As week keep the victims of the shooting Umpqua Community College in Oregon in our thoughts and prayers, let us not stop there. Let us take some action to end gun violence in our nation and in our own community. Here’s a place to start:
Join Reverend Doctor J Herbert Nelson For a Conversation on Gun Violence
What: Webinar on Advocacy and Action to Enact Common Sense Gun Legislation
When: Tuesday October 6, 2015 3 PM EST
Join Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Office of Public Witness Director, Reverend J Herbert Nelson as he discusses gun violence, its underlying causes, and effective ways you can lift your voice to tell your elected officials that NOW is the time to enact common sense measures to reduce gun violence in the United States. In a country that leads the world in mass shootings but cannot find the political will to enact common sense gun legislation, we must build a national movement to call for a ban on assault weapons, enact universal background checks, and make gun trafficking a federal crime. Learn how you can be part of this national movement, and what kind of specific steps you can take to engage with your elected representatives. Our denominational policy reminds us that, as Presbyterians, we have a responsibility to broaden our relationships with other faith communities, creating a broad-based social movement to prevent gun violence:
“Our church can and should lead the way in the broader faith community to the creation of a broad-based social movement to prevent gun violence, beginning with and led by an opening to the Holy Spirit, and drawing its strength from the grassroots, especially people in the pews. Such a coalition of congregations and other faith communities can take practical direct action on local levels while generating critical change in cultural norms and attitudes toward guns, their possession, distribution, and use. In this way our church, the faith community, and the movement they can lead, will heed God’s call to protect more of God’s children.”
This webinar will be a forum for discussion and advocacy strategy in response to the most recent shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, and the rash of mass shootings that have taken place since the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary. As a nation, part of our grieving process must be to address the system of laws that allows guns to fall into the hands of people with criminal intent, and to hold our representatives accountable for their lack of action.
Click here to register for the webinar.