Ever wonder how your faith community can help end the plague of gun violence in our country?
A new and growing coalition of 30-plus faith communities in Colorado — Colorado Faith Communities United to End Gun Violence (CFCU) — has bridged the divide of faith traditions and polarizing beliefs on firearms to have an impact on this troubling issue.
Here are seven steps you and your congregation can take to have an impact in your community as well:
1. Find your spiritual platform for getting involved. At CFCU, we start with the belief that all life is sacred and that we are called to do what we can to protect human life. Most faith traditions can find ample examples of calls to act in whatever holy works their faith is based on. Use them!
2. Challenge your congregation to make a statement supporting your work in this arena — Having some sort of statement endorsing the effort gives you and your congregation legitimacy within the congregation and legitimacy outside the congregation. Ask!
3. Assemble a team of strategic believers who are also good communicators to lead the work — Maybe it’s just two or three. Maybe it’s seven or eight. But make sure they are all as committed as you are. The work will be hard. The work will be frustrating. But the little successes you will have will feel enormously positive and will help bring progress to the cause. Go find them!
4. Use the right language — At CFCU, we have found that using the phrase “gun control” is a non-starter. We always use the phrase “gun safety.” It’s more accurate and it allows for more conversation with those people on the other side of this debate who are willing to have reasonable conversations. And we talk about gun violence as a public health issue, not some anti-Second Amendment issue. Speak strategically!
5. Engage your legislative bodies — While congregations cannot suggest who their members should vote for, they can very definitely ask their congregational members to communicate with their legislators on issues such as gun violence. Individually and as your congregation, show up at legislative hearings and meetings to speak out loud and clear for gun safety legislation and loud and clear against the push to introduce more guns into our society. Show up and speak out!
6. Build your coalition — One congregation standing up is good. Ten or twenty congregations standing side by side and saying the same thing is powerful. You will know the congregations that think like you do. Call them!
7. Don’t give up — You, and we, are up against one of the most powerful lobbying organizations ever seen in our country. But they repeat the same arguments over and over and we know — and we see — that the public mood is slowly changing. Statistics show our society has about had it with these senseless gun deaths. And our society is ready to tell the legislators who do their bidding that we no longer need them in public office. Stay the course!
Jerry Arca is a member of First Plymouth Congregational Church UCC in Denver and is co-chair of Colorado Faith Communities United to End Gun Violence. See more at cfcu-co.org.
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