The Real
Difference in the Trayvon Martin Case:
A Gun Changed
Everything
by the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II
Sermon as prepared
for Second Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),
Baltimore, MD
Sunday, July 14, 2013
SERMON TOPIC: The
Difference a Gun Can Make
TEXT: You shall not kill (Exodus 20:13)
We are
living in difficult times. We are witnessing gun deaths in the United States of
more than thirty thousand persons per year since 1997. From the Revolutionary
War in 1775 to the Persian Gulf War in 1991, which totaled 116 years of
engagement in foreign wars, there were 650,858 persons killed in combat. In the
eighteen years from 1979 to 1997, the United States experienced 651,697 deaths
by guns. There were 839 more persons killed by guns during this 18-year period
in the United States than in 116 years of foreign wars involving the United
States.[1] During
the Fourth of July holiday weekend a few weeks ago, twelve
men were killed and at least 60 other people were wounded in shootings
throughout Chicago. Two hundred murders have now occurred this year in Chicago,
a city that witnessed over 500 murders last year.[2]
Recently, in your city of Baltimore, Police Commissioner Anthony Batts
announced a plan that included using federal officers to combat crime and
murders in this city.
We are
living in a culture of violence in the United States. From toy
guns and holsters, to movies and cartoons, to video games that simulate warfare
and deaths by automatic weapons, inlcuding blood splatter. Participants of all
ages are able to be actors in the simulated slaughter of other human beings.
Violence on television provides actual blueprints for killing another person. And
daily we watch the glamorizing of murder on our mobile devices and hear lyrics
to songs declaring that there is something noble about killing another human
being, including shooting the police.
Our text
for the morning is taken from our ancient Judeo-Christian Covenant that some
theologians believe pre-dates the Prophet Moses. Hence, these commandments are
a reiteration of God’s desired covenant for the ordering of communal life. The Ten
Commandments could be considered an internal declaration as to how one ancient
Israelite would treat another. Our commandment under study today might then read,
“Do not kill (another Israelite).” The
Hebrew word for murder “rasah”, reminds us that human life belongs to God.
In the
words of my early learning about God and life, I was often reminded, “The Lord gives
and the Lord takes away.” This was an interpretive spin off of Job 1:21 which reads
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and
naked shall I return there; the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed
be the name of the LORD” (NRSV). In our reflections on the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.)’s confessional document, A
Brief Statement of Reformed Faith, we find the words, “In Life and in death
we belong to God,”[3]
which are representative of our connection to the Author and Finisher of all
things, God Almighty. These words also remind us of the common brother and
sisterhood among humanity, which links us in a mutuality of love through the
love shown by God Almighty. However, this God-centered love is difficult to
identify amid the massive killing in the United States today.
Our denominational policy reminds us that, as Presbyterians,
we have a responsibility to broaden our relationships with other faith
communities, creating a broad-based social movement to prevent gun violence:
Our church can and should lead the way in the broader faith
community to the creation of a broad-based social movement to prevent gun
violence, beginning with and led by an opening to the Holy Spirit, and drawing
its strength from the grassroots, especially people in the pews. Such
a coalition of congregations and other faith communities can take practical
direct action on local levels while generating critical change in cultural
norms and attitudes toward guns, their possession, distribution, and use.
In this way our church, the faith community, and the movement they can lead,
will heed God’s call to protect more of God’s children.[4] (emphasis added)
John
Calvin, the founder of the Presbyterian Church, believed that biblical
principles had direct applicability in the ordering of civil society. So, in
his commentary on the Sixth Commandment, “You shall not kill,” Calvin expressed
a theological perspective on the ordering of society that is based on the value
of each human life as loved and redeemed by God, and therefore, in need of
protection. The purpose of this commandment is that, since the Lord has bound
the whole human race by a kind of unity, the safety of all ought to be
considered as entrusted to each. In general, therefore, all violence and
injustice, and every kind of harm from which our neighbor’s body suffers, is
prohibited. Accordingly, we are required faithfully to do what lies within us
to defend the life of our neighbor, to promote whatever tends to his
tranquility, to be vigilant in warding off harm, and when danger comes, to
assist in removing it.[5]
We
worship this morning following the midnight verdict in the case Florida v. George Zimmerman, which
exonerated Zimmerman of all charges related to the shooting death of 17-year-old
Trayvon Martin. I visited Central Florida Presbytery on June 4th.
The meeting was held at First Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Sanford, Florida,
a week before the jury selection in the George Zimmerman case. I
left Sanford convinced that if George Zimmerman had not had a gun that night,
Trayvon Martin would be alive today. The power of a gun gives courage to pursue
in moments of cowardice. If Zimmerman had not had a gun, he would not have
followed Martin, nor could he have shot him to death.
I have
heard both blatant and subtle inferences that the actions of George Zimmerman
had nothing to do with race. The State Attorney for Florida declared last night
that Trayvon Martin was profiled, but she would not affirm that race was the
basis of the profiling. Those persons who believe that this killing
had nothing to do with race are either mistaken or naïve in their view of what
history and our present reality reveals about the United States of America. This
tragedy is only one example of many, that show that continued, insidious, and pervasive
racism persist in this country.
In
November 2012, Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old African American and resident of
Jacksonville, Florida, was killed by Michael David Dunn, a 45-year-old White
man, for playing his music too loud while sitting in a car. In July 2012, Chavis
Carter, a 21-year-old African American who was handcuffed in the back of a
police car in Jonesboro, Arkansas, is believed to have shot himself in the head
with a concealed weapon while handcuffed. Questions remain as to the validity
of police reports in Carter’s alleged suicide. The upcoming Sundance Movie
Festival presentation Fruitvale Station
will depict a true story of the police killing of Oscar Grant. Grant was a 22-year-old
African American man on a subway platform in Oakland, California. He was
apprehended by police and shot dead while in custody. The White police officer was
exonerated after saying he thought he pulled his Taser.
A major
sector of our society is impacted by hostilities connected to issues of race,
gender, sexual orientation – all of which stem from issues of privilege,
domination, control, and entitlement. In the Zimmerman trial, we
failed to appropriately implement the law as a basis for enforcing communal morality.
Hence, we have sent a message to historically disenfranchised groups and new
immigrants that the Stand Your Ground Law is a license for killing without
motivation or cause for threat. The Stand Your Ground Law and other similar
laws that protect the privileged while distancing the vulnerable from covenant
community must be eliminated. Our Christian communal covenant reminds us that
“You shall not kill.” (Exodus 20:13)
Our vigilance to press for stricter gun laws in the country must
not be deterred by the inability of our Congressional leaders to muster their
courage and stand for righteousness. We must be vigilant in our efforts to hold
them accountable by advocating:
- Banning all assault weapons. These are weapons of war and there is no reason for common citizens to purchase or possess them. We must call for the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban that lapsed in 2004.
- Requiring universal background checks. Presently, there is no federal provision for background checks and some states that do not require them at all.
- Gun trafficking becoming a federal crime. Currently, prosecutions only proceed through a law that prohibits selling guns without a federal license, which carries the same punishment as trafficking chicken or livestock. We must empower law enforcement to investigate and prosecute straw purchasers, gun traffickers, and their entire criminal networks.
Let’s be clear…Killing is an act of Non-Love! Killing is
antithetical to the will of God! Our call is to be supportive of abundant life
while recognizing that, in life and in death, we belong to God.
The
writer of I Corinthians establishes the basis of just treatment towards another
human being as grounded in love. Love (agape) refers to self-giving action on
behalf of others, which God’s Spirit makes feasible. If a person is going to practice
love, she or he must hate evil. It is not just that she or he avoids evil; she or
he must take a stand against evil (I Corinthians 12:9). The advocacy
work that I do daily means nothing, if love is not the essence of my actions
and advocacy (I Corinthians 13:1).
[1] James Atwood, America and its Guns: A Theological
Expose (Eugene Oregon: Cascade Books, 2012) Appendix p. 227-228.
[2] http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/15-Shot-As-Holiday-Weekend-Begins-214275491.html#ixzz2YyQmk9Iq
[3] A Brief
Statement of Reformed Faith, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Book of
Confessions (Louisville, KY: Office of the General Assembly, 2004), 267.
[4] Gun Violence
and Gospel Values: Mobilizing in Response to God’s Call; approved by the 219th General Assembly
(2010) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); developed by the Advisory Committee
on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP); published in 2011; p. 6
[5] Ibid. Gun
Violence and Gospel Values, p. 9.
