Did school shooting teach us nothing about loving our neighbors? | Opinion
As the people of Nashville collectively enter into the second month following the devastating shooting at the Covenant School, a certain awkwardness permeates our city. We continue to mourn and grieve the lives lost, but we are at the same time celebrating the lives that are still around us. While red and black ribbons remain tightly tied to mailboxes, students are sending graduation announcements, couples continue to get married, and summer vacations are optimistically planned.
We are holding the tension between the weight and stillness of grief and the turn of the calendar.
As we move forward, presumably changed by our common experience of this tragedy, I wonder what lessons we have learned, especially those of us who claim a Christian faith. After March 27, how do we live differently in community?
Certainly, there have been ample discussions and demonstrations about common-sense gun reform and the role of our legislature in keeping citizens safe, and rightly so. However, once the rallies conclude and the petitions are signed, I fear we are no better at loving our neighbor on a personal level.
Hear more Tennessee voices: Get the weekly opinion newsletter for insightful and thought-provoking columns.
Last month, during the height of prom season, a young student was turned away from their high school prom for wearing a suit. They attend a local Christian school and, because they wore a suit to prom, they were not let in. After being turned away, the brave student took to Instagram, where their post has more than 23,000 likes. While this support shows them they are certainly not alone, they still were excluded from a high school rite of passage because of the bigotry and intolerance that continue to exist in their own community.
In a city that recently endured a hate crime of unspeakable measure, at a Christian school no less, have we as people of faith learned nothing about loving our neighbor well? I wonder what it will take to inspire Christians to “love one another with mutual affection,” “extend hospitality to strangers,” “outdo one another in showing honor” and “live peaceably with all.” These words from the 12th chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans haven’t sunk in for all of us, and even a brutal mass shooting didn’t inspire this student’s community to decide to be hallmarked by inclusion rather than exclusion.
Cries for legal change outside the State Capitol are justified and needed, but our hearts and behavior need drastic reform as well. At a time when our city, nation and world are so divided, consumed by anxiety and fear, it seems completely out of step to pick a fight with a high-schooler about clothing.
For all of us, especially those of us who identify as Christians, our posture should be one of openness and curiosity, seeking to understand the lives and stories of those in our midst. Only with humility and a shared commitment to the well-being of all of our neighbors can we build a better Nashville and begin to heal.
As we wake up to new days and months with the losses in our community still fresh on our minds, might we endeavor to, as Paul also admonished the Roman people in chapter 12, “live in harmony with one another.”
Mary Cady Bolin is a writer and pastor based in Nashville. She writes about spiritual life, current events, and family.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Opinion: Did shooting teach us nothing about loving our neighbors?
