White Supremacy, Guns, and Mass Shootings: Rethinking Christian Witness After Mass Violence

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2019

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How can Jesus-followers respond to tragedies like the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton in faithful, transformative ways? In this raw and reflective episode, Mike Erre, Bonnie, and Tim wrestle honestly with their grief, anger, and frustration in the wake of yet another national tragedy. They push back on empty Christian clichés, challenge politically entrenched responses, and instead offer a vision for lament, action, and reconciliation that reflects the way of Jesus—not American partisanship.

This critical conversation touches on how the church must reject passivity and empty platitudes, and instead embrace deep repentance, courageous lament, and a prophetic presence in the world. Drawing from Scripture, painful personal experiences, and the Sermon on the Mount, the episode explores how to be light in the darkness without becoming a mirror of the world’s rage and polarization.

Key Takeaways:
• Reclaiming Lament – Why biblical lament is not passive grief, but honest truth-telling rooted in the character of God and the hope of restoration.
• Rejecting Cliché Responses – The danger of “thoughts and prayers” when they replace meaningful action and solidarity.
• Nonpartisan Discipleship – Why the church must be a place where people from all political viewpoints can sit under the lordship of Jesus.
• Enemy Love in Action – What it means to love your enemy without condoning injustice, and how this calls the church to speak boldly against white nationalism and all forms of hate.
• The Church as Reconciling Community – Creating spaces for repentance, listening, and redemptive conversations that resist the fracturing of our culture.

Notable Quotes:
“There’s something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve.”
“If gun owners are willing to fight to save one unborn child, shouldn’t we be willing to give up something if it could save even one life in a mass shooting?”

Resources Mentioned:
• Miroslav Volf – Reflections on confronting evil with actions, not only prayer
• Dallas Willard – Teachings on “joyful non-compliance” and discipleship
• Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5-7
• James 1:27 – “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure…”

This episode is a sobering yet hopeful reminder that we can—and must—live into a better story. Join the ongoing dialogue about how to embody Jesus’s love in a divided world. Subscribe, leave a review, and follow Voxology on your favorite platform or social media channel to continue the conversation.

As always, we encourage questions and community dialogue as we journey together. Email us at [email protected] and connect on Facebook and Instagram.

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Follow the hosts:
Instagram: @voxologypodcast
Twitter: @mikeerre
Music by Timothy John Stafford: https://www.timothyjohnstafford.com
Twitter/Instagram: @GoneTimothy

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

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Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey everybody, it's Mike Erie with a tired Bonnie and an exhausted Tim.
0:24.4	This is our third attempt at having this conversation.
0:29.6	Because we're recording this on the Sunday of, we heard about the El Paso shooting Saturday night, and then we woke up to the
0:48.9	Dayton, Ohio shooting.
0:50.7	And it's just, I've been so heavy and so kind of weirdly emotional today. So I've ranted for two
0:57.3	episodes that we've deleted because there just weren't, it just wasn't very helpful.
1:02.8	I feel better. Tim is in a hot room with no AC and how hot is it up there right now in Auburn?
1:13.3	I was in the high 90s today. Okay.
1:13.7	Yeah.
1:14.0	So there's no ventilation and there's no air conditioning for Tim.
1:19.7	And then Bonnie, are you back?
1:21.2	Are you back in your home?
1:22.9	No, I'm on vacation.
1:24.4	Oh, that's right.
1:24.9	You're in Cali.
1:25.6	But you were in El Paso the day before all this went down
1:28.1	i was we drove here so we were in el paso the day before uh so so here i want to set the table
1:34.6	and then i i will have a much less intense a conversation about this um because i think i was
1:43.2	offending i was i was literally trying to offend everybody on the planet.
1:48.4	So I think I'm calmer.
1:50.0	But here's the thing.
1:51.3	And other facts may come out.
	...

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