ABPnews Blog post on "Christians, guns, and the myth of redemptive violence"

The ABPnews Blog has published my post "Christians, guns, and the myth of redemptive violence" from which my ABP News commentary "The myth of redemptive violence" that appeared earlier was adapted. Click on the hyperlinked titles for the post and adapted commentary; the full text of the ABPnews Blog post will appear here on Ecclesial Theology in a few days. In the meantime, here's an excerpt from the beginning of the post:


“How many more daughters, sons, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, husbands, wives, friends—people created by and in the very image of God—have to die a horrific death before Americans will learn to lay down their guns?”

That was the Facebook status update my wife Kheresa posted following the Aug. 5 shooting at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis. Her question succeeded in setting off a spirited week-long comment thread debate among Facebook friends from various dimensions of her life over the merits of gun control legislation.

The comments—some quite deeply reflected—spanned the spectrum of perspectives in the contemporary American debate over gun control and matched its heat (no pun intended). As a theologian who thinks that a lively debate within a contested tradition can be a sign of its health—and who thinks this is ultimately a theological issue—I jumped in. The following paragraphs are adapted from some of my comments....

(Read the rest of the post on the ABPnews Blog)