God is Not Going to Stop Mass Shootings

By Fredrick D. Robinson

Published in the wake of the deadly shooting that shook San Bernardino, California, a New York Daily News headline blared: “GOD ISN’T FIXING THIS”!

“This” refers to the gun violence that has become all too normal in our country. In fact, the massacre in San Bernardino marks the 355^th mass shooting in the U.S. this year.

Many were offended by the Daily News and offered typical rebuttals: “God is still in control,” “Prayer still works,” and “This nation needs to turn to God.”

But the headline is right: God is not going to stop mass shootings. And the notion that God is, is partially what’s wrong with Christianity in America. Even if your eschatological view is that Jesus is coming back one day to reconcile the world to God and heal humanity’s brokenness, there is no reason that such a view should lead you to inaction over today’s problems.

As Christians gripped by the radical love of God, we are not to sit on the sidelines of complacency as we hide behind empty theological platitudes, we are called to bring about in the existential what we say we believe is waiting for us in the eschatological.

Christianity is an opportunity to become God’s hands, feet and heart in the world. It’s not an abdication of moral and social responsibility. Dr. King said it best: “To expect God to do everything while man does nothing is not faith but superstition.”

An important part of creating a better world is REJECTING the misguided notion that we should not even try to foster social change because it is God’s job not ours. No, Christianity should not cripple our impulse to improve society, but properly understood, it should enlarge our imagination about transforming the world—even when solutions aren’t clear.

In A Passion for the Possible, William Sloane Coffin mused: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. It is not enough to analyze the world as it is and ask, ‘Why?’; we need to imagine the world as it might be and ask, ‘Why not?’ ”

To be fair, most Christians who subscribe to the “God is going to fix this” ideology would say they are in fact trying to change the world—but by transforming one heart at a time. The problem with this view is it overlooks the fact that evil exists in the world, in culture and in structures apart from the individual and often shapes the way a person thinks and behaves—even when that person belongs to the church.

This prophetic translation of Ephesians 6:12 sharpens my point: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood [people trapped within and impacted by unjust systems], but against principalities [patriarchy, misogyny and heteronormativity], against powers [racism, sexism and homophobia], against the rulers of the darkness of this world [structural inequality and systematic oppression], against spiritual wickedness in high places [Empire].”

Indeed. That is why we cannot abdicate our responsibility to transform social systems, which includes a culture of violence and near sacrosanct fascination with guns.

If the Christian faith isn’t about repairing the world—or even the possibility of doing so—it isn’t about much of anything.

Social sickness must be opposed by what John Wesley called social grace which, though performed by human hands, is empowered by God’s actions.

Accepting the fact that God is not going to fix the gun problem or the many of the other ills that plaque our society is not a rejection of God or a lack of trust in God’s providential care. Rather, it is a rejection of the ideology of empire. Indeed, empire wants us to wait on God because it leaves the powerful in control of the world as is.

The prophet Micah rebukes this attitude and calls us to action: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,  and to walk humbly with your God?”

It’s time we realized that if God is going to fix anything on the earth—it will ONLY be through us. After praying, I suggest you roll up your sleeves.

Fredrick Robinson is a R3 Contributor