The mental images of churches and guns are about as incongruous as possible. Churches are quiet, reverent places of worship; they are places of peace, healing and comfort. Guns are loud, sudden and violent; they are about blood, pain and death.
They exist in two different realms.
Add to this the idea that South Carolina churches and synagogues would get involved in nitty gritty politics – that they would delve into the down and dirty world of lobbying and legislative deal making – well, that’s more than many of us can fathom.
But, this is exactly what is happening. It’s happening right now from one end of our state to the other. Where it will end up is anyone’s guess but the mere fact that churches are mobilizing around gun legalization is a sea change in South Carolina in and of itself.
The reason is the Emanuel Nine shooting.
Let me explain. We all know, the whole world knows, the awful facts of the Emanuel Nine shooting. And almost as well known is what happened next. Instead of the shooting sparking a race war as Dylann Roof hoped, the shooting unleashed a flood of forgiveness, love, compassion and racial unity the likes of which no one had ever seen before.
The reaction of Charleston and the whole state was so profound and meaningful that the City of Charleston has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The reaction to the shooting was not just that the Confederate flag came off the capitol dome in Columbia; the impact was felt all across the South as the flag came off the grounds and state capital buildings. And corporate America, Wal-Mart, eBay and the likes, quickly followed suit and no longer sell Confederate flag merchandise.
What was equally profound, but little reported or noticed, was the quiet reaction of ordinary South Carolinians. Without anyone passing a government resolution or mandating changes, tens of thousands of people quietly “took down” the flag. The license plates came off the cars and trucks, the flag no longer flew from the flag pole in the front yard or at the lake house. The T-shirts emblazoned with the flag were put away in the back of the drawer.
No one told them to do it. It wasn’t some politician telling them what to do – people on their own decided that it was now the right thing to do. Sure there are a few holdouts, but by and large, the people of the state quietly, on their own, made the decision to turn the page.
Never have I been so proud of the people of my native state.
Now these same South Carolinians are again acting on their own through their churches to say we need common sense gun safety laws in our state. On Jan. 31, over 1,300 congregations participated in Stand-Up Sunday, an ecumenical event to encourage church folks to get involved to change gun laws in the state.
That’s 1,300 churches and other houses of worship from one end of our state to the other. This is a very big deal.
This is not the place to recount the specifics of their reform proposals except to say that polls show that 80 to 90 percent of South Carolinians support the basic reforms they are seeking. This is not about confiscating guns; it’s about simple common sense actions to keep guns out of the hands of people who we most all agree should not have them.
It’s about changing the law that allowed Dylann Roof to legally buy the gun he used to gun down nine people praying in church.
Reverend Don Flowers of the First Baptist Church on Daniel Island described it best when he said in a TV interview, “You don’t understand how monumental this is – the breadth of the faith community coming out to support these efforts. This just doesn’t happen. We have congregations you’d expect to participate standing alongside the Catholic Diocese and a proclamation from First Baptist Church – this is just remarkable.” And indeed it is.
The effort is being led by a new grassroots group called Gun Sense SC with the simple goal of “closing the gaps in the laws that make it too easy for guns to fall into the wrong hands – while supporting the Second Amendment right of citizens to lawfully own guns.”
A couple of the leaders of the group contacted me because of columns I’ve written on the subject. We met and talked and I offered a few ideas and suggestions. What was most striking about our discussion was that these folks’ effort was absolutely homegrown. They were simply grassroots folks who just wanted things to change.
These were not traditional political activists. There was no affiliation with a massive national organization nor do they have any big money supporters. Over and over they talked of how they had never been involved with political issues before.
Like the people who quietly put away the Confederate flag of their own accord, these folks are organizing simply because they were moved by the Emanuel shooting and want to do something. They are simply ordinary South Carolinians who want change – and are willing to work to see it happen.
Will they succeed? If this was pre-Emanuel I’d say “not a chance.” The big money gun lobby that doles out campaign contributions to politicians and the radical extremists who want no regulation at all would have run over these folks like a truck.
But now, the world has changed. South Carolinians have turned the page. They have shown that ordinary people can change things very quickly when they want things to change.
Something big and important may be about to happen in our state. For once, common sense may prevail over big money and extremists in the legislature.
As our state motto says: “While I breathe I hope.”