Did Jesus ever "open carry"? Yes, he did. Jesus open carried the Roman weapon of execution, the cross on which he died. And that's the only weapon Jesus ever open carried.

That is the faith position of the Rev. Nathan Dannison senior pastor of First Congregational Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Kalamazoo is a community that experienced a mass shooting rampage that killed six people and injured two others just in February of this year.

So far, Congress has not succeeded in reigning in the power of an out-of-control gun industry. Rev. Dannison and his clarity about the Christian gospel may be showing us another way.

When the local minor league baseball team, the Battle Creek Bombers, advertised that one of their home games would be hosting a "2nd Amendment Appreciation Night" that encouraged gun owners to "open carry" at the game, at the same time as they were honoring the Boy Scouts, Rev. Dannison decided it was time to act decisively. He started a petition to boycott the team if they went ahead. Despite the many signatures supporting this action, the team went ahead.

I asked Rev. Dennison, who is a graduate of Chicago Theological Seminary where I teach, what he and the other supporters of this kind of local action against an out-of-control gun industry were going to do now.

He could not have been more clear. They will keep going.

"We will continue to boycott the Northwoods League. We will continue to communicate our disgust to their league partners. We will do so until they disarm, ban weapons from their games, and apologize. Otherwise we will make room for another baseball league in our community."

That's the new strategy of this faith and community movement. Town by town, baseball game by baseball game, and faith commitment by faith commitment we change the image of guns from the way Americans express their "freedom" to the dangerous bondage to the gun industry and its false and idolatrous promises of safety.

It is an uphill struggle to make this case, there is no doubt. For example, Joel Fulton, co-owner of Freedom Firearms, the retail gun shop sponsor of the event said open-carried handguns are as "American as baseball and apple pie."

They're not, counters Rev. Dannison. And Dannison knows guns in Michigan as well as the gospel.



"I am a hunter, a marksman, a 'gun owner,' and a seventh-generation Michigander," he told me. "I am tired of the open-carry handgun people controlling the debate. They have had their chance and they have demonstrated their complete incompetence in finding common ground."

And, in my view, when the gun retail stores are trying to sell more guns under the guise of "freedom," they have shown they are more interested in profits than in the safety of the people of central Michigan.

I asked Rev. Dannison if the church members have been supportive of this boycott action.

"Our church celebrates the victory of the risen Christ and the eternal Word of God Almighty. I have heard nothing but prayer and experienced nothing but celebration and I expect this to continue until the swords are hammered into plowshares and the guns into garden tools."

Rev. Dannison is exceptionally clear on what he sees as the faith future of guns in this culture. I asked him, "What would you like people to do besides signing the petition?"

And he replied,

"Throw away your guns, sell them, destroy them, disarm, disarm, disarm!"

Guns are a "false god," Rev. Dannison believes. I could not agree more.

Finally, I asked, "Your church sign carries a profound message that the only weapon Jesus ever "open carried" was the cross. What does this mean for your own faith and for how you carry out your work as a Christian minister?"

And Rev. Dannison replied,

"Jesus conquered death. There is no reason for a Christian of good faith to carry a weapon."

Where American politicians have failed on gun control, exceptional religious clarity and courage may prevail. Town by town.