Stiff-Necked and Hard-Hearted

It has been one year since the Sandy Hook school shooting that took the lives of innocent children. According to a Media Matters blog dated December 10, 2013, there have been 23 Gun Safety Victories Since Sandy Hook. While I am grateful that there has been progress over the past year, it is not enough to cure what ails our country. So with renewed grief over yesterday's Arapahoe High School shooting so close to my own home, I am reposting an article I wrote after the Newtown shootings. God help us!

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I read the Bible almost every day so it is no wonder that certain words come to me as I think about the issues of today. In the Old Testament, God frequently referred to the Israelites as stiff-necked. Why did God call them that?  He called them "stiff-necked" because they were stubborn like the oxen the people used to plow the fields. If an ox did not want to be led, it would stiffen the muscles in its neck.

Sometimes stubbornness goes hand in hand with a hard heart. The book of Exodus tells the story of the Israelites' slavery in Egypt. God heard their suffering and chose Moses to lead them out of Egypt. He told Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let the Hebrews leave his country. Before Pharaoh let the people leave, God sent many plagues to persuade him. Water turned into blood, flies, locusts, boils, etc. Pharaoh still stubbornly refused to let the people go. With each plague, God hardened Pharaoh's heart even more than it already was before. Why Did God Harden Pharaoh's Heart? According to Gotquestions.org, "God was giving Pharaoh increasingly severe warnings of the judgment that was to come."

The reason I have been thinking about stiff necks and hardened hearts is that since 12/14, many Americans, including some of my friends and relatives, have stubbornly opposed any restriction of gun ownership rights. It seems particularly cold and callous given the level of gun violence in this country and the horrific deaths of innocent children at Sandy Hook Elementary. Even though thousands of Americans are victims of gun violence every year and mass shootings are becoming commonplace, these gun advocates view any government restrictions on the ownership of weapons and ammunition as a yoke on their necks.

Matthew 11:30 (NIV)  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Evidently, these people do not want to be yoked by God either. The ten commandments God handed down to Moses include one that most people are familiar with: Thou shalt not kill. Another commandment frequently ignored by those who treat gun ownership as a sacred right is God's command about idolatry:

Exodus 20:3-4 King James Version 

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

"Other gods" are not just graven images. Anything that gets in the way of honoring, serving, and obeying God is an idol of your heart, including the reverence of guns. 

As a Christian, I don't comprehend why so many law-abiding citizens are opposed to common-sense  restrictions on the broadly worded right to bear arms our forefathers put in the Second Amendment.  Some people seem to be motivated by a desire to maintain the macho image they think guns give them and many others seem to be motivated by fear. The gun industry and the NRA encourage both of these instincts; it is quite profitable for them to do so.

I am motivated to oppose senseless gun violence by the higher law handed down by God the Father. God wants us to love one another. He has promised to be with and strengthen those who love him. We need not live in fear.

Isaiah 41:10 King James Version

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee;  yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.  

In 2010, the Presbyterian Church (USA) issued a paper titled Gun Violence, Gospel Values: Mobilizing in Response to God's Call. The paper encourages the church to "seek a spiritual response of grief and repentance, grace and courage to resist that [gun] violence and celebrate the Lord and Giver of Life." I have responded with grief to the mass shootings in this country as millions of others have. Grief is not enough. It is time for the faith community to speak out against our culture of violence, to honor God and celebrate the gift of life.