The evangelical minister Reverend Robert Schenck and Lucia McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis, the Florida teenager who was killed in 2012 by a middle-aged man in a gas station dispute over loud rap music. The incident began after four teenagers pulled into a Florida gas station to buy gum and cigarettes. They were soon confronted by Michael Dunn, a middle-aged white man who pulled in next to them in the parking lot. Dunn demanded the boys turn down the music they were playing, and became angry when they refused. He pulled his gun from his glove box and shot at their car 10 times, even as they tried to drive away from the danger. The shots rang out three-and-a-half minutes after Dunn had arrived. In the hail of bullets, Jordan Davis was killed. After the shooting, Dunn fled the scene, went to a hotel with his girlfriend and ordered pizza. He never called the police. Dunn was later sentenced to life without parole.
Reverend Schenck is a well-known conservative minister who heads Faith and Action in Washington, D.C. He’s the president of the National Clergy Council. A longtime anti-choice activist, Reverend Schenck first made national headlines protesting outside abortion clinics as a member of Operation Rescue. Today he’s making headlines for a different reason: his criticism of the NRA and the pro-gun message of many conservatives.
Rev. Rob Schenck talking:
Of course, a change of that magnitude happens over time, and this happened over a lot of time. And I had a growing concern about the attitudes I saw in our evangelical community that held life less than sacred. And that was always our cause. In the pro-life movement, we talk about the sanctity of all human life, every human life, and that’s born and unborn. And when you take a gun in your possession to use for self-defense, you do so with the intention of perhaps killing another human being. I thought we had to address that. But I kind of put it in a sort of closet in my mental space. And it’s a very volatile issue in our community, and so I kind of just secreted it away.
Then a number of events occurred, and then Abigail Disney proposed that maybe I air some of those concerns on camera. That was a little scary, took me a while to say yes to that. And during the course of the film, I met Lucy. And when I met her, in our literal prayer garden, which is a space behind our ministry house on Capitol Hill, her personal experience of tremendous loss, and her being a person of faith—she is—I think you call yourself an evangelical. I think so.
We’re in the same camp that way, so we spoke a common language. But it was her passion in the wake of that pain and horror of losing a son to murder that was really what pulled me across the threshold of decision to start speaking to this, even though for me it is at great personal risk.
in our community, when you break with a kind of orthodoxy on social issues—guns being one of them—you’re seen as a renegade or as a defector. And this may be of surprise to some people, but Christians are not always the kindest people. And you can be punished for that. And so I have been by a few, but I’ve also been surprised at the number of supporters that have emerged.
I believe that fear is a failure of faith. So it’s really a theological as well as moral crisis in our community. And that fear is based on a lot of—a lot of factors, including fear of government persecution. There’s a lot of call for arms to defend our community against a tyrannical government. I think we live in the freest environment in terms of religious expression on Earth. I’ve been to 41 countries. I’ve never seen any that compare quite to the extent of the liberty we have. So these are, I think, unrealistic, unfounded fears, but nonetheless very real and very powerful.
Abigail Disney talking:
I really have watched this issue for a really long time. It’s a broken, dysfunctional political dynamic. The harder you push on your side, the harder they push on their side. We get frozen in this. And so, I’ve been for years trying to figure out what would be a way to talk about it that would actually make a difference. The facts don’t make a difference. Statistics just don’t persuade anybody. This is a heart issue, and this is about our consciences. And I don’t think we’ve brought the best of our consciences to any of this discussion. So I wanted to kind of elevate it to a place above politics, where we could go back to what we claim our values are around the sanctity of human life and then legislate from there. So, all I’m trying to do is start a conversation.
Rev. Rob Schenck talking:
We are a consummately polite people, sometimes maddeningly so because sometimes I’d like to know how people really feel. And there has been a mixed response, although I’ve had a number of supporters of my own organization in Washington, D.C. I had a nonprofit, religiously oriented nonprofit. And a few have notified me, “If you’re going to go down this road, we’re not going with you,” and have withdrawn their financial support. And that can be very punishing to a small nonprofit. So I felt that pain. I’ve been called a moron and a fraud. Some feel that I am betraying them.
I do often wonder aloud what Jesus would do with a gun. And I think most—most evangelicals know deep inside that somehow this is in contradiction to the model and teaching of Christ. And so I raise those questions. For me, this is a moral, ethical and even theological exploration. And I think that’s, you know, arguably—the founder of evangelicalism, John Wesley of the Methodist Church, said that evangelical Christianity is a religion of the heart. So, I think Abby is just—I call her Abby. She’s director Abigail Disney, but I call her Abby, and we have a great friendship. And I think Abby did just the right thing with this film in aiming for the heart rather than the head on this one. I think Lucy’s story, spirituality in general, but specifically biblical spirituality, will win the day—with my camp, anyway—whereas statistics don’t go over very well.
Lucy McBath talking:
“Please, as a victim, I know firsthand, you know, the devastation that these kinds of crimes and gun violence are causing in the country. We have to morally and ethically really address what’s happening and not see these cases and incidents as statistics and numbers. And morally, we are accountable to one another.”
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Rev. Rob Schenck
evangelical minister who heads Faith and Action in Washington, D.C., and the president of the National Clergy Council.
Lucia McBath
mother of Jordan Davis, the 17-year-old who was killed in 2012 in Florida by a man who cited the state’s “Stand Your Ground” laws as justification for opening fire on four unarmed teenagers at a gas station.
Abigail Disney
director of The Armor of Light, which opens Friday in 20 cities across the United States.
— source democracynow.org