Faith in Values: Faith Communities Stepping Up Efforts Against Guns and Gun Violence

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http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/religion/news/2013/01/09/49228/faith-in-values-faith-communities-stepping-up-efforts-against-guns-and-gun-violence/


Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick speaks during a news conference with other religious leaders to remember the lives lost in Newtown, Connecticut, at Washington National Cathedral on Friday, December 21, 2012. Interfaith religious leaders were brought together by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and Washington National Cathedral to honor the lives of those lost in Newtown, Connecticut, by insisting that Congress and the president continue to act swiftly to end the national epidemic of gun violence.

By Sally Steenland | January 9, 2013

Two days after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the Very Rev. Gary Hall climbed into the stone pulpit at Washington, D.C.’s National Cathedral and delivered a fierce sermon that grabbed headlines across the country.

“Enough is enough,” Hall said. “We have tolerated school shootings, mall shootings, theater shootings, sniper shootings, workplace shootings, temple and church shootings, urban neighborhood shootings, for far too long. The massacre of these 28 people in Connecticut is, for me at least, the last straw.”

Hall went on, “The best way for us to mourn the Sandy Hook shooting is to mobilize the faith community for gun control … we know both from faith and experience that the cross is mightier than the gun. The gun lobby is no match for the cross lobby.”

Four days after his sermon, Rev. Hall joined a press conference of interfaith leaders, who called for the religious community to act collectively to end gun violence and to demand swift action from political leaders to pass common-sense gun laws. In the days since, pressure has continued to mount, and more faith-based groups are calling for action.

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