Seminary Conversation on Guns & Violence

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INTRODUCTION

I (Jeff Boyd) have been invited to spend 90 minutes leading a seminary class discussion on violence and guns. Before I join the crew, the doctoral students will have read Beating Guns (Claiborne & Martin, 2019) and will have watched Us Kids (documentary, 2020). The professor has also highlighted The Fallout (R, 2021).

This is the description I was given for our session together: “In addition to thinking about God’s calling across the life span of individuals, we are also examining God’s calling to church organizations throughout their history, especially as they navigate cultural disruptions and transitions.” And the invitation is to spend an hour and a half exploring “the intersection of Peace Studies and Adventism and how we might discern God’s calling amid the unspeakable violence violence that is all too common—from American schools to Ukrainian cities and towns.”

Below are some of the themes and resources we will likely cover, but we’ll see where the conversation leads…. For this conversation, we presume the best intent in each other’s comments and hearts.

PREAMBLE

Isaiah 2:4 — He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

Joel 3:10 — Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, “I am strong!”

Micah 4:3 — He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 110.2-3 (Rome, mid-second century): For we Christians, who have gained a knowledge of the true worship of God from the Law and from the word which went forth from Jerusalem by way of the Apostles of Jesus, have run for protection to the God of Jacob and the God of Israel. And we who delighted in war, in the slaughter of one another, and in every other kind of iniquity have in every part of the world converted our weapons of war into implements of peace – our swords into ploughshares, our spears into farmers’ tools – and we cultivate piety, justice, brotherly charity, faith, and hope, which we derive from the Father through the Crucified Saviour.

Ellen White, The Great Controversy, 589: Satan delights in war, for it excites the worst passions of the soul and then sweeps into eternity its victims steeped in vice and blood. It is his object to incite the nations to war against one another, for he can thus divert the minds of the people from the work of preparation to stand in the day of God. [compare with mass shootings and Psalm 46]

Art Gish holding a plow. Screenshot from “Old Radicals” (https://youtu.be/oHpTUhF_l3A).

PRESENTATION & DISCUSSION

DEFINITIONS OF PEACE:

SELECT PEACE/VIOLENCE THEMES: Nonviolence, pacifism, conscientious objection, selective conscientious objection, just war theory, Constantinian shift, self-defense, R2P responsibility to protect (UN), forgiveness, reconciliation, justice, interpersonal conflict, intrastate violence/war, interstate violence/war, terrorism, torture, conflict transformation, death penalty, just peacemaking, racism, intimate partner violence, mental health, interfaith issues, economic issues, gun violence….

FIVE-PART JOURNEY pastors should be aware of, with each level or sector influencing the others: individual/personal, congregational (sidebar to “cliche” below), denominational, national/societal (culture trumps religion. always?), and global.

CLICHE: Pastor holds a Bible in one hand and a newspaper (shorthand for info about the world, whether in current events, cultural values and movements, or history) in the other. The pastor who is concerned about peace can organize content from these sources (broadly defined) into three buckets: (1) pro peace, (2) anti violence, and (3) “but what about…?”

  • BIBLE:

    • Peace & violence in the Hebrew scriptures and the Christian New Testament

    • Narrative theology and the trajectory of scripture (trajectory hermeneutics)

  • HISTORY BOOK: The Early Church, later Christian history, early Adventist history, and recent Adventist history/culture.

  • NEWSPAPER: Gun violence in schools and wider society, and intrastate and interstate war. (Guns now leading cause of death for kids in the U.S. Fox News, WebMD)

SELECT ADVENTIST STATEMENTS on VIOLENCE:

ARTICLES:

PODCAST: Adventist Peace Radio

ADVENTIST PEACEMAKERS: Adventist Peace Fellowship List

See also: Lyndi Fourie Foundation, Story at The Forgiveness Project, Adventist Review (2006), Beyond Forgiving (documentary short)

APF PEACE CHURCH NETWORK:

DOCUMENTARY FILMS:

SELECT BOOKS:

By Adventists

  • Church and Society (Maier, ed., 2015)

  • Adventism and the American Republic (Morgan, 2001)

  • Adventists and Military Service (Hasel, Magyarosi, Hoschele, eds., 2019)

  • The Promise of Peace (Scriven, 2009)

  • Anarchy and Apocalypse (Osborn, 2010)

  • Seventh-day Adventists in Time of War (Wilcox, 1936)

  • The Peacemaking Remnant (Morgan, ed., 2005)

  • Should I Fight? (Bussey, ed., 2011)

  • I Pledge Allegiance (Phillips, Tsatalbasidis, 2007)

  • I’m Not Leaving (Wilkins, 2011)

  • Flee the Captor (Ford, 1966)

For Congregations

  • A Culture of Peace: God’s Vision for the Church (Kreider, Kreider & Widjaja, 2005)

  • Peace Ministry: A Handbook for Local Churches (Buttry, 1995)

  • Christian Peacemaking (Buttry, 1994)

  • Shalom Church (Nessan, 2010)

  • Just Church (Martin, 2012)

  • Jeff Boyd, Additional Books (YouTube, 2017)

General

  • Jesus for President (Claiborne & Shaw, 2008)

  • Peacemakers in Action: Profiles of Religion in Conflict Resolution (Little, ed., 2007)

  • Peacemaking Power of Prayer (Robb & Hill, 2000)

  • Just Peacemaking (Stassen, 2008)

  • Peace Reader (Sider & Keefer Jr., eds., 2002)

History

  • The Early Church on Killing (Sider, ed., 2012)

  • Christian Attitudes toward War and Peace (Bainton, 1986)

  • Christian Attitudes to War, Peace and Revolution (Yoder, 2009)

Theology

  • Neglected Voices: Peace in the Old Testament (Leiter, 2007)

  • Covenant of Peace (Swartley, 2006)

  • Shalom: The Bible’s Word for Salvation, Justice & Peace (Yoder, 1987)

For Kids

  • My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (King III, 2013)

  • Teaching Peace to Children (Charissa Boyd, Jan. 24, 2020, Adventist Peace Radio podcast)

Adventist Peace Radio, Episode 92: Moe & Nathan Go To School #24

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Moe Stiles & Nathan Brown discuss the UN and other organizations active in the area of human rights, indigenous rights, colonization, faith-based activism, nonviolence, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Read More

Adventists in Côte d’Ivoire Host Peace Summit Following Terrorist Attack

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Five days after a jihadist attack at the seaside resort of Grand-Bassam, the National Forum of the Religious Confessions of Côte d’Ivoire hosted a peace summit on March 18, “calling for a unified response to violence carried out by Islamic extremists.” Representatives from many different faith backgrounds attended the summit, which was held at the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s West-Central African headquarters in the capital city of Abidjan.

The vice president of the National Islamic Council, Imam Mahamadou Dosso, read out a prepared statement that included:

No religion should lead somebody to kill his or her fellow beings. May God help us to overcome this evil.

Read the full story on the Adventist News Network.

APF Statement on Freddie Gray and Baltimore

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The APF Board has released the following statement on Freddie Gray and the subsequent events in Baltimore:

The Adventist Peace Fellowship is deeply troubled by recent events in the city of Baltimore. While all the facts are not yet known, it is beyond dispute that a young man's life was violently taken from him while in the custody of police officers—an event that falls within larger patterns of systemic racism, structural injustice, historical inequalities, and brutality targeting young Black men. It is also clear that many citizens—including the elderly poor—are now suffering severe hardships from the destruction of several days of violent riots.

It is our hope and prayer that Baltimore now experience not merely a return to the “peace” of the status quo but rather a true transformation of values and policy priorities that promote justice and equality for residents of the city’s neglected neighborhoods. We call on Seventh-day Adventists in Baltimore and throughout the country to follow the examples of the Hebrew prophets and to actively resist injustice and oppression wherever they encounter it, whether on their streets or in City Hall. We herald Adventist pastors Reginald Exum, David Franklin, and DuWayne Privette who have embodied these ideals on the streets of Baltimore. We continue to urge peacemakers to follow the principles and tactics of nonviolent resistance to oppression powerfully demonstrated by individuals such as Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We also encourage pastors to promote a culture of nonviolence and a vision for peacemaking within their churches. History has taught us that violence begets violence and hatred begets hatred. As Christians we are called to seek justice precisely through tireless and active peacemaking.