‘Open season’ as PCUSA asks members to turn in their guns Ecumenical News International Monday, September 14, 1998 NEW YORK (ENI) – The national headquarters of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been flooded with hundreds of protests following a call by the denomination’s General Assembly for church members to voluntarily remove handguns and assault weapons from their homes. Reaction to the resolution has been “vigorous, vicious and universally negative,” according to Kathy Lancaster, who works on criminal justice issues for the denomination. She called the vitriolic reaction “open season” on the church. The church’s national offices in Louisville, Ken. have received close to 300 phone calls and e-mail communications on the non-binding resolution. Church spokesman Jerry Van Marter said reaction had been 9-to-1 against it. The resolution, approved on a 393-120 vote on June 18 at the denomination’s policy making General Assembly in Charlotte, N.C., called on the denomination’s 2.6 million members to “intentionally work toward removing handguns and assault weapons” from their homes and to seek ways to protect children against violence. The resolution was in part a reaction to a series of recent shootings at U.S. schools by teenage students, such as an incident in June in which a 15-year-old was charged with killing two classmates and wounding 22 others at an Oregon high school. Though the Presbyterian Church has passed a number of resolutions in the last 30 years calling for legislative remedies to curb gun violence, this is the first time the church, and probably any prominent U.S. religious body, has made a “moral appeal” to its members to turn in their weapons. The strong reaction against the resolution has not surprised Presbyterian officials, given the volatility of the gun issue in the U.S. and the fact that those who advocate access to handguns have traditionally been more vocal than gun opponents. Lancaster and Van Marter said they did not believe the reaction was reflective of Presbyterians, since many of the e-mail messages they have received have not mentioned denominational affiliation. Lancaster told ENI many of the messages contained much of the same language, suggesting some kind of organized effort to make a protest against the resolution. Bill Powers, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, the most prominent U.S. gun lobbying organization, said he knew of no organized campaign by NRA members against the resolution. But he was not surprised by the reaction. “It doesn’t take an organized effort for that strong, overwhelming belief to be manifest,” he told ENI. Presbyterian elder Bill Ward of Wichita, Kan., an NRA member who opposed the resolution, said grassroots reaction had been quick and understandable. Saying he was no “extremist,” Ward, 67, a gun instructor and hunter, called the resolution a mistake. It had been supported by well-intentioned people who wanted to show their understandable concern about violence in the United States, he said. “I just felt the church was telling me that what I do is wrong,” he said. At least one Presbyterian, however, took the resolution to heart. Ed Keener, pastor of Bethany Presbyterian Church in Tacoma, Wash., told his congregation in a recent sermon that he planned to dispose of a pistol he had once used for protection while hunting in Alaska. Still a hunter, Keener has no plans to turn in his rifle and shotguns, but said it was hard to justify owning a handgun now. “I don’t see handing in my handgun as any threat to my freedom,” he told ENI. “I told them that this resolution speaks directly to me, and that I thought this was a good resolution,” Keener said, saying that past denominational statements on guns and violence had not asked individual church members to examine the issue of individual responsibility. “There has not been much discernment on what causes violence and how we are implicated as individuals,” he said. “I like the personal things we can do to make a difference.” |
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