When a mass shooting hits too close to home

The mass shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs hit close to home for Russell Moore, head of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

First Baptist is part of the SBC.

After the gunman took the lives of 26 churchgoers last Sunday between the ages of 18 months and 77 years old, Moore was called upon to react as the president of the convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. But he also felt the horror of it as a fellow Baptist.

“There’s a kind of personalization of this shooting in an extraordinary way with people who are Baptist churchgoers because we can imagine being in the very same situation as those who were so wickedly killed,” he said.

“I think there’s a great familiarity with the rhythm of a worship service which makes, for churchgoers, the horror of this even more viscerally felt.”

Moore talked to RNS about Southern Baptists’ responses to the killings, believers’ varying opinions about gun control and how churches remain resilient in the face of such tragedy.

Q. How are you seeing Southern Baptists respond to this tragedy? There are two SBC groups in Texas — are they coming together to rally around this church?

A. They really are, yes, and they have in several other instances in recent days — (Hurricane) Harvey in Houston also drew them together. I see Southern Baptists all over the country in solidarity with First Baptist Sutherland Springs. I think that every Southern Baptist church I know of will be having a special time of prayer this Sunday, if not before.

I think that many churchgoers are reflecting today on our vulnerability and on the wickedness that exists in the world around us. We know that from the Scriptures, but I think it’s especially felt this week. Q: We’ve heard many people offer their thoughts and prayers. Are prayers enough? What action can Christians take to make these tragedies less likely to occur?

A: I think there is a sense in which some of these calls for specific, immediate legislative action ironically serve the very purpose that those promoting them accuse those asking for thoughts and prayers of doing, which is a cathartic sort of immediate reaction, whether or not that actually solves the problem. When we’re looking at this horrific evil, Christians can disagree about what specific policies ought to be enacted. What I don’t see is Christians debating whether or not shootings are right or wrong. We stand together on that. Where we have differences is what we think will work in terms of curtailing that. I think that’s a prudential discussion, and Christians are going to going to end up in different places on that. Q: Does the SBC have a stance on gun control? A: No, there hasn’t been a resolution on that.

Q: Are Southern Baptists divided on the necessity of gun control and, if so, do you expect a shift in some views after some of their own have been killed?

A: Whatever differences people have over gun control are not differences over what the Bible does or does not say. They’re differences over more prudential matters about how to address a specific problem and what’s constitutional and what’s not. I don’t expect that that will change much.