Deut 5:7-10). The prophet Jeremiah condemns the inhabitants of Judah for trusting in idols that "cannot speak . . . have to be carried . . . [and] cannot walk" (Jer 10:5). And the famous Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical story of Bel and the Dragon depicts Daniel cleverly demonstrating to the king that Bel, the king's deity, is nothing more than an idol.

Standing here at the intersection of guns and religions, one sees how profoundly complex it actually is. Do religion and guns intersect? Yes, but in many different ways. 

ChurchNext Online Course: A Christian Response to Gun Violence

Two Episcopal Bishops, Eugene Sutton and Ian Douglas, are offering a free, online course that seeks to explore the issue of gun violence from a Christian perspective. I'm enrolled in this course and will continue to blog about it as I find time.

The class revolves around four video presentations:

• The Unholy Trinity (Eugene Sutton)
• Violence and the Bible (Eugene Sutton)
• A Theology for Challenging Gun Violence (Ian Douglas)
• Christian Responsibility (Ian Douglas)

Pedagogically, the course is not monolithic, but deploys a number of different learning strategies, including lecture, prompt-based conversation, personal reflection, and even self-assessments. What I'm most looking forward to are the discussions that follow upon the lecture. Gun violence conversations online are notorious for their vitriol, but I'm hoping that the professors are able to create a space for honest dialogue around this contentious issue, dialogue that is inviting to a whole range of views. This is a challenging thing to do, and one that I've often failed at. My hope is that they succeed in this venture.

A bit about the teachers: Bishops Sutton and Douglas are also involved in the leadership of Bishops against Gun Violence, which advocates for the following policies:

We urge our cities, states and nation to adopt policies and pass legislation that will reduce the number of Americans killed and wounded by gunfire. These include:

1. Expanding the federal background checks system to cover gun shows, internet and commercial sales
2. Making gun trafficking a federal crime
3. Encouraging the development of “smart gun” technology to reduce accidental shootings—especially among children
4. Requiring that guns be stored safely
5. Improving access to mental healthcare for all Americans.

From what I can tell, the course reflects similar values. 

Vice Mini-Documentary: Free Syrian Army Snipers

In this 12:00 minute video, catch a glimpse into the lives of several Free Syrian Army snipers, who claim to fght, not only with makeshift sniper rifles, but also with the strength of Allah. 

https://youtu.be/y3jbNepN6kM

Scriptural Weapons: Biblical Inscriptions on Firearms and Related Items

A recent Fox News story highlights Spike's Tactical's recently released "Crusader" Rifle, which has attracted attention not only because of the rifle's name ("Crusader"), but also because of the Bible verse that is inscribed on the right hand side of the gun: "Blessed be the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle" (Ps 144:1). 

But Spike's Tactical is not unique in its desire to associate its firearms with the Christian faith. Other firearms companies include religious inscriptions and iconography on their guns and other other firearms related items. Patriot Ordinance Factory (P.O.F.), for instance, regularly inscribes "God bless America" on their rifles' ejection port covers. 

Trijicon, a premier optics company that contracts with the US military, sparked a controversy when it was discovered that the company includes abbreviated citations of Bible verses. The story was predictably controversial, and was covered by a number of professional and popular news sources: 

ABC: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-military-weapons-inscribed-secret-jesus-bible-codes/story?

Accurate Shooter: http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2010/01/trijicons-subtle-christian-messages/id=9575794

NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/22guns.html?_r=0

The Truth about Guns: http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2012/09/robert-farago/trijicon-jesus-rifle-controversy-continues/

BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8474268.stm

Apparently, Trijicon has ceased this practice when it comes to optics sold to the US military. 

Although recently attention has been given to the Spike's Tactical Crusader rifle, it is important to note that the assignment of religious significance to a gun, or to a weapon more generally, is (historically speaking) a widespread and ancient practice. Humanity often finds the transcendent in the material, especially when the material items themselves are so closely associated with the realities of life, death, power, and will.