Why Christians Need to Talk About Guns
Abigail, why did you decide to focus the film on evangelical Christians?
Abigail Disney: Well, because that’s where the correlation between gun culture and a demographic is the highest—white evangelical conservative Christians. And it’s where I think the disconnect is also largest between language about the sanctity of human life and the embrace of this culture. It’s not just the gun, it’s a language and a set of values around the gun. I call it yippie-ki-yay culture—this sort of looking forward to the conflict, not exhausting all the other possibilities first, and a blitheness and a disregard for the taking of human life.
.. For example, with the stoning of Stephen as recorded in the book of Acts, was it God’s will for Stephen to survive, and did he fail at that? Or was it God’s will that he die? I would argue it was God’s will. So these are serious theological problems that demand examination for the christian.
.. Let’s say someone with schizophrenia gets up and starts yelling and maybe reaches for a cell phone. How many of those people will think he’s reaching for a gun and stand up and shoot? That’s tragic enough, but now the church has to answer for that act... I think everybody’s looking for a silver bullet—which is an unfortunate metaphor, but I can’t help it. We’re always thinking there’s one law or one rule or one petition. But this is a deep, long-term problem. It will take a long time for us to dig out from under it.