Download PDF Beating Guns Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence Audible Audio Edition Shane Claiborne Michael Martin christianaudio Books
Download As PDF : Beating Guns Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence Audible Audio Edition Shane Claiborne Michael Martin christianaudio Books
Parkland. Las Vegas. Dallas. Orlando. San Bernardino. Paris. Charleston. Sutherland Springs. Newtown. These cities are now known for the people who were shot and killed in them. More Americans have died from guns in the US in the last 50 years than in all the wars in American history. With less than five percent of the world's population, the people of the US own nearly half the world's guns. America also has the most annual gun deaths - homicide, suicide, and accidental gun deaths - at 105 per day, or more than 38,000 per year. Some people say it's a heart problem. Others say it's a gun problem. The authors of Beating Guns believe it's both. Â
This audiobook is for people who believe the world doesn't have to be this way. Inspired by the prophetic image of beating swords into plows, Beating Guns provides a provocative look at gun violence in America and offers a clarion call to change our hearts regarding one of the most significant moral issues of our time. Best-selling author, speaker, and activist Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin show why Christians should be concerned about gun violence and how they can be part of the solution. The authors transcend stale rhetoric and old debates about gun control to offer a creative and productive response. The audiobook shows how guns are being turned into tools and musical instruments across the nation. It conveys the mind-boggling realities of gun violence in America, but as the authors make clear, there is a story behind every statistic.Â
Beating Guns allows victims and perpetrators of gun violence to tell their own compelling stories, offering hope for change and helping us reimagine the world as one that turns from death to life, where swords become plows and guns are turned into garden tools.
Download PDF Beating Guns Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence Audible Audio Edition Shane Claiborne Michael Martin christianaudio Books
"I come from a denominational background (American Evangelical/Baptist) where it is not uncommon for people to treat the broadest possible interpretation of the Second Amendment (right to bear arms) with practically the same devotion as any of the basic tenets of the faith. Attempts to discuss gun violence are met with, “It’s not a gun problem. It’s a heart problem†or some similar slogan. Over my last eight years as a pastor I have grown increasingly troubled by the gun culture I see among Evangelicals and the not-so-Christlike attitudes that it seems to foster in many people. I picked up this book to try to get another perspective on the issue.
These authors contend that the US has both a heart problem and a gun problem. The book is loaded with history and disturbing statistics on gun sales, ownership, lobbying, laws, crime, self-defense, and suicide in the US (especially as compared to other industrialized nations). Furthermore, they point out Scripture passages where the prophets speak of a future without weapons or warfare (the title beating guns is a play on prophetic verses about “beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks†– Isaiah 2:4) and where Jesus speaks of non-violence and loving one’s enemies (e.g. the Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5-7). While leaving some room for individual conscience as to what “commonsense gun laws†and responsible gun ownership might look like, they rightly challenge Christians to seriously reflect on how we as followers of Jesus Christ should relate to guns as far as ownership, admiration, advocacy, voting, etc.
Unfortunately, there is some serious “cherry picking†going on in their use of Scripture. They completely ignore passages that are in tension with their completely pacifist approach…passages that, if we take the Bible seriously, must be taken into account. For example:
- Most of the prophets who describe the coming world peace talk about it being preceded by violent judgment from God/Jesus rather than a utopia brought about purely by social reform (e.g. Revelation 19)
- Jesus’ rebuke of Peter for attacking a member of the party who came to arrest Jesus is preceded by a difficult, variously-interpreted passage in which Jesus talks about his disciples arming themselves (Luke 22:36-38)
- The government is said to be God’s instrument for restraining evil, including by use of the sword (Romans 13:1-5)
This is not to say that the authors are entirely wrong in their concerns, but their approach to the Scripture is selective and incomplete at best. This makes me wonder if some of the history and statistics have been similarly oversimplified or misrepresented.
Another minor quibble that I have with the book is that the some of the information gets repeated over and over with very little variation in wording. I did read an eARC so maybe an editor will remove some of the redundancy and tighten things up before publication.
Overall, I appreciated the roundup of information and the challenge to think biblically (not just pragmatically) about the issue, but I do feel that there was some serious oversimplification going on here."
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Beating Guns Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence Audible Audio Edition Shane Claiborne Michael Martin christianaudio Books Reviews :
Beating Guns Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence Audible Audio Edition Shane Claiborne Michael Martin christianaudio Books Reviews
- I heartily give this book 5 stars for being such a rich, balanced mix of real life stories, black-smithing analogy, published statistics, and the unabashed challenge of faithFULLY following Christ who revealed how we were created to be unconditionally loving, self-giving, and forgiving. The sad realities of America, the richest and most powerful nation the world has known, is scarred by the problems of guns AND heart. This intelligent and humble presentation of information is a very helpful expose’ in exploring the intersection of faith and guns in America. I have a bias in that I know (and admire) Mike Martin, am a fan of Shane Claiborne, and am on a journey with Christ which finds much truth and wisdom within the Anabaptist tradition.
I would like to counter any critique of this book which insinuates oversimplification and misrepresentation through selective/incomplete methodology. I’m glad this book is “bite-size†to reach its stated, intended audience of just about everyone, of every faith tradition, who is weary of violence. The writers are quite capable of presenting a dreadfully long and robust exploration of the scriptures but wisely chose to hold Jesus, his teaching, and the cross as a focal figure of faith who advocated and lived and died non-violence as God’s nature. I hesitate to put words in their mouths but am sure they would love to expose the full context and textures of the prophetic plowshare visions, and I would welcome it. They might just mention the strong strands of the early church fathers who explicitly read the prophetic telling of God’s/Jesus’ wrath and judgment—not as evidence for a violent, human like God to be feared—but as metaphor for the suffering humanity brings upon itself. Just as Paul rhetorically blasted, early in Romans, God turns us over to our ways to wallow in the consequences (we judge and punish ourselves) as we reject God and that which we were created to be. So, perhaps the authors fail by not pointing to scholarly works which spell out with the detail necessary to fully understand the pacifist’s theology—the list is long—however they successfully create the spirit of a movement for everyone by not getting bogged down with a couple proof-texts (we must study their contexts) which seemingly challenge the ubiquitous teachings and lives of Jesus, the New Testament writers, and the pre-Constantinian church. “Cherry-pickingâ€, though often intended to undermine, is a noble compliment as one studies the hermeneutical method of Jesus who also “cherry-picked†the varied voices of the Hebrew testament to shape his gospel of peace. We all cherry-pick and contexts bend toward OUR contexts, but toward what end—to look like Jesus, peace, and the way of the cross?
I highly recommend this book With faith set aside completely for its well referenced guide in understanding America’s inclination toward violence and the idolatrous place guns, constitutional faith, our entertainment, our historical heroes, and the NRA play in it; and with faith at center whose Jesus discipled a way of heart which carries a cross to establish peace and justice—not a sword/gun. Jesus forgave and loved as the transformative powers which Jesus presented as our way of hope. - This book is challenging. Mostly because it hurts. It hurts to see statistics. It hurts to see memorials of lives lost that didn't have to be. But for me, it hurts because we are to be kingdom people now and we've failed on the gun front. I'm in the process of taking a rifle that was used in suicide and turning into a tool for life. We need to do that. So buy the book. Read it. Wrestle with it. Then get to turning swords into ploughshares.
- Shane and Mike cast a vision of what our world could be and they give practical ways the Church can embody a nonviolent, peacemaking ethic to mold the world around us into a better place. This book is transformative. It can transform our hearts and it can transform our world.
- An effective, timely, accurate work that is both well-produced and well-thought out.
- I come from a denominational background (American Evangelical/Baptist) where it is not uncommon for people to treat the broadest possible interpretation of the Second Amendment (right to bear arms) with practically the same devotion as any of the basic tenets of the faith. Attempts to discuss gun violence are met with, “It’s not a gun problem. It’s a heart problem†or some similar slogan. Over my last eight years as a pastor I have grown increasingly troubled by the gun culture I see among Evangelicals and the not-so-Christlike attitudes that it seems to foster in many people. I picked up this book to try to get another perspective on the issue.
These authors contend that the US has both a heart problem and a gun problem. The book is loaded with history and disturbing statistics on gun sales, ownership, lobbying, laws, crime, self-defense, and suicide in the US (especially as compared to other industrialized nations). Furthermore, they point out Scripture passages where the prophets speak of a future without weapons or warfare (the title beating guns is a play on prophetic verses about “beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks†– Isaiah 24) and where Jesus speaks of non-violence and loving one’s enemies (e.g. the Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5-7). While leaving some room for individual conscience as to what “commonsense gun laws†and responsible gun ownership might look like, they rightly challenge Christians to seriously reflect on how we as followers of Jesus Christ should relate to guns as far as ownership, admiration, advocacy, voting, etc.
Unfortunately, there is some serious “cherry picking†going on in their use of Scripture. They completely ignore passages that are in tension with their completely pacifist approach…passages that, if we take the Bible seriously, must be taken into account. For example
- Most of the prophets who describe the coming world peace talk about it being preceded by violent judgment from God/Jesus rather than a utopia brought about purely by social reform (e.g. Revelation 19)
- Jesus’ rebuke of Peter for attacking a member of the party who came to arrest Jesus is preceded by a difficult, variously-interpreted passage in which Jesus talks about his disciples arming themselves (Luke 2236-38)
- The government is said to be God’s instrument for restraining evil, including by use of the sword (Romans 131-5)
This is not to say that the authors are entirely wrong in their concerns, but their approach to the Scripture is selective and incomplete at best. This makes me wonder if some of the history and statistics have been similarly oversimplified or misrepresented.
Another minor quibble that I have with the book is that the some of the information gets repeated over and over with very little variation in wording. I did read an eARC so maybe an editor will remove some of the redundancy and tighten things up before publication.
Overall, I appreciated the roundup of information and the challenge to think biblically (not just pragmatically) about the issue, but I do feel that there was some serious oversimplification going on here. - While many of the books approaching this subject are highly politically charged, this book does a fantastic job at getting to the heart of the matter. Both Shane Claiborne and Mike Martin have talked and lived extensively in this space, it is overwhelming how much this book was informed by what seems like thousands of voices. There is story upon story of how gun violence affects us and who all is impacted. It is jammed with research, amazing thought-leadership and perspectives that I had not considered. This book paints a picture that the church and each member of the Kingdom of God need to take some time staring at.
