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Quieting the Demon
A Sermon Based on
Mark
By Rev. Jim Ketcham
From yesterday’s Star Tribune
comes this eye-opening interview with attorney David Gross who has long worked
for a concealed carry law:
“Although
he lives in a virtually crime-free neighborhood, Gross’ house is filled with
guns, an alarm system and two dogs. But
don’t dare ask him what he’s afraid of.
Why do you value free speech?” he said, raising his
voice. “Why do you need the U.S.
Constitution? You are asking the wrong
question,” he screamed. “Ask the guy who
wants to rob my house if there’s anything in here he’s willing to die for!”
Gross’ dog starts to whimper. “I’m sorry I got so loud,” he said. “I don’t want to be arrogant, but I don’t
suffer fools gladly.” Thank God he
doesn’t want to be arrogant. He just
wants to shoot people who aren’t breaking into his home, getting past the alarms
and the dogs.
The article goes on to
explain that Gross was fired from his job as a city attorney when he opposed
the city’s gun buy-back program. When he
later won his job back, he decided to quit when he was told he couldn’t carry
his gun to work in City Hall.
Gross first got his permit
when he was threatened by an immigrant who blamed Gross for his prison
sentence. Since then the only things he
has used his gun for are to force a neighbor to move and to shoot a deer eating
his raspberries. The deer was shot with
a .357 magnum, a gun that could shoot right through the deer, through a
neighbor’s wall and still have enough momentum to kill an innocent victim. Gross claims that
Gross show the reporter a gun
given to him by a dying friend. “He said to me every Jewish boy should carry a
gun taken off a dead Nazi. The
Nationalist Social Democratic Party started gun bans so they could kill the
Jews. Well, this Jew isn’t going into
any gas chambers.”
This is a man possessed by a
demon, the demon of fear. This is a man
who practices idolatry of guns and violence.
He is the source of danger, not the solution. He carries his weapon to services at his
synagogue, despite requests by his rabbi not to. He explains that he always sits in the back
row so if any one bursts in on the service they will have their backs to him
and he’ll be ready to take them out. “It
may never happen,” he explains, but at least I’ve thought it through and I’ll be
ready.”
I agree it may never
happen. But the process Gross is engaged
in is not thought; it is blind, irrational fear, demonic fear, backed up by a
.357.
We are a society held tightly
in the grip of fear. Even as crime rates
have dropped precipitously for over 10 years, the media coverage of crime has
grown exponentially.
We suffer the fear of losing
what we have. We are burdened by fears
of losing what we thought we had. We fear
losing what we hoped we might get. Many
of our fears are based on greed.
False comfort of
violence/guns only feeds our “dis-ease.” Let’s face it; once a burglar has
broken into your house, it’s impossible to reach and use a gun when it has been
properly stored under lock and key – and separate from the ammunition.
More guns will equal more gun
thefts. More guns will only equal= more guns, not more safety, certainly not
freedom from fear
Criminals will not be scared
by more guns. By definition, they are
already unable to do a proper cost/benefit analysis of their actions. Young men who are in their teens and
twenties, who carry out most crimes and especially crimes of violence, see
themselves as invincible.
We don’t need to believe
law-abiding citizens will run amok if given a license to carry a weapon. We just need to believe that humans are
fallible.
More guns in homes will mean
more successful teen suicides,
more accidental shootings of
family members,
more tragic incidents of
children playing with guns,
more deadly escalation of
domestic violence and neighborhood quarrels.
We’re already fascinated as a
nation with guns as a foreign policy.
Reliance on the military has had disastrous consequences. Constantly sending in the army, or
threatening to send in the army is also fear based, idolatrous, a falsehood and
creating the very conditions we claim to be opposing
In Iraq, we’ve found no
evidence of weapons of mass destruction, provided no liberation from chaos, looting,
vengeance attacks, lack of water or electricity, lack of work, escalating poverty
We have apparently deposed
one tyrant and created a million others, each armed with a newly looted
automatic weapon. Our policy is a lie
based on lies.
We all thrilled to the story
of how the brave Private Lynch was captured and rescued. How she kept firing even when she was shot
and stabbed. How Special Forces troops
assaulted the hospital where she was mistreated and neglected and, under
intense fire, extricated her and themselves without any further American
casualties.
But this story is all
demonic, fear-driven lies. Private Lynch
was injured in the accident her vehicle suffered in the chaos of battle. She did not shoot, nor did she get shot. The doctors in the Iraqi hospital, as later
confirmed by Army doctors in
And they did more. They contacted US troops nearby and arranged
to have Private Lynch driven to them by ambulance. They assured the nervous Americans there were
no armed Iraqis in the hospital or in the neighborhood of the hospital.
Unfortunately, something went
wrong because when the ambulance approached the designated spot, US troops
opened fire on it, nearly killing all those inside. Frightened and frustrated, the medical
personnel with her managed to turn around and make it back to the hospital.
Two days later,
Our nation and our state are
possessed by demons, unclean spirits, and these are not the kind that tells the
truth: they lie and threaten others to be silent.
Under Department of Homeland
Insecurity we have traded our guaranteed freedoms for an entirely elusive
security. As Benjamin Franklin once
said, those who would give up freedom in exchange for security deserve neither.
J silences the cries of
fears, casting them out with love
J ordered those around him to put away their swords when he
was arrested
J, the Prince of Peace/turning the other cheek
P writes like a general
calling his troops to prep for battle
But this general is in chains, a prisoner
(In fact, P likely already dead when Eph written)
Weapons and armor for Paul’s troops are strictly symbolic.
Perhaps we who recognize
truth could remember the conversion story of William Penn, of
Instead, after politely
informing Penn of the church policy of nonviolence and being impolitely
rebuffed, the leader told Penn, “Come to our service with your sword and see
how long you dare to keep it on.” Penn
not only came, he became a Quaker and an advocate of nonviolence, including in
his colony’s dealings with Native Americans.
Perhaps we need a domestic
peace force to intervene in neighborhoods where gun violence is worst, like Mel
Duncan’s international group?
Perhaps we could join Don
Samuelson, the new Minneapolis City Council member and recently ordained ABC
minister in his lonely vigils on the spot every time someone is killed in his
ward.
We can join neighborhood
watches, participate in National Night Out and advocate for nonviolent
responses to local problems.
Perhaps we could arm
ourselves with weapons like the truth and righteousness of the gospel of peace,
weapons like the shield of faith and the word of God.
Would we dare to invite
gun-toting citizens to UBC and challenge them to see how long they dare to
carry a weapon in our midst?
Early one morning last week I
awoke to hear the end of an NPR story reported by Neil Conan. He was in the western edges of the
Conan’s small truck caravan
came upon a group of 40 salt traders and their camels that had been stranded
for three days by a sandstorm. They were
down to about one quart of water for the entire group. They were about to send one man to a spot 10
miles away where he might be able to dig for water. The rest were planning to head for the
nearest certain source of water, about 30 miles distant.
When they saw Conan’s band
drive up in their trucks, they did not draw guns and demand water. They did shoot down the NPR staff as terrorists
and threaten to send the survivors to Guantanomo for indefinite detention.
Instead, one of them took
nearly half the water they had to make tea for the newcomers. Even in the face of death, hospitality ruled
over hostility. There were no mindless
chants of “No New Tea.”
We too are called to reject
hostility and extend hospitality. It
doesn’t take a gun. It takes guts. “Silence, frenzied unclean spirit.” Silence.
AMEN.