Moral Courage
Almighty God, receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 238, Collect for the Feast Day of the Holy Innocents).
The horrific murder of students and teachers in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday has once again brought anyone who is paying attention to our knees. It’s given parents a pit in their stomach, and a pause in the carpool line. It’s given undervalued teachers yet another reason to wonder why they make the sacrifices they do. The rights of the protectors are ripping apart the childhood of those whom they claim to be protecting. This came on the heels of a weekend of gun violence, including the hate-fueled massacre in Buffalo that targeted the Black community and ended ten lives, and a shooting at the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, California. Lord, have mercy.
The Dean of Washington National Cathedral, Randy Hollerith, says it better than I can:
If we cannot summon the moral courage to look honestly at the sickness in our society, to face the truth and to change our ways, that will be horrific and incomprehensible. If the death of innocent children does not shake us from our slumber, there is only one way to describe the future we are building for ourselves: horrific and incomprehensible.
There is too much despair, too many guns, too few mental health resources. For too many, when they have nowhere else to turn, they turn to violence.
We need to repent from our apathy and our paralysis. We have talked and talked and talked. But now is the time to act.
We have become numb to the violence all around us. We are failing our children and each other. May God have mercy on the families of Uvalde—and may God have mercy on us all.
In addition to praying for the communities in Buffalo, Laguna Woods, and Uvalde, I invite you to pray for moral courage. The time has long passed for us to blame this, or any preventable act, on a few who hold power. We elect those in positions of power. Moral courage is more than a post on social media, or dismissing the news in disgust or fatigue. It is stepping into a space that necessarily requires a sacrifice so that we might live in alignment with our values.
One of the things we can all do is to join an advocacy group that provides guidance on how to work towards gun safety in every community. Everytown for Gun Safety is one place to start. In case you think this is a problem only in communities that look different from ours, “Guns are the leading cause of death among children and teens in Virginia. In Virginia, an average of 96 children and teens die by guns every year, of which 40% of these deaths are suicides and 56% are homicides.” [1] For those who wish to learn more about the Episcopal Church’s position on gun safety and reform, I encourage you to visit the Office of Government Relations’ Resources to Respond to Gun Violence. There you will also find prayer resources, bishops’ statements, and advocacy resources. I will not be present in person on Sunday, but invite you all begin what I hope will be a longer conversation about what is required of the faithful people of God. Together, let us pray for clarity as to how we might act on that which breaks open our hearts, and the very heart of God.
Beth
[1] https://everystat.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Gun-Violence-in-Virginia.pdf