Guns and the Evangelical Christian

AT FIRST GLANCE, Abigail Disney’s documentary The Armor of Light seems straightforward: It’s about guns and escalation of mass shootings in the U.S. But at its core, the film looks at the complicated relationship between evangelical Christianity and this country’s gun culture.

It is just as much about theology as it is about politics.

The film follows the story of Rob Schenck, a conservative evangelical minister whose strong pro-life views about abortion are at the center of his work and advocacy on Capitol Hill. But with each instance of gun violence he hears about, Schenck becomes convinced that calling himself pro-life rings hollow without a critical look at our gun culture. He can no longer ignore the association of guns with evangelical Christianity.

Schenck’s story intersects with that of Lucia McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis. In 2012, Davis, a black teenager, was shot and killed at a Florida gas station in a dispute over the volume of his music. The man who fired the shots, a 45-year-old white male, tried to justify his actions by the “stand your ground” law, explaining he felt threatened by the presence of Davis and his three friends. In response to the death of her child and the following legal battle, McBath became involved in gun-control advocacy.

Coming to the issue from different paths, McBath and Schenck find themselves both allies and foils. McBath, the mother whose son was murdered for being black and present, identifies as pro-choice, while Schenck gained national attention for protesting women’s health clinics in the early 1990s in Buffalo, N.Y.

This already has the makings of a compelling story, but the film hits its stride not in character development but in the theological questions it poses. In addition to discussing the effects of gun violence on those who are killed, Schenck questions what this pervasive gun culture does to those who defend it.

He pushes against the platitude “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” asking who can definitively categorize others in such black-and-white terms. Likewise, the film asks why so many Christians seem to place more trust in a piece of metal than in God. McBath tells Schenck, “We have replaced God with our guns as the protector.”

This is not a documentary that just calls for reform of our laws—it asks deep questions about the fundamental nature of our gun obsession and its relationship to Christianity. In the wake of the 2014 Isla Vista, Calif. shooting, Richard Martinez, the father of a victim, asks Schenck, “Where the hell are the clergy people?” advocating for a change in our culture. His admonishment should resound through Christian communities and wake us up.

While The Armor of Light asks good questions, it leaves the viewer wanting more. Lucia McBath’s story, though compelling and raw, is clearly secondary to Schenck’s story of personal revelation and questioning of his powerful community. At times, the film’s obvious purpose of reaching predominantly white evangelical Christian communities leaves little space for McBath and her work as an anti-gun advocate with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

This documentary is the first public statement Schenck has made about his commitment to a public stance on guns, and he hopes it will be a conversation changer in pro-gun evangelical communities. Perhaps it will: Screenings of the film are free to any member of the NRA as an attempt to get more pro-gun people to enter into this conversation. But if the reactions of Schenck’s colleagues in the documentary are any indication, these conversations will be fraught with tension and require compassion from all sides.

The Armor of Light questions what it means to live in a culture that places devotion to guns on the same level as devotion to God. It leaves us with few answers but makes clear the urgent need to find some.