At a time when gun deaths are rampant, the only thing that may be worse than offering thoughts and prayers and literally nothing else is remaining silent. Many pastors with the freedom to speak out against gun violence may choose to ignore the topic entirely in order to avoid controversy — especially evangelical pastors who don’t want to infuriate a conservative Christian base.

But author, Bible study curator, and (lately) Twitter fire-starter Beth Moore urged her peers to speak out on the issue. She made it very clear: Silence is complicity.

Christian leaders, LEAD. Do not shrink back in cowardice. Be bold. Be clear. Do not assume people know where you stand. History will prove this to be a most critical hour and our silence to have been our shameful complicity. — Beth Moore (@BethMooreLPM) August 6, 2019

Christians quibble over many things, but there shouldn’t be any controversy with this. Jesus turned the other cheek in response to violence; it seems unlikely that he’d consider the Second Amendment as an addendum to the gospel. (And Jesus, being brown-skinned and a refugee himself, would likely have empathized with the targets.)

You don’t have to share her faith to agree with her message. But sadly, her tweets were considered controversial among some of her followers:

Beth, my wife and daughters are attending one of your upcoming events, but you keep doing this, and it’s disturbing. Just who exactly is invoking Christ in support of white nationalism? — Larry Taylor (@larrytaylor770) August 6, 2019

True, but how politically correct of you. Try saying something truly brave. — Joey R Brown (@joeyrbrown) August 6, 2019

I’m proud to be an American citizen, so I guess that makes me a Nationalist. ?? Too many dang labels nowadays. — Shannon (@BruShani) August 6, 2019

All that for urging pastors to promote common-sense gun safety measures.

The ignorance in some of the replies is awful but not unsurprising. Yet in pointing out the problem, many people are unwittingly outing themselves as contributors to it, showing why her tweets are necessary in the first place.

A president who spews racism doesn’t seem to rankle those Christians, but a woman who refuses to be silent is doing the trick. I hope she keeps speaking up.

(Featured screenshot via YouTube)

