While we’re talking about guns in America, let’s talk about our fear-based theology that also drives gun sales

This article originally appeared on July 19, 2021 at Baptist News Global.

The sound of skidding tires filled the air as the car spun around, the window rolled down, and an arm reached out. It wasn’t until the third shot that I realized that I was staring down the barrel of a gun. With nowhere to hide, a man within 10 feet of me getting hit, and the gun turning my direction, I immediately fell to the ground as multiple shots went above my head and the car sped away. Thankfully, we all survived.

A few years later, I was in the parking lot at my pizza delivery job with my manager when a man armed with a machete ordered us into the store. I slowly walked away, called 911, and talked with the dispatcher as the armed man robbed three stores.

Then when my wife was 38 weeks pregnant, I woke up one night to hands touching my feet. Initially, I assumed it was my wife walking through the dark. But then I turned to my left and noticed that she was still in bed with me. When I looked back to the foot of my bed, there was the outline of a man staring down at us. I lunged at him while yelling for my wife to turn on the lights. And when she did, we saw that the man had stripped down to his underwear. Two days later when the intruder knocked on our door to apologize after being released by the police, I told him, “If I had a gun, you could have died.”

Continue reading at Baptist News Global.