As an additional reflection on Good Friday, the Rev. Dr. Cheryl Kirk-Duggan from Shaw University Divinity School shares with us her thoughts in both prose and poetry. Focusing on the historical, oppressive foundations of the United States, she frames the current debate on gun violence to the broader forms of violence that plague our country – tying them into the unignorable reality that the founding violence of the nation still is with us to this day. It is a jolting read, and a good addition to any Good Friday mediations. Read, comment, and share.
Rev. Dr. Linda E. Thomas – Professor of Theology and Anthropology, Chair of LSTC’s Diversity Committee, Editor – “We Talk. We Listen.”
The problem is not “those people.”
Most babies are born with potential to love and engage;
few are born as psychopaths and sociopaths.
Violence is an us problem.
As we think through
what it means to be civil, respectful
We must educate ourselves
about our own propensities,
our capacities to love and hate–
hate, born of fear;
about others’ differences:
differences we need not fear or despise
differences we might embrace,
might even like, if given the chance.
And, it is essential we put our fears in check
crucial for us to realize the role of ignorance, avoidance, delusion.
Violence does not begin with
firing the trigger,
detonating of the bomb,
weaponizing a car,
welding the knife–
Violence begins as miseducation and mismanagement of anger,
which fuels fear and creates pain.
Pain metastasized
produces violence.
Violence, domestic violence, gun violence, any violence against innocent others is not acceptable. Too many slaughters of innocent people occur daily in the United States, due to gun violence. The names of these victims are too numerous to name. The depths of anguish and anger and deep grief produced by such heinous, horrific, evil acts traumatizes families and communities: the grief unbearable; the evil unconscionable.
The dead are not statistics; they were real people, with hopes and dreams cut short. We lament their deaths; the earth groans under the weight of such loss.
In memorializing the premature dead, see below the names and ages of the murderers, some who kill family members and others; the places and dates of the slaughters. Some committed suicide; police kill some; some are serving life sentences. The rampages occurred at homes and in public spaces. On this Good Friday, the scandal of these mass murders must be heard. We also memorialize those innocent persons murdered by state sanctioned police. The Roman state murdered Jesus. County/parish deputies and city police murder the Sandras, the Trayvons, the Tamirs, as if they are prey or rodents; some cops act like they are exterminators.
In honor of #BlackLivesMatter and #NeverAgain, voting adults need to be mindful of who we elect. We all need to be more mindful of the loss of lives to gun violence. Read this out loud:
World War II veteran, Howard Unruh (28) kills 13 people, Camden, New Jersey, 1949. Charles Whitman (25), wounds 31 people, kills 16 people, and a 17th victim dies 35 years later from injuries sustained then, 1966, Austin, TX. Prison guard George Banks (40) kills 13 people, 1982, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Carl Brown (51) kills eight people in Miami, 1982. Kwan Mak, Benjamin Ng, and Wai-Chiu Ng, kill 13 at the Wah Mee social club, Seattle, 1983. James Huberty (41), kills 21 adults and children at a McDonald’s, San Ysidro, California, 1984. Patrick Sherrill, kills 14 postal workers, Edmond, Oklahoma, 1986. Joseph Wesbecker (47) kills 8 people, Louisville, Kentucky, 1989. James Pough (42) kills 9 people, Jacksonville, Florida, 1990. George Hennard (35) kills 23 people, Killeen, Texas, 1991. Johnathan Doody (17) and Alessandro Garcia (16), kill 9 people at a Buddhist temple, Waddell, Arizona, 1991. Gian Ferri (55) kills 8 people, San Francisco, 1993. Dylan Klebold (17), and Eric Harris (18) murder 13 people at Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado, 1999. Mark Barton (44) kills 12 and wounds 12, Stockbridge/Atlanta, Georgia, 1999. Jeff Weise (16) kills 9 at home and school, Red Lake, Minnesota, 2005. Robert Hawkins (19) kills 8 people in Omaha, Nebraska, 2007. Seung-Hui Cho (23) kills 32 people and wounds many others, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, 2007. Michael McLendon kills 10, Kinston, Alabama, 2009. Jiverly Wong kills 13 people and injures 4 in Binghamton, New York, 2009. Maj. Nidal Hasan kills 13 people and one unborn child, and injures 32, Fort Hood, Texas, 2009. Robert Stewart (45) kills 8 people in Carthage, North Carolina, 2009. Christopher Speight, 39, kills 8 people, Appomattox, Virginia, 2010. Omar Thornton kills 8 co-workers, Manchester, Connecticut, 2010. Scott Dekraai (41) kills 8 people in Seal Beach, California, 2011. James Holmes (25) injures 70 people and murders 12 people at a theater, Aurora, Colorado, 2012. Adam Lanza (20) murdered 20 children and 6 adults, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut, 2012. Aaron Alexis, (34) kills 12 inside the Washington Navy Yard, 2013. Married couple Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik kill 14 people, Inland Regional Center, San Bernardino, California, 2015. Dylann Roof (21) kills 9, Emanuel A.M.E. Church, Charleston, South Carolina, 2015. Christopher Harper-Mercer kills 9 people, injures 9, Umpqua Community College, Roseburg, Oregon, 2015. Omar Mateen (29) kills 49 and injures over 50 people, Pulse nightclub, Orlando, Florida, 2016. Stephen Paddock (65) sprays gunfire on over 22,000 concertgoers, kills 58 people and injures almost 500, Las Vegas, Nevada, 2017. Devin Kelley kills 25 people and an unborn child, and wounds 20 others, Sutherland Springs, Texas, 2017. Nikolas Cruz, 19, kills 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Florida, February 14, 2018.[1]
What mean these things? Because U.S.A. mass gun shootings occur about every two months, they do not make global headlines. Not only do firearm sales escalate after mass shootings, in 2007, with a population of 320 million people, civilians owned 270 million guns in the U.S.A. 406,496 people died as a result of gun violence (2001-2013); 237,052 suicides; 4,778 police shootings.
We cannot agree on the issue, and Texas has the largest numbers of mass shootings.[2]
What means these things? We, particularly people of faith, should not be surprised. The United States evolved by enslavement, murder, theft, couched in the language of manifest destiny. Millions of slaves were bought and sold in Africa; many died during Middle Passage and rest at the bottom of the Atlantic. Thousands of Native Americans were slaughtered and their lands stolen. Native persons were here prior to the colonialism that established the Thirteen original colonies, westward expansion, the Gold Rush, the expeditions. Japanese citizens were put in camps in World War II; some Chinese, Irish, and more recently Latinx persons have been used for grunt work, underpaid, treated in despicable ways.
Our country, rooted and built on violence, cannot heal and get well until we have a truth and reconciliation process. Our current political climate is Reagonomics on steroids. Reading history, there are no surprises. White patriarchal misogynistic oppressive standards undergird the Constitution. Some mothers who conflate patriotism and faith continue to raise up boys with these beliefs, and girls who acquiesce. When the “Declaration of Independence” stated “all men are created equal,” it meant all white male, Protestant landowners. If one did not meet all of these criteria, one was not free. Freedom is not free. Oppressors and oppressed are in bondage.
Where do we go from here? We need to stop lying to ourselves and see our hypocrisy for what it is. As one of the wealthiest nations, how dare we have high mass incarceration, high homelessness, and expensive health care!
Shame on us!!!
As Christians, we need to stop pimping Jesus, the scriptures, and the pulpit. We need to confess our sins of hate from fear, love everyone regardless, enact just policy; and practice the words of Micah 6:8 (do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God) and Luke 10:27: love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, your soul, and your strength, and your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. Only when we embody these principles is there any hope, will there be a return to civility, will we be great, if we have ever been great. How can a people be great when they own, oppress, murder another?
Just as the lilies of the field
matter, and they do not work;
so each human being matters
Each person matters to God.
Since God made us in God’s image,
We need to accord each other respect.
No one has the right to oppress others–
Because we can, because of fear,
greed, desired control, or due to difference.
And “we” can stop the madness!
We need to learn how to do family–
Avoid being emotionally unavailable;
Avoid remaking children in parental images
Avoid domestic violence and sexual assault
rape and molestation at home.
Many aberrant, violent behaviors
in the streets, in our neighborhoods
in board rooms, and offices, and alleys
Emerged, were first initiated
begin in the home.
[1] (https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/16/us/20-deadliest-mass-shootings-in-u-s-history-fast-facts/index.html; viewed March 28, 2018).
[2] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/one-mass-shooting-every-day-seven-facts-gun-violence-america/; Viewed March 28, 2018.
ADDITIONAL LINK:
Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan is a Professor of Religion at Shaw University Divinity School [SUDS], Raleigh, NC, and an Ordained Elder in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. Her unique proposition is that she specializes in helping individuals and families who have experienced the trauma of grief and loss, come into their authentic selves. Dr. Kirk-Duggan has written numerous articles and over twenty books, including those related to experiencing trauma and grief: Misbegotten Anguish: A Theology and Ethics of Violence Chalice Press, 2001; Violence and Theology, and her edited The Sky is Crying: Racism, Classism, and Natural Disaster, both Abingdon; her co-written is Wake Up!: Hip Hop, Christianity and the Black Church. Her volume, Baptized Rage, Transformed Grief: I Got Through, So Can You, a volume of poetry is forthcoming with Wipf & Stock press.
We Talk. We Listen. 
Thank you for this post. You have captured so many sides to the violence which permeates our culture. It is built up by a broken society; it is built up in broken individuals. In combating that violence, we must recognize our own place within that same society and our own brokenness. This is tragedy and something worth looking at. I appreciate the way you connect today’s violence with the crucifixion and, much later, say that we need to stop “pimping out Jesus”. The intersection between our faith and violence is complex. You capture this well.
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Pingback: “Not Those People?”: A Meditation on Gun Violence on Good Friday – Rev. Dr. Cheryl Kirk-Duggan – .base – Black Theology Project
First, I would like to thank Rev. Dr. Kirk-Duggan for sharing her thoughts on this topic. You have brought to light many great points about the historical and systemic issues our country was founded on, and continues to perpetuate. A few of your quotes stood out to me. “Violence begins as miseducation and mismanagement of anger.” and “Our country, rooted and built on violence, cannot heal and get well until we have a truth and reconciliation process.” For me, these two points get to the root of the constant violence towards “the other” that we as a country are currently facing.
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I appreciate the call for reconciliation to our history as a violent nation. I often wonder how we can ever move forward from that history, knowing all the horrors of the past, in new light and new life. The first step is aptly named, that first we must deal with that history – because denying it means that we can never truly start on our path toward betterment for all people. The violence been done can never be forgotten, though.
When, in the post, we as readers were asked to read outloud the names and acts of gun violence that have been done throughout our history as a nation, I was chilled. Each instance on it’s own is disquieting; all of them read together, named in that moment with our voices, I found myself feeling quite sick.
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This post was so powerful, convicting, and wrenching, especially within the context of Good Friday. These lines really struck me: “Violence is an us problem. … Our country, rooted and built on violence, cannot heal and get well until we have a truth and reconciliation process.” I often feel discouraged about the possibility of healing and reconciliation, and I feel overwhelmed by what it would take for the nation to confront its history of violence. Yet, reading your post in the context of Good Friday reminds me that the Christian perspective speaks to this in a particular way, and trust in the power of resurrection is relevant to these questions. I am left asking myself where do we stand as an Easter people: how will we live into that transformation?
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“Violence begins as miseducation and mismanagement of anger,
which fuels fear and creates pain.
Pain metastasized
produces violence.”
These words you have shared, Rev. Dr. Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, incite me once again to lift up the need for education. As you say, violence begins as miseducation ….. What has to be done to set forth the history of America as it was and is still being experienced by people of color, in particular? That is, a history of what Kelly Brown Douglas terms “white exceptionalism”, in her book, Stand Your Ground, Black Bodies and the Justice of God. I think that you, Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas and the prophetic voices she raises, such as James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr. , Frederick Douglas, Mary Church Terrell and John Kennedy need to be brought together in a catachesis of sorts that is used it educate people of our day, beginning with those that are more likely to take up the task of furthering this education. Might this not be a responsible response of the Christian church — especially the white Christian church in partnership with prophetic voices of our day, such as yourself? This might be an easier entry point than trying to make massive changes to the public school history books, though they are in need of reform as well!
I myself, have just been educated on the white anglo-saxon myth and as James Baldwin rightly stated, “On the contrary, the great a force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do. It could scarcely be otherwise, since it is to history that we owe our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations. And it is with great pain and terror that one begins to realize it.”
I am in a state of pain and terror after having read Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas’ book. I have been one of those unconsciously controlled by our nation’s bleak history of living into the white Anglo-Saxon myth that cultivates white exceptionalism which perpetuates the violence we experience today, especially against black and brown bodies. Through Douglas’ book, I was reeducated and look for systemic ways of helping (re)educate others.
You state, “Our country, rooted and built on violence, cannot heal and get well until we have a truth and reconciliation process.” I propose that a truth and reconciliation process begin with education. Your article and Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown’s book have provided me the education I have been lacking for many years now, and for that I am deeply thankful.
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This is a powerful testimony to the regularity of Good Friday in the U.S. experience for so many. When we ground the current situation in a vast historical narrative of White Anglo Superiority we see that these events are neither isolated nor out of character for the U.S. I hope and pray that folks who look like me and are the privileged few who the constitution actually protects in the language of men who are created equal, can move into serious action with our shared liberation in mind.
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There is a call for mothers to stop teaching their children to perpetuate problematic thinking. In addition, the call should be expanded to fathers and all other guardians of children to stop teaching all children and each other to perpetuate problematic thinking.
You hope for a “return to civility” in order to make us great, and question whether we have ever been great. Reading the post, I could not think of a time of civility. Has there ever been a time of civility?
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“And, it is essential we put our fears in check” – – more and more I find myself drawn to discussions on fears and their implications. And am reminded that Jesus repeatedly tells us to not be afraid – fear is a survival instinct that hasn’t adjusted biologically as quickly as it needs to have adjusted socially. What you are proposing in this piece is work – but it is devoid of a capitalistic production model, and instead is the work of kindness and vulnerability, which can be a lot more challenging.
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I appreciate your connection of the violent history of the US and the current gun violence this country is facing. All too often, this fact is obscured in our national conversations (though there is some trace of it; often, people will say “the most deadly modern shooting in US history,” which is ostensibly a reference to the many, many massacres of Native Americans).
I think frequently about how the epidemic of gun violence is related to historic violence against women, and current violence against women, and I wonder how this relates to your reflection on the historic roots of our violence. In our nation, when women are bought and sold as if we are commodities, and male shooters invariably have a history of violence against women, it seems as if one of the roots of the violence is that we objectify people, and I think you illustrate this point well from a critical race perspective.
Thank you for your reflection.
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Thank you so much for your testimony. Through this semester the power of testimony has been truly brought to life. After attending a combating Islamophobia conference I learned skills to plant the seed for the Holy Spirit to change the hearts and minds of those listening through the power of a testimony. This semester at LSTC has taught me I can use the same tactic for gun violence in a parish. I piece you touched that I would also like to implement is the reconciliation piece. We as anglo-saxon individuals have failed to mend our relationship with our siblings of color. I would love to share your blog to begin to engage in that dialogue.
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I was struck by the emphasis on we vs. them and how it allows people of privilege to avoid thinking they are part of a problem. In many ways it reminds me of the debate on violence in Chicago. I’ve heard some say “they have gun control there but look at the violence!” yet when these same people of privilege look at how easy they made guns to access in wisconsin and indiana, it starts to make more sense that they refuse to see themselves as part of the problem. Thanks for your insight.
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Living in Nebraska, policy around guns has been tricky. If you are on the campus of colleges there seems to be a stronger resistance of what the current policy is. However, in rural communities there is more hesitation to change any regulation on guns. Since I have been in Chicago I have noticed that the LSTC community is aware of what has happened in America’s history against People of Color. I thank you for bringing us a message of hope and love against systems of violence.
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Dr. Kirk-Duggan, thank you for sharing your thoughts on gun violence with us. The beginning lines of your poem, “Most babies are born with potential to love and engage” reminded me of this famous quotation from Nelson Mandela’s book 1994 ‘Long Walk to Freedom’: “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” Here’s to hoping that all will be taught to love.
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