At the Altar of the Gun: High School Shootings and the Sin of Blood Atonement
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Last night, my 8-year-old sat down with an atlas and an open browser and decided where he’s going to live when he grows up (Nashville); where he’s going to college (Vanderbilt); and what he’s going to major in (mechanical engineering and baseball). He wants to invent things and solve global problems. I know he’s little and might change his mind a few dozen times. Then again, maybe not. Either way, he’s got many paths wide open to him, he’s enthusiastic about everything, and any way he goes, it will be fun to watch.
As he excitedly researched his future, I had one of those overwhelming grateful mom moments—at the miracle of this kid, and the utterly confounding wonder that I get to be his mom. Within all that, I also held a deep sadness for a mother in Colorado who had all that taken away from her yesterday. All of her dreams for her child, gone. Any number of imagined futures, vanished on the wind. Another day in America, another kid killed at school.
On a recent trip to Honduras, I visited the ruins of an ancient Mayan culture. I saw the temple, and just outside it, the altar where they used to make human sacrifices to the sun god. Several times a year, they would round up a group of tributes and slaughter them on this stone. They believed that offering up a human life would save them from the scorching rage of their deity, instead yielding rain, crops and abundance. They would intentionally offer up the “best” of the community—the smartest, the strongest, the best athletes—because, as our tour guide noted, what kind of god would want the losers?
That sounds insane to us, right? Totally bonkers. Who would do that??
And yet … in the 20 years since Columbine, there have been 230 school shootings in the United States . Well. 231 now. When we look at those numbers, I don’t know how we can scoff at the insanity of an ancient ritual—that custom is really no crazier than the wealthiest country in the world letting nearly 3,000 kids die by gun violence every year—many of them at school.
Every child killed in a school shooting is a sacrifice to the god of the gun, at the church of the NRA. I’m not talking in metaphor. Our masses of dead children are a literal, actual blood sacrifice. Like the Mayans of Copan, we somehow figure that the death of these children is the price we must pay for our twisted notion of freedom; some capitalist orgy of abundance that can only come to pass when the bounty of this great land is protected by civilian artillery.
It’s nuts. But we keep doing it. Marching the kids off to school like lambs to the slaughter, where their underpaid teachers double as human shields. Where they have a greater chance of dying by violence than in any other country in the developed world.
And still, the guns themselves are protected with religious fervor.
It’s easy enough to blame the NRA. Or the gun manufacturers and investors, or anybody that profits from the industry. We can blame politicians, whose cowardice and fealty to the gun lobby continues to block common-sense legislation that most Americans support. But there’s a hard truth we rarely name:
The Church also plays a role.
“Blood atonement,” or sacrificial atonement, is the idea that Jesus had to die to somehow save us from the wrath of God. This dangerous notion lies at the heart of popular Christianity; and as the Christian narrative has shaped our nation’s culture in many ways, this problematic theology may be found at the root of many of our shared evils. For instance, our attachment to the death penalty, even when all other civilized nations have evolved past the barbaric practice. Or in the idea of corporal punishment, the once popular and still accepted idea that a child might somehow be saved by violent discipline.
Our love of war might be traced back to the same doctrine; our belief that might makes right, and our ability to so often justify force over diplomacy. We can also cite the many-layered issues within our criminal justice system, one that is rooted more in retribution than restoration. Within all of these greater social issues, we find imbedded the same notion of God as raging tyrant—not a loving, nurturing creator, but a callous deity demanding blood, blood, and more blood … in return for the gift of NOT damning us to eternal hellfire.
If you believe in a God that needs blood sacrifice in order to preserve your soul from hell, then perhaps you are more comfortable with student lives being the “cost” of a nation’s freedom. I doubt most folks would make that connection at a conscious level, but it is beneath the surface and at work in our shared narrative.
When Church has been made comfortable by its place at the center of things, those inside it too rarely question the narratives and images we’ve been given. The Church was meant to exist at the margins, and to challenge the empire. Instead, it has set up shop in the heart of capitalism, adopting the same measures of worth, the same secular parameters of “justice.” But the notion of a punishing God is not entirely biblical, nor is a transactional understanding of atonement. Like many of our misguided western Christian notions, it comes from a surface reading of a few choice scriptures, taken out of context of the wider gospel. It is not a true reporting on who God is; nor of who we are meant to be.
But we keep coming back to this altar. Believing somehow that the cost of freedom is more blood, more death. If we can’t see how twisted that is, or how closely linked our backward theology is to our violent wreck of a social system, then we need to go back to the beginning of something and start over.
Of course, it’s not that easy. We can’t go back. There is no unwinding this carnage; no gifting the babies killed in American classrooms back to their broken parents. There is no worthy apology.
But maybe there can be atonement.
As in so many other instances where the Church has done great harm, the Church also has power to do great healing and transformation. In fact, we have a responsibility to do so. To dig deeper, to ask harder questions; to live for complicated relationships and not easy answers. We are called to put our faith to work around advocacy and action; organizing for change that will reduce guns from their idol status to the inanimate objects that they are. The Christian community has not historically shown up for this fight. As people who claim to follow a revolutionary nonviolent savior, it’s time to change that. But first, we’ll have to reclaim a nonviolent gospel.
The sins of the past cannot be undone, but maybe atonement is possible. Once we learn that true restoration, and the true love of God, comes not with more blood—but with much, much less.
Tags
Who is online
429 visitors
Um, actually, it is a metaphor. Anyone with a working brain can see that. Stating that it is not a metaphor doesn't make it true. Still a metaphor. But if only that was all this article was. If only it were only a metaphor given in order to bring about an actual truth. It isn't. It's pretty much a lie from beginning to end. A lie that uses emotion to lead one to accept what is obviously not true so that we can feel good and righteous about believing the lie.
No. Not a metaphor. A metaphor does not kill.
The children are dead.
Neither does a gun.
Unless the gun is used to seriously pistachio whip someone. But it's the bullet that kills.
The devil is in the details and in many cases, the devil is writing the legislation. For the most part, I'm basically for all of that in concept. I just know many of the people writing the laws aren't. Not really. They can't be trusted to not "weaponize" any new guns laws against law abiding gun owners. No matter how hard any of you try to spin it. And of course the little detail about criminals not caring in the least about the any new guns laws. Details, details ....
The devil is in the details.
Nope, bullets don't kill either.
When they enter the body, they generally do.
How do they enter the body?
By a gun. So in effect, guns do kill people.
I think you know we're talking about typical gunshots. Not some idiot pounding a bullet with a hammer. Although, that sounds like it can be a segment of America's Dumbest.... Lol.
And I know not everyone dies from a gunshot wound. But gunshots are still effective in killing.
We've already covered this material Gordy. Guns don't kill people.
Try again.
Guns kill thirty thousand Americans every year.
Not by themselves they don't
No tool does anything by itself.
A hacksaw doesn't cut by itself... and the pipe doesn't get cut without the hacksaw.
An airplane doesn't fly by itself... and the distance isn't covered without the airplane.
A gun doesn't kill by itself... and the victim isn't killed without the gun.
... thirty thousand Americans killed every year... with guns.
Thats right.
Just like any other inanimate object, guns can not kill without an operator.
An inconvenient fact for many here apparently
A drill is for making holes. A gun is for killing.
The purpose of a drill is to make holes. The purpose of a gun is to kill.
Nope, while that might make for a great sound bite for the gun control crowd it's simply not true.
A gun is made to shoot. What it shoots is completely, 100%, operator controlled.
Inanimate objects have no preconceived notions or biases. Be it a drill ,a gun, a baguette .......
So... you use a drill for cooking, a tv set for a clothes hanger, and a computer as a dorstop....
A drill is made to drill but it can still be used by its operator to kill
A TV set is made for watching and yet it can still be used by its operator to kill
A computer is made to compute and yet it can still be used by its operator to kill
Any more examples of inanimate objects you need clarification on Bob?
A gun can be used as a hammer, but it is made to kill.
Okay, we've come full circle. Last inanimate object analysis:
A gun is made to shoot but it can still be used by its operator to kill.
And here's a freebie for you Bob:
Hammers are made to hammer but can still be used by its operator to kill. And hammer kill those operators do. Hammers (blunt instruments) operators kill more people each year in the US than those scary black rifles ..... which in 2019, are still only made to shoot.
Trying to outlaw guns because of some nutjobs doing illegal things with them is like trying to outlaw alcohol because some people drive drunk.
WTF???
Why do people say dumb shit that collapses at a simple Google search?
Bob, simmer down and read it again. My comment is 100% accurate.
No apology necessary though. I still love you.
Why do people say dumb shit that collapses at a simple Google search?
Okay, if you insist.
Because reading comprehension is apparently not some folks strong suit
Using sappy emotionalism is not going to make guns go away.
The perps in the STEM shooting broke into a locked gun case.
The left has seemed to lose interest in this case since some facts are starting to emerge.
The father of the transgender female shooter is an illegal immigrant.
The older male shooter is a registered democrat Trump hating, anti-Christian, antifa type punk.....and gay.
No Christian MAGA hat wearing NRA members were involved.
"666" and pentagrams are not associated with atheists. They have a religious basis. Sound like the shooter was just plain nuts.
I won't hold my breath for the sources that you never provide for your claims.
What lie? That more guns in more hands somehow makes us safer? That lie?
If guns made American kids safe American schools would not be war zones...
Ah yes, the faulty and invalid "more guns" argument.
Like it or not, guns are here to stay, even though the gun grabbers want to take every legal gun away from responsible law abiding gun owners, thus leaving guns only in the hands of criminals.
Like it or not, places such as schools and "gun free zones" will be prime targets for any determined person intent upon committing violence with a gun.
Like it or not, all these mass shooters were able to make a legal purchase of guns, have a straw buyer provide them, or stole them. Thus, any supposed enhanced gun laws or background checks are useless.
Like it or not, more school shootings will occur until the powers that be accept the fact that the targets will have to be hardened. That would include a few "more" guns in trained and proper hands....meaning law enforcement and certain staff members. Metal detectors and locked doors would help lessen the possibility of entrance.
Like it or not, that's the times we are living in, and if certain people really care about kids, they are going to have to accept some unpleasant truths and make some common sense adjustments to the way they handle things, particularly the way they look at trouble making and problem individuals, who will usually have left a trail of obvious clues about their deranged intentions.
The faulty invalid argument is that guns make us safer. Just bringing a gun into any home greatly increased the chances that someone living there dies by gunshot...
Millions have been murdered in China by the communists because they lack the tools needed to protect themselves from the evil communists. Just yesterday we saw an article about the million people they are currently holding in concentration camps because they lack the tools needed to protect themselves. We never would have been able to free ourselves from the tyrannical British government if we did not possess the weapons needed for the revolution to be successful. The gun is the best tool we currently have to protect our freedom.
Hi Dean,
Thanks for this brilliant analysis.
Here's a really good 2 part report on school safety done from Minnesota Public Radio -
Depressing...
I generally find life depressing. I think it's good that people are actually talking about mental health diagnosis before violence happens among all the other things.
Working on mental health can only be good... but it can't be the answer. I assume that other developed countries have similar mental health issues, but they don’t have the gun deaths. So if there's a solution, it's elsewhere.
When society changes thinking of mental health issues from a criminal issue to a health issue and we move from a criminal state to a rehabilitative state we'll not need as many guns. In the mean time we can close loopholes and add weapon removal to the Baker act.
Very true. Deal with mental issues in a more proactive fashion and potentially reduce annual gun deaths by up to 60%
Suicide accounts for over 60% of all gun deaths in the USA each year.
Other means of suicide are less certain. Poison may fail. A bullet into the brain rarely fails.
It takes a different level of dedication to put a gun to your head and pull.
Much easier to OD on sleeping pills or some other drug with booze.
Over 70,000 drug OD deaths in the US in 2017 and going up ......
Other means of suicide are less certain. Poison may fail. A bullet into the brain rarely fails.
It takes a different level of dedication to put a gun to your head and pull.
Much easier to OD on sleeping pills or some other drug with booze.
Over 70,000 drug OD deaths in the US in 2017 and going up ......