Religious leaders gather in Houston for rally

Red Letter Christians, a movement of left-leaning evangelicals, led a diverse group of faith leaders in a two-day rally against gun violence in Houston last weekend. The event was held in response to a new Texas law that went into effect allowing citizens to carry firearms in public without a license, while eliminating a previously mandatory five-hour gun law and safety training.

It also coincided with what would have been the National Rifle Association’s annual convention, originally scheduled for Houston last weekend; the NRA event was canceled due to COVID concerns.

The rally “Change: A Faithful Response to Gun Violence,” was livestreamed on the group’s Facebook page and is available for replay.

The two-day event came after more than 20,000 Americans died by gun violence in 2020 — the highest rate in at least two decades — and another 24,000 died by suicide with a gun, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

“In the last 45 years, we’ve had more gun deaths domestically than in all of the wars in U.S. history combined,” said Shane Claiborne, co-founder of Red Letter Christians. “So that’s worth grieving.”

A hands-on gun-disarming workshop was held at Houston Mennonite Church in partnership with RAWtools, a Coloradobased organization that transforms guns into garden tools as a reflection of Bible prophecies about turning swords into plowshares. The workshop taught local faith leaders how to safely disable unwanted firearms according to federal guidelines.

It also included a service of remembrance at Houston’s Episcopal Christ Cathedral to honor the memory of those who have died from gun violence. During the service, an AR-15 rifle from an anonymous donor was forged into a garden tool, as participants took turns banging on the gun metal. On Sunday a national service of hope and action was held at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church.

Events took place outdoors when possible, and attendees were required to be masked and vaccinated.

“It’s time to stop trusting in this myth of redemptive violence that more guns are going to make us safer,” said Claiborne.

Faith leaders participating included the Rev. Deanna Hollas, gun violence prevention ministry coordinator with the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship; Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, the archbishop of Galveston-Houston; and the Rev. Harvey Clemons Jr., a native Houstonian and pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist, among others.

Red Letter Christians, founded in 2007 by Claiborne and Tony Campolo, aims to mobilize Christians to live out Jesus’ “radical, counter-cultural” teachings, according to their website.