"Violence and Christian Ethics"

This past Wednesday there was a violent act that rocked the small city area of Wausau where I recently served as an interim pastor. The husband was going through a divorce with his wife and he went with a gun to the bank where his wife worked. This led to him killing two bank employees at work, his wife's divorce attorney, and a policeman who was chasing him down as he went to his apartment. He was ultimately apprehended by the police who shot him in his apartment which was just two blocks down the street from where I lived during the week when I was doing an out-of-town interim last year. This gun

violence rocked the world of this north-central Wisconsin city about ninety miles west of Green Bay. It also rocked my world!

Although I don’t live there anymore, violence came to my neighborhood two days ago. I began to get a sense of what it must be like to live in fringe neighborhoods of Chicago that had no violence one or two months or years ago, but now are visited by overflowing violence from farther in the inner city. Death by violence is never commonplace—I am sure you never get used to it. But it is certainly something that changes your view of the world to what once was a safe place to that which is no longer.

The deaths in Wausau were a result of a domestic dispute or incident. Regardless of the circumstances one wonders about two other issues today that are so prevalent in these violent acts: mental health and the ability to purchase and possess a gun. This is where ethics may come into play. I don’t know the specifics any future Trump health care bill. But I do understand that financing to maintain mental health is usually the first thing to get cut in any “belt tightening” federal budget. Still we have seen time and time again how the unstable mental health of a perpetrator leads to the death of innocent victims. Emotions like jealousy and rage can be contained short of violence for a person within normal mental health ranges. But when a person is already dealing with neuroses or psychoses, and may be dependent upon taking expensive pharmaceuticals to hold their condition in line, it is not a place to cut corners. The ethics for maintaining society would call for caring for those in need.

The second amendment “right to bear arms” remains a place for polarized argumentation still today. I agree with the position that it was never meant to be to establish ownership for personal handgun use. Its purpose was to maintain the possibility of a group defending itself against entities like the British government. So it reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." We need to tighten our control of who is able to purchase and use guns. When one is not able to contain one’s jealousy or rage or another powerful emotion, guns should not be allowed to that person.

I read an article as well quoting the brother of the accused shooter saying that in the past six months or more he has become somewhat of a loner. He never talked to his brother, as he did before. We are our brother and sister's keeper. We need to love our neighbor as ourselves by getting involved to curb "tragedies waiting to happen." As a society we cannot afford not to become involved in our family's life when it may well endanger the lives of others.

Ultimately, any violent act that happens in one’s neighborhood leads us to ask questions about the fragility of life and all of the things we cannot control. It leads to greater anxiety, which in turn seems to make us less able to think clearly. It leads us to be more likely to seek easy answers-- go for the “big fix.” If you could call it ethical thinking at all, gradual diminishment of confidence threatens the ability of all people to deliberate clearly in their own situations and to find ways to resolve them without resorting to such things as violence or hatred.

It does matter what we stand for. Lives within families and in communities in which we live are at stake. If we don't address mental health needs and the need to control the sale and possession of arms, violence will not only lead to tragic consequences in Newtown, CT and Charleston, SC and Wausau, WI, but every community.

Whatever theology you might have we might agree that the world is not as God meant it to be at creation. Sin affects and springs itself upon many people in a way we cannot understand. It all leads me to recall the poem “The Box,” written by Lascelles Abercrombie in 1971. I first heard it on an album by John Denver in the early 1970’s. I would like to share this poem with one change. I would like to replace the word “war” by the word “violence,” which I will do in parentheses. It is about "wanting to save the children now."

Once upon a time, in the land of Hush-A-Bye, Around about the wondrous days of yore, They came across a kind of box Bound up with chains and locked with locks And labeled "Kindly do not touch; it's war (violence)." A decree was issued round about, and all with a flourish and a shout And a gaily colored mascot tripping lightly on before. Don't fiddle with this deadly box, Or break the chains, or pick the locks. And please don't ever play about with war (violence). The children understood. Children happen to be good And they were just as good around the time of yore. They didn't try to pick the locks Or break into that deadly box. They never tried to play about with war (violence). Mommies didn't either; sisters, aunts, grannies neither 'Cause they were quiet, and sweet, and pretty In those wondrous days of yore. Well, very much the same as now, And not the ones to blame somehow For opening up that deadly box of war (violence). But someone did. Someone battered in the lid And spilled the insides out across the floor. A kind of bouncy, bumpy ball made up of guns and flags And all the tears, and horror, and death that comes with war (violence). It bounced right out and went bashing all about, Bumping into everything in store. And what was sad and most unfair Was that it didn't really seem to care Much who it bumped, or why, or what, or for. It bumped the children mainly. And I'll tell you this quite plainly, It bumps them every day and more, and more, And leaves them dead, and burned, and dying Thousands of them sick and crying. 'Cause when it bumps, it's really very sore. Now there's a way to stop the ball. It isn't difficult at all. All it takes is wisdom, and I'm absolutely sure That we can get it back into the box, And bind the chains, and lock the locks. But no one seems to want to save the children anymore. Well, that's the way it all appears, 'cause it's been bouncing round for years and years In spite of all the wisdom wiz since those wondrous days of yore And the time they came across the box, Bound up with chains and locked with locks, And labeled "Kindly do not touch; it's war (violence)."