God and Guns

 

An open letter to people of all faiths and good will: by whatever name you call the unknowable—Brahman, the Way, Yahweh, Christ, Allah, Nam—with you I yearn for the peace towards which we all lean. Love and compassion are at the core of every tradition, and yet we all fall short when it comes to living those ideals. In the face of unspeakable horror, tragedy, and evil, it seems so inadequate to say “I’m sorry.”

Words must be complemented with action. Everyday at least one person in this country dies from a gun shot. How utterly tragic that it takes twenty young, innocent lives plus eight adults to get our attention. And for how long?

Do guns kill people? YES!

Do people kill people? YES!

Is stricter gun control needed? YES!

Is better mental health treatment needed? YES!

Is better gun use and safety instruction needed? YES!

Are better background checks necessary? YES!

Is an armed citizenry necessary? NO!

Is visible protection and deterrence necessary? YES!

Are more armed guards, teachers, ministers, shop owners, citizens the answer? Absolutely NO!

Someone (Einstein?) said that to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result is stupidity. The NRA not withstanding, narrow minded politicians hiding behind the excuses of needing more time, study and  money not withstanding, the lack of will and concern not withstanding, we must respond for good, for the future, for love of one another.

How paradoxical that in a country that claims to be so religious, we are the most violent, militant, racially and sexually discriminatory. The gap between our self-righteous delusions and daily reality is as wide as east is from the west. I wonder how many of those people who ran out last week and bought hand guns, semi-automatic assault rifles, and ammunition attended a house of worship this weekend or would at least give loud lip service to some religious tradition. “God’s” heart is broken for all who have died AND for all who carry hate and complicity in their hearts.

What is the answer to the violence in our world? I think it begins with people of faith and good will living the values of their faith and not surrendering to the perversion, stupidity, and evil around us.

There is a rabbinic saying that if the world lived God’s will together just one day, the messiah would come and the world would be transformed.

Justice and the American Way

We have just endured another divisive and polarizing political season. It seems that we are either red or blue and only 6 million votes determined a winner in the current contest. From the outside and to the uninformed observer, it appears to boil down to a question of small government vs big government, more taxes or less taxes, "freedom" vs government control. At least seven legislators chose not to run for reelection citing gridlock and acrimony as their reasons. We seem to have reached an empass or stalemate and spiraled into political paralysis. Where to from here?
Michael Sandel, a professor of political philosophy at Harvard University and author of Justice, has offered a possible solution and new direction that I think is worth considering. There are many kinds of justice--retributive, distributive, etc.--, but what he is talking about is what the law should be and how society should be organized. These are questions of justice which our polity has answered in terms of maximizing welfare and respecting freedom. But lest you think one is blue and the other red, let me quickly clarify by saying that welfare can have red and blue inplications as well as freedom. Welfare can pertain to economic incentives for personal achievement as well as social programs to care for the unfortunate. Freedom can refer to individual choice on ALL matters and creating a level playing field through government regulations, e.g. Affirmative Action. We have been and are sharply divided within and between these definitions.
Sandel interjects into this conversation the third idea of promoting virtue. He asks, "Does a just society seek to promote the virtue of its citizens? Should law be neutral toward competing comceptions of virtue?"  Ancient theories of justice start with virtue; modern theories start with freedom. Do we decide as a society what is just or do we let "each man do what is right in their own eyes (as the Book of Judges describes it)?"
Obviously all aspects are important and to be considered, but I stand with Sandel in advocating a return to virtue as our guiding principle.