The purpose of this blog is my journey to see the gun and
gun violence issue through the eyes of faith. Theological and Biblical perspectives
are important to me. In the end, one of the most important questions for
Christians around any issue is not so much, “What would Jesus do?” but “What
would Jesus have me do?”
Getting to the Christian “bottom line” may be asked differently:
What is the will of God?
What is the right
and moral thing to do?
What is my
responsibility as a Christian?
However we might ask this bottom-line question, getting to
the answer is not a straight line. People and Christians have used different
formulas and different criteria to get to an answer. When I am trying to get to
a right answer, the formula I ponder uses this series of questions:
·
What does the Bible say about this?
·
Historically, what is the traditional teaching
of the church on this issue?
·
What is the position and teaching of my church?
·
Using my intellect and common sense, what does
my own reasoning say to me?
·
Is God, through the Holy Spirit, speaking to me
on this issue? Am in prayerful enough to listen?
In essence my method uses the Bible, history,
church, reason, and Spirit
Therefore, my Lenten pilgrimage is trying to get to a Christian
bottom-line by using the above described process. Translated that means I seek
understanding of:
·
what the Bible says about guns and gun violence
·
what the traditional teaching of the church has
been on guns and gun violence
·
the position of my church, the Presbyterian
Church (USA), on guns and gun violence
·
what my own reasoning says to me about guns and
gun violence
·
what God’s Spirit is leading me to believe,
think and do about guns and gun violence
