What We Focus On...Who We Become

"The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic and a killer."

— D.H. Lawrence

The death toll from small arms “dwarfs that of all other weapons systems — and in most years greatly exceeds the toll of the atomic bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

— Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, 2000

“A lot of gun owners indulge in childish fantasies about the ways in which weapons protect life. That’s hardly surprising when as an icon in American culture a gun’s power is invested in the finger on the trigger, not the kinetic force of metal ripping apart flesh.”

— Paul Woodward (“Bearing Witness to Gun Violence in America”)

“If it is not acceptable to risk the lives of the three billion inhabitants of the earth in order to protect ourselves from surprise attack, then how many people would we be willing to risk?  I believe that both the United States and NATO would reluctantly be willing to envisage the possibility of one or two hundred million people…dying from the immediate effects, even if one does not include deferred long-term effects due to radiation, if an all-out thermonuclear war results from a failure of Type I Deterrence.”

— Herman Kahn (“supergenius” cold war nuclear strategist)

[i.e. A lot of U.S. Defense policy makers indulge in deadly fantasies about the ways in which nuclear weapons protect life…]

“That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

D. H. Lawrence, above, seems a bit harsh in his description of the American character.  Then I turn on the news.  Then I wonder if his observation has a serious element of truth, especially in these days of deadly drone warfare and fiery verbal defenses of firearms.  Ralph Waldo Emerson has an eloquent way of stating the adage that what we focus on is what we become.  Are we focusing so much on guns and gun violence because it’s happening far too much on a daily basis, and chronically on a mass scale?  Do “we” have a hard, killer’s soul??  OR are we reaping the consequences of our own obsessions, our own idols of worship?

We’re not alone of course.  Just this week North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test, while fears continue regarding Iran’s nuclear goals and capabilities.  And over the past several years North Korea has been testing the range of its long-range missiles, thankfully without much success…yet.  Perhaps we should dust out the old fallout shelters and renew the “Duck and Cover” educational programs to prepare us for an atomic attack.  When I was growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah, my mom set up a potential bomb shelter in our basement; I tended to see it more as a giant tomb, knowing even as a child that the basement would not protect us from deadly radiation…it was a step up, however, from the ridiculous air raid drills at school where we’d crawl under our desks. 

I recommend the film Testament about life after a nuclear blast.  It takes place in a small Northern California town.  You see no bombs or blasts; you simply see the realities of coping w/ mere survival let alone radiation poisoning.  Australian writer Neville Shute’s novel, and the film version, On the Beach, offers a global look at the aftermath of nuclear war. 

Meanwhile, debates about the best solution to gun violence continue, as do gun deaths, with too many children involved.  Just last week I heard two stories that simply stunned me.  In the first, a three year-old little boy was recently killed while playing with his seen year-old sister, when they came across a pink gun at home and thought it was a toy; he was shot in the head.  In the second, two 5^th grade boys were arrested for planning a murder of a classmate; they were found at school with a knife—the intended murder weapon—and a semiautomatic, in case anyone tried to stop them.  They didn’t like the way the little girl had been treating them.  Their plan was foiled by a 4^th grader who saw the weapons on the school bus and reported them as soon as he got to school.  According to the NRA, these “bad guys with a gun” simply needed to be stopped by “good guys with a gun”; I guess now we not only need to arm teachers at school, we need to arm students on the way to school…of course only the “good guy” students. (too sarcastic?)

Wayne LaPierre is right however when he says we worship at the altar of violent entertainment; we do amuse ourselves far too often by humiliating others and with violence: in our jokes, in our music, on our screens, in our games, in our sports.  Again, we are not alone; the rest of the world watches much the same programs, surfs the same Web, plays the same video games, listens to much the same music. 

What sets us apart in the U.S.?  It is our virtual obsession with, if not worship of explosive fire arms.  I am currently reading the book, America and Its Guns: A Theological Expose, by retired Presbyterian minister, James Atwood, who has also been involved with the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence for over 30 years.  He calls America’s obsession with guns outright idolatry, and he quotes NRA leadership to help him make his point.  “You would get a far better understanding of the NRA if you were approaching us as one of the great religions of the world” (former NRA executive, Warren Cassidy; 19-20).  Sure enough, an NRA enthusiast also cites Cassidy’s words to promote the 2009 NRA annual meeting.  Tying Cassidy’s words into meeting attendance, Sebastian” on a pro-gun rights Website enthuses: “The more you get to know of the issue, the more you think the metaphor actually fits.  One aspect of NRA [sic] that takes on a religious nature is the Annual Meeting…We’re expecting 50,000 of the faithful to make the pilgrimage, something every NRA member should do at least once in their life.” 

We become what we worship.  We become what we focus upon.  Atwood holds nothing back:  “Part of America’s national creed is that the tools of violence, be they large [as in nuclear arms]…or small, as in handguns and assault weapons, will keep us safe, secure and ‘free’” (24).  But are we safer, Atwood asks, with all our armaments and personal arsenals?  Do we really feel more secure (25)?  Or are we just unwilling to take our altars of violence down and instead seek to live in peace with our God and with each other?

OK, so y’all have your homework: 

• Watch Testament
• Read &/or watch On the Beach (I did both; last movie scene's chilling!)
• Oh, and also, there’s this really cool video, if you can still find it:  Kurt Sayenga’s Explosive Situations which does this most excellent job of connecting the explosive power of bombs with firearms.  I got my copy from the Discovery Channel about 12 years ago.  It’s worth it if you can get it!
• Consider what it is you think we focus on and worship, then reflect upon what YOU focus on and worship.
• Then let’s work together to find more peace-building obsessions.