PARKVILLE, Missouri — Because the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship’s Minister for Gun Violence Prevention, the Rev. Margery Rossi has heard the phrases many occasions: “Keep in your lane.”

The dismissive reply to docs, security advocates, and folks of religion is a manner for gun rights advocates to brush their messages apart, Rossi mentioned to individuals attending the third annual James Atwood Institute for Congregational Braveness final week on the Heartland Retreat Middle outdoors Kansas Metropolis.

“’You do not have something to say about this.’ ‘That is political.’ ‘That is our territory.’ ‘Keep in your lane,’” Rossi recalled being instructed. 

“Nicely, that is our place. We now have some issues to say.”

Rossi was wading right into a dialogue about how Presbyterian polity is a key to advocating for stronger gun violence prevention measures and crystalizing a message that had been delivered from quite a lot of views over the earlier two days of the annual gathering named in honor of late pioneering Presbyterian gun violence prevention advocate the Rev. Jim Atwood.

“Gun violence is a religious concern,” Rossi mentioned in an interview. “It’s a religious disaster on this nation. There are ethical points right here. The church has one thing to say about ethical points. There’s dying. There’s grief. There’s trauma. It is a pastoral concern. It is a theological concern. Will we worth life? Will we see each other as kids of God, as beloved? These are all ours.”

Opening evening keynote speaker, the Rev. Dr. Jer Swigart identified the opposition usually comes from Christians who’ve a really totally different perspective on gun violence. 

“We have got a gun downside,” mentioned Swigart, co-founder of World Immersion, a peacemaking coaching group. “However that gun downside is rooted in an insidious, malformed, illegitimate theology that endorses the elimination of our enemies quite than our love for them.”

Swigart went by way of a litany of gun violence incidents he has been proximate to, from a pal who was shot to dying by one other pal taking part in with a gun when he was 13 years previous to his personal kids’s expertise with lockdowns and college students performing out at college. He mentioned others within the room may in all probability inform comparable tales.

In just a few of Swigart’s examples, religion was intertwined with using weapons, together with a distinguished religion chief in a group he lived in exhibiting Swigart his assortment of AR-15s. 

That stood in stark distinction to the instance of Jesus Christ, Swigart mentioned, who instructed his followers to like their enemies and modeled peaceable acts like de-escalation, such because the story of Jesus confronting the mob that wished to stone a girl accused of adultery in John 8:1-11.

“He establishes his authority with self-control,” Swigart mentioned, recounting how Jesus disarmed the mob by saying, “Let anybody amongst you who’s with out sin be the primary to throw a stone at her. “He slowed every part down,” Swigart mentioned, “which is insightful for us as leaders.”

“There’s a wealthy theology that stands behind the work that we’re doing,” Swigart mentioned. “The work that you simply’re doing isn’t an add-on to the Christian religion; it’s the essence of it.”

Within the three days of the Institute, Swigart and others talked about quite a few methods to strategy gun violence prevention in the USA, together with private engagement, care after incidents of gun violence, and advocacy with native, state, and federal leaders. A constant theme was seeing the Imago Dei, the picture of God, in every particular person in all circumstances, from victims of gun violence and oppression to individuals who have dedicated acts of violence to the one that disagrees with you on a difficulty.

The dialogue of gun violence will be hyper polarized, quite a few leaders on the institute famous, and that’s the place religion leaders may also help discover frequent floor in partisan political discussions. Quite a few occasions they famous the motion is anti-gun violence, not anti-gun, and contains gun homeowners and customers who advocate for security.

Dr. Andrew Peterson, a consultant for peacemaking centered on gun violence within the PC(USA)’s Workplace of Public Witness in Washington, participated within the Institute, together with introducing a brand new useful resource for clergy working with Excessive Danger Safety Orders developed along with the Johns Hopkins Middle for Gun Violence Options.

Study extra about an upcoming webinar introducing ERPOs in Observe: A Information for Clergy

“One of many issues that I feel is actually necessary concerning the sort of faith-based advocacy that I do, and concerning the companions that I’ve doing that sort of work in D.C., is that we deliver one thing apart from the sort of hyper-partisan taglines that may assist actually break by way of a few of that discourse in D.C. to deliver to bear a majority of the best way that Individuals take into consideration gun coverage and the sort of gun insurance policies that they want to see on the federal stage,” Peterson mentioned. “So, I’m hopeful concerning the church’s function in that sort of work.”

And that, Rossi mentioned, is an important ingredient of addressing gun violence: hope. She pointed to “Gun Violence, Gospel Values: Mobilizing in Response to God’s Name,” a coverage handed on the 219^th Basic Meeting of the PC(USA) in 2010.

Rossi instructed institute members that coverage, which is generated from church buildings and mid councils throughout the nation, is important to permit Peterson and others talking on behalf of the church, together with the Said Clerk of the Basic Meeting and Government Director of Presbyterian Life & Witness, the Rev. Jihyun Oh, to make statements.  

“It is necessary for our coverage to provide Andrew what he wants to talk on behalf of the church,” Rossi mentioned to the institute, noting one of many Peace Fellowship’s roles is to search out holes that have to be stuffed in coverage and information these overtures to the Basic Meeting.

In “Gun Violence, Gospel Values” she famous an enumeration of 5 components mandatory for profitable social actions, the primary 4 being a transparent grievance, ethical arguments, sparking occasions, and human and monetary assets.

“For years and years and years, gun violence has had all of these issues, and we nonetheless have not been in a position to transfer,” Rossi mentioned. “And that’s as a result of what has been lacking is the ultimate situation, and the ultimate situation that should be current to ensure that all the remainder of these to matter is what social scientists name a way of viability, and what individuals of religion name hope. And I imagine strongly that that’s the function of the church. That’s our lane.”

Look ahead to extra reporting from the 2026 Atwood Institute for Congregational Braveness subsequent week in Presbyterian Information Service.