Eye for Eye (by Mary Nelson)
We are painfully reminded once again of the cascading violence in the U.S. after the senseless killing of six and wounding of many others at Northern Illinois University. But in my low-income Chicago community, the violence and killing have almost numbed us. I hear gunshots out my window regularly in the summer, and the annual homicide toll from guns in our two-square-mile community is often more than 30. The Children's Defense Fund indicates that almost 3,000 youth die in the U.S. annually from gun violence.
David Walsh points out the strange dichotomy between our shared nonviolent, cooperative values and the values of the marketplace and TV programs imposed on our children. Eighty percent of Nintendo games have a violent theme. Violence, sex, and humor are the themes that sell TV ads; 80.3 percent of all TV programs contain acts of violence. It's hard to find a popular movie without significant violence.
We are a violent nation. We label people enemies, inflict shock-and-awe violence, and promote first strike weapons. Soldiers come back from Iraq and Afghanistan with violent responses and post traumatic stress disorder. Kids bring guns into schools, women carry guns in purses, and automatic weapons abound - doing much more damage than good. One hundred twenty U.S. mayors have called for national leadership to wage war on gun violence. Marian Wright Edelman urges, "There must be a movement to end gun violence and stop the proliferation of guns."
A recent Christian Organization Board discussion of a group of parents whose children died from gun violence admonished the leader/speaker not to get "political." When are we going to say "enough is enough" and get political? Jesus challenged us to try a different approach to violence. Why not do it?
Mary Nelson is president emeritus of Bethel New Life, a faith-based community development corporation on the west side of Chicago. She is also a board member of Sojourners.
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Comments
Can the massacre at NIU be equated with the Iraq war? Is gaming (even violent gaming) the same as the government declaring war against a violent agressor?
I think the categories are dramatically different, warrant separate discussions and are not so easily reduceable...
Posted by: Sean LeRoy | February 26, 2008 11:39 AM
We can only wonder at the mental barriers our society seems to have erected between our awareness of the culture of violence we've embraced and feed upon in what we call entertainment, and it's manifestation in our real world around us.
I know families in which the parents seem to be highly intelligent and sensible people, who yet cannot see the reality of the connection between the violence and overall lack of respect and regard for others they allow their children to experience on tv, in movies, and in video/computer games, and their children's distressing lack of respect for others, including their parents, and lack of moral values.
We shouldn't need studies to prove this connection, but even if we miss it as obvious, there are countless studies that do support it. So why do we act shocked when those raised and fed on violence act it out in their lives as if it were normal? To those fed on violence all their lives, it IS normal!
Posted by: Jenell Yarbrough | February 26, 2008 11:42 AM
This is how American Christians can live in two psychological worlds - that of followers of Jesus inwardly, but passive supporters of violence, retribution and reductionist Darwinian competition outwardly.
The cognitive dissonace is astounding.
Posted by: Sojourner Truth | February 26, 2008 12:01 PM
The issue of how entertainment affects our mindsets is one that Christians of all stripes should agree on. I'm surprised there isn't more discussion of this on Sojourners. I'm glad Mary brought this up. The the degrading effects of the violence, sex, hedonism, and nihilism that is sold by the entertainment industry has a huge negative influence on our society. If Sojouners wants to change the behavior of Americans this is where it should start.
Posted by: Eric | February 26, 2008 12:18 PM
Again, we have the well-intentioned but ill conceived notion of treating the symptoms rather than the disease. One seldom hears about Switzerland, where each household is REQUIRED to possess an assault rifle for national defense, and where the crime rate is quite low, thank you very much.
Yes, it is true that those who live by the sword will die by it. But dare I say that it is NOT the state's role to impose pacifism? Analogously, when Jesus pointed out that if someone forces you to go with him one mile, go with him two, it does not mean that the "just state" should FORCE everyone to go two.
The causes of violence and crime are complex. Broken homes, a general sense of hopelessness, and yes, the glamorization of violence (tempting to call for censoring violence now?) probably all play a role. Let's treat the disease, rather than the symptoms. The church can and should act against the broken homes and such.
Posted by: Ngchen | February 26, 2008 3:48 PM
I have raised 4 boys in the "video game era", all of who are grown now. They all played violent games, video and other wise. They are animal lovers and respect life in all forms, and are not at all violent men. They grew up in a house where I had a gun, and they were all trained in how to use it (safely).
I know that some like to draw a direct line between video games, and gun proliferation to the gun violence in our country. But my experience does not bear this out.
If you raise your children to respect life, they won't stray from that despite what eliments they may be exposed to in their life.
Posted by: Jan | February 26, 2008 4:28 PM
"One seldom hears about Switzerland, where each household is REQUIRED to possess an assault rifle for national defense, and where the crime rate is quite low, thank you very much."
Is it not the case that Switzerland also has universal military service, so that every adult male (except the mentally retarded, conscientious objectors, etc., of course) has had extensive training in how to handle guns? There is also further training for a period of 3 weeks every two years and compulsory annual target practice. Would the NRA accept universal military training and compulsory periodic training for all American men and women in exchange for a moratorium on gun control laws?
It's easier to get a gun in the U.S. than it is to get a driver's license. I do not favor draconian gun control--I like to target shoot and many family members and friends enjoy hunting, but the ease by which one can obtain cheap hand guns and assault weapons in this country defies common sense.
Posted by: carl copas | February 26, 2008 4:33 PM
Ngchen is correct to point out that Swiss men of military age are required to keep an assault rifle at home. You may be interested to note that there is a corollary to this requirement, which is quite different from the American situation. Those who keep the assault rifles at home are also responsible to account for the weapon and every bullet that is issued to them. The Swiss understand far better than we do today that citizenship involves reciprocal obligation.
Yes, we have individual rights, but we also have a social duty to our "neighbors" and our society to sustain and help. Our problems with violence would be substantially ameliorated if we were more consciously aware that we also have an obligation to those around us. Complete individualism leads to alienation and denial of our mutual responsibility to our "neighbors," as Jesus so eloquently put it. This alienation and disconnection from those around us is what ultimately enables senseless acts like the shootings at Northern Illinois University, and underlies most of these tragedies, regardless of the proximate explanation of cause. This denial of mutual obligation is found in all parts of our society - from criminal lawbreakers to those who assert that they have no obligation to help "the least of these," particularly if that involves participation by the government.
Posted by: Jim | February 26, 2008 4:41 PM
I think there are other cultural differences between Switzerland and the United States as well. Is Switzerland as highly consumerized as the United States, with its young people being constantly bombarded with advertisements and sexual images that keep them in a constant state of dissatisfaction? Has Switzerland, despite its required military service, engaged in or supported any wars in the last 500 years? Does Switzerland allow schools and neighborhoods to fall into disarray?
Funny that someone would cite Switzerland and its gun laws and then decry "big government." Like most other Western European countries, Switzerland invests much more in its safety net system and its public education than we do, and has single-payer health care to boot. And most other Western European countries have a low crime rate as well, regardless of their gun laws. So maybe you really are getting at something.
Posted by: I and I | February 26, 2008 5:37 PM
To clarify, I do not oppose government-based safety nets. We DO have an obligation to each other. In fact, there is much that is admirable about universal health care, for instance. My comment about government-imposed pacifism is that I believe it is wrong for the state to force individuals to become pacifist. An example will illustrate this nicely.
Would-be rapist attacks someone. The victim meekly submits of her own will, in an attempt to imitate Christ. That is OK IMO.
Would-be rapist attacks someone. The victim refuses to submit, and say in the extreme case kills the rapist in a desperate bid to avoid getting raped. If the state turns around, and punishes her for resisting (why did you NOT SUBMIT???) there is something wrong here. The state should not force people to go that "extra mile."
Posted by: Ngchen | February 26, 2008 6:02 PM
If anyone has spent any length of time in the major cities of our nation like Mary Nelson has and I have and have attended funerals for family members or friends or coworkers that have been killed by gun violence (children and adults) then you might be for "draconian handgun laws." I know I am. Handguns are for one purpose, to kill people, and they are passed around in this violence worshipping nation like candy. I submit that people (especially Christians) who don't want to drastically reduce and eliminate their existence in this nation have their head in the sand in their suburban neighborhood, where, it looks like, this tragic proliferation has spread to as well. Is it not clear that Christ has called us to non-violence and to "put away our swords?" I believe that this is not just figurative speech but a real, literal command to put away all weapons of violence and pick up the tools of the Way.
Posted by: PKman | February 26, 2008 8:18 PM
A key factor to this situation is the hopelessness felt by so many. Consider the utter apathy of the American people toward the poverty right here in the US. Even the progressives among us today, unlike the progressives of past generations,have generally been indifferent toward the poor. Because of our horrendous social policies, record numbers of families are having their children taken from them solely for the "crime" of poverty. Meanwhile, our government continues it's annual "tax relief" for the wealthiest/corporations, at a cost that far exceeds the cost of legitimate aid for the poor. Surely most people understand that "tax relief" for the rich simply means that the rest of us have to pick up the tab, i.e., pay welfare for the least needy people on Earth. Funny thing is, the very people who can become outraged at the sight of someone using food stamps shrugs off a few billion dollars misspent by our government, whether in welfare for the rich, or on an insane war that costs several billion dollars per month.
We've collectively dehumanized our poor over the past 25 years. This is just one area where we have devalued life, and it is something that hits the poor in the face every minute of every day. It takes a lot of hate to allow the social policies that we have today. Every action has a reaction. When life is devalued, when people have nothing left to lose, violence does increase.
Posted by: DHFabian | February 26, 2008 8:48 PM
I fully sympathize with everything that's been said about treating the disease and not the symptoms.
However, the fact remains that both the Illinois and Virginia Tech shootings were committed by psychologically unstable people who took advantage of mile-wide holes in our gun laws. There will always be crazy people, just like there will always be earthquakes and floods. Only a country that is controlled by a paranoid gun lobby allows them to acquire weapons.
Posted by: Another nonymous | February 26, 2008 9:51 PM
If you can't sympathetically hear Mary's diagnosis of this culture as being violent and recognize this to not be the heart of God--I really plea you just quiet your heart and mind and prayerfully watch and listen.
If you think this is about guns or the military or political policy--I think you miss the point.
I too have seen too many dead bodies on the streets of my city. I have lived in a world where "peace is maintained" by pointing weapons at each other that can exterminate all living things.
These realities touch us. I have never struck a person or fired a gun. I am happy and mostly sane. And that does not make my heart immune to the violent culture.
And Mary is 'dead on' in the popular media's twisted connections around materialism, sex and violence.
Her piece is wise. We ought listen.
Posted by: letjusticerolldown | February 27, 2008 7:10 AM
Unfaithful creatures! Do you not know that friendship with the world is emnity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4
Posted by: Oak | February 27, 2008 10:46 AM
Regarding I and I's questions about Switzerland,
the youth there are indeed bombarded with advertising and sexual imagery, like here (and television there is far more explicit than we generally see here). The churches there are far less healthy than here, primarily because of the state establishment that we were very fortunate to avoid. (The healthiest church that I encountered there was a small sect with no state support. I think that it was no accident that this was the case. If the church was not vibrant, it wouldn't survive. State churches can continue indefinitely even though much of the savor has gone out of their salt.
Ironically, Switzerland was known for centuries as the place to go to hire mercenaries to fight the battles for other countries. The Swiss Guard of the Vatican is an artifact of this history. This was a result of the extreme poverty of the Swiss until after the failed revolutions of 1848. Switzerland was just about the only European nation that benefited after the revolts were put down. The key was agreement on a united currency and the creation of the famed Swiss banking system. While Switzerland has not been engaged in aggressive war for centuries, it was overrun by Napoleon in 1798 (and the French Swiss still view that as a liberation), and this is undoubtedly a major source of their fanatic independence and military preparedness.
Health care insurance in Switzerland is actually in significant respects more similar to that in the US than to that in many other European countries. They rely primarily on private insurance, with a wide variety of providers and plans, but mandate that everyone must purchase coverage. However, I believe that they don't allow the insurers to cherry-pick the way we do in the US. Thus everyone has access to health care, rather than being excluded due to pre-existing conditions (I am not totally sure about this last point). It is notable that the percentage of gross national product devoted to health care (which is uniformly good) is significantly higher than in most other European countries, but still lower than in the US, probably due to the complexities of this reliance on private insurance. Most international comparisons place the state of health care and most indicators of public health (e. g. longevity, infant mortality, etc.) in Switzerland significantly above that in the US.
There was a terrible tragedy in one of the Cantons of Switzerland a few years ago, in which an enraged man with a grudge against the government killed several people in the state legislature with a gun. (It doesn't only happen here.) I read an interview with one of the top political leaders in Bern about how she was going to respond to the tragedy. Would that cause an increasing distance between the people and their leaders? She replied that this would not happen. She was continuing to use public transit every day(!!!), as were the other top leaders. The expectation was that this event was a rare occurrence, and that there was no need to live in fear. Note the sense of shared citizenship!
Posted by: Jim | February 27, 2008 12:01 PM
Why must we have the same old worn-out and proven to be ineffective strategies dragged out and offered again and again as potential solutions to phenomenally complex social problems? Ideally, if EVERYTHING could be controlled or if ANYTHING could be controlled COMPLETELY, maybe control strategies would help a little; but that is about as possible as the other sound-good idealistic effort of eradicating poverty. Why don't we just focus on eradicating disease first? After all, disease causes more pain and suffering than anything else in the world. Control this, control that, control, control, control -- does not, has not, and never will even begin to address the kinds of problems Ms. Nelson identifies. Control, force, coercion, restriction, etc. will only deepen the divisions among us and waste whatever resources are available. Getting realistic and practical for a change; gearing up for some serious praying, thinking, and researching; and generally getting our idealistic heads out of the sand would be a great place to start.
--Ray
Posted by: Ray Hollis | February 29, 2008 10:27 AM
Just one more thought: For the purposes of this article, do you really believe that "gun violence" is qualitatively different from "knife violence" or "blunt object violence" or "eye-gouging violence?" Do you have any statistics about deaths and injuries from those other methods of mayhem?
Posted by: Ray Hollis | February 29, 2008 10:42 AM
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