What future are we creating?

I saw the news yesterday about Charlie Kirk being killed in Utah. I have a lot of thoughts swirling through my head. I’m sad for his family and loved ones, especially his wife and children. I pray that they, like far too many families that have suffered from gun violence, may encounter peace.

As one of the authors of “American Roulette,” a book about gun violence, I believe there shouldn’t be any victims of gun violence. Will this murder spur Republicans to move towards some kind of gun control? I doubt it. They didn’t do anything after the attempted assassination of President Trump. I highly doubt this would change that.

Mr. Kirk recently made statements attributed to him on guns – “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.”

I disagree with him on this. We are well past “some gun deaths.” And considering that gun violence is a leading cause of death for children, this is irresponsible and not rational. Far too often, debates and arguments about guns happen in the abstract. In his statement, “some gun deaths” is just an abstract idea. It is not enfleshed or embodied. Every single gun death is the death of an actual person, with a name, a story, a family, and more. I wonder if he would see things differently knowing that he was personally affected and it was no longer an abstract argument, but rather something very concrete and real. It’s easy to argue issues when you stay in the abstract. It becomes much more difficult when issues take on flesh and bones, have names and stories, and are messy. It’s easy to write off “some gun deaths” when you are talking in the abstract. It becomes much more difficult when you value the life of your enemy while they are willing to make every life disposable for some cause.

I think it is far more rational to do what we can to prevent gun deaths, suicide by gun, children dying in mass shootings. Some restrictions on the Second Amendment is not equal to the Amendment being cancelled. This all or nothing approach is not working. Why are we valuing some lives over others when it comes to this?

Which actually leads me to my next thought. I’m not convinced that the US is majority Christian. Sure, there’s a lot of people who will claim Christianity as their faith tradition. Yes, there are a lot of churches. Yes, we have a lot of Christian symbolism in this country. But I’m not seeing a whole lot of Christlikeness. Let’s be clear here – this is not new. This didn’t start all of a sudden. And it’s also not uniquely American either.

I’m not convinced that the US was ever really Christian. How could it be for a country that had chattel slavery as the law of the land? Or Jim Crow laws? Or Segregation? Or forced removal of Indigenous tribes from their land? Or internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry? Or the Know Nothing Party? Or anti-immigrant fervor throughout our entire history? Or criminalization of homelessness? Or the highest population of prison inmates in the world – especially in for-profit prisons? Or meddling in other nations governments in Central America that created an assortment of problems? Or the glorification of absurd wealth? Or the degredation of creation? Or making the lives of the poor more difficult at the benefit of the wealthy? That’s just a partial list.

And before you call me Anti-American and tell me to move – I’ll repeat that this isn’t a uniquely American problem. There is no country in the world that is truly Christian. The list above is American, but I have no doubt that we could make a similar list for any other country that has ever existed.

I’m not convinced that Christianity has been anything more than just a minor part of this country actually. Again, let me be clear with what I mean by that. We seem to pass laws and hold beliefs that are diametrically opposed to Christ pretty consistently throughout our history. We seem pretty good at ignoring and twisting the teachings of Jesus into the exact opposite of what he taught, all while claiming to follow him. I don’t know about you, but the numbers just don’t add up. For a faith that supposedly claims so many adherents, we’re pretty crappy at actually following, or even trying to follow, any of the tenets of the faith as a people, or in the laws that we pass, or in our cultural norms. It’s like we don’t actually care about matching our actions with the words we proclaim.

However, it’s not all bad news. While the larger culture and history is pretty terrible at this, I have seen and history is full of people, who have been and are faithful. There are communities of people who are faithful. There are churches that are faithful. Often they are silently living the faith. Often we don’t know anything about them. They aren’t loudly proclaiming what they are doing or looking for attention. They are just living faithfully as best they can.

And that’s an important point because it’s easy to get sucked into believing that it’s all bad. While I don’t think this is the majority of this country, when I do know is that these pockets of faithfulness do have an impact in their communities and the world. They are making the world a better place. They are welcoming the stranger when others are dehumanizing the stranger and cheering for the removal of the stranger. They are caring for the marginalized and poor when others are criminalizing poverty and trying to make the poor and unhoused someone else’s problem. They are providing health care when others are promoting an only the strong survive ideology. They are working to reform the justice system while others are profiting off of prisons. They are caring for creation as others are more concerned with corporate profits. They are living the way of peace while others are seeking maximum damage, death, and destruction through violence. They are purposefully seeing the image of God in others while others dull their senses and emotions through acts of cruelty.

These acts are what we are called to as Christ followers. You are not alone when you do these things.

And don’t get discouraged either. I don’t think the majority in this country were ever taught what Christlikeness means. They were taught the religion of Christendom, which ultimately is just another form of empire. It is empire wrapped in a blanket of Jesus, hiding its grotesque body.

The US should be considered a missionary field. Not because we have a collapsing institutional church and we need to recreate something from the past. No, I think what is collapsing is Christendom, which is far different than Christianity. Christendom used Christianity for its own purposes and power – using the name of Jesus while jettisoning his teachings. It used the facade, the rules, even the language. But it wasn’t ultimately about following Jesus. It had nothing to do with discipleship and faithfulness. It had to do with making sure everyone could repeat back the right answers, showing up on Sunday, and funding the institution. The amazing thing about this is that there are so many who are faithful in following Jesus. That so many actually took the call of discipleship seriously. That they attempted Christlikeness in spite of the opposition from within the institutional church.

Christendom has been one of the key religions in this country. Some of the other major religions are money, political identity, white supremacy, the myth of America. And now we see Christendom morphing into Christian Nationalism, which is just being more honest about what it is about – salvation through a nation, an ideology. It’s primary creedal beliefs are the ends justify the means, might makes right, and the strong survive. We aren’t watching the church die in the US. We are watching Christendom die. It can’t happen fast enough as far as I’m concerned.

This all leads me to the main question – What future are we creating?  Because we are creating a future whether we like it or not.  There are too numerous issues to name. And the reality is that if we keep the issues abstract, like Charlie Kirk did, then all we are going to do is fight and talk past each other, and suffer the consequences. We’ll be most concerned with being right and winning arguments. And our future won’t look any different than our past.

Those that are intent on holding onto power will use any means necessary to do so. That’s been humanity’s history. They will sacrifice anyone and anything who gets in the way or is seen as a threat to power. Again, there’s nothing new with that – history is loaded with stories across time and cultures. This isn’t a unique American problem. It’s a human problem.

When some are willing to sacrifice others, it’s only a matter of time until everyone is disposable. And the saddest part about all of this is that it doesn’t have to be this way. This future is not set in stone. It’s an unnecessary future.

But there is a better option – a healthier option. One piece of it is for Christians to act in a Christlike manner. To be congruent. To set an example of what faith actually looks like. Because when we do that, people are cared for, communities are cared for. Hope takes off, which leads to brighter futures. It’s all unicorns and rainbows of course. It’s a start, a foundation on which to build. And often it’s a quiet start. It’s not flashy. It doesn’t seek attention. But you can see it. You can feel it. You know it. You can’t avoid it. And it’s contagious. It’s invitational. And it’s a better future. It often starts with one person deciding that there is a better way, and then living it. And reminding someone else that they are not alone in this. That’s the future. Small relationships making impact in local communities. One thing at a time. Often small.