Columnist Scott Dickensheets: Triggering a debate between religion and guns

THEY CALL it a "land mine." Each year's General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA produces at least one action "that comes out of the blue and blows up," says Jerry Van Marter, director of the Presbyterian News Service. Guns are this year's land mine.

It's probably too much to hope that there remains a postage stamp patch of reasonable middle ground in the firearms debate, which rivals abortion for passionate intensity. Those who favor tighter control demonize gun owners as trigger-happy rednecks while Second Amendment types appeal to the trigger-happy redneck in gun owners. Each side whips the other with its favorably crunched numbers, its patchwork logic.

And now comes the Presbyterian Church, raising the the question, What might Jesus think of the Second Amendment? Its answer came last month in the form of a resolution adopted by the General Assembly: apparently, not much. To promote peace and healing, Presbyterians are called on to "intentionally work toward removing handguns and assault weapons from our homes and communities."

It's not a binding thing; they won't slam the church doors on you if you keep your Glock .45 and that "cold, dead fingers" bumper sticker. Nor is it a sudden, unexpected sortie into the culture wars -- the church has had policies favoring gun control since 1968. "It's really consistent with positions the Presbyterian Church has taken over the years," Van Marter says.

The Presbyterians aren't alone on this; Time magazine recently cited a survey indicating 76 percent of Americans favor stricter gun laws. The church's in-house polling finds 69 percent of members feeling the same way.

Ah, but that other 31 percent! For many of them, the Second Amendment is the 11th Commandment. "It's fair to say the offices in Louisville have been inundated," says Kathy Lancaster of the church's criminal justice office. Hundreds of e-mails, calls, faxes, letters. "All of it negative."

Perhaps surprisingly, Van Marter tells me the action hasn't prompted a lot of deep soul-searching among Presbyterians. Minds are already made up; with guns as with abortion, ambiguity has long been cleared away. The resolution was approved by a wide margin, with minimal debate. And it was condemned with equal haste.

By my friend Steve, for one. A Presbyterian, he considers himself a godly dude -- just a well-armed godly dude. He has no doubt which he'd pick if it came down to his church membership or his NRA card.

"I'm a gun-owner first, a Presbyterian second," he says. They don't have to be mutually exclusive, as long as the church keeps its nose out of his gun cabinet. "I don't think my religion should call on me to give up my rights under the Constitution."

But, really, the church's action isn't a Second Amendment red alert. It's not calling for any legislative action, any government crackdown, any oppressive Brady billing. It's strictly a moral appeal, a plea to the conscience of Christians to act in a manner the church feels is consistent with Christ's teachings.

That's undoubtedly a flawed approach, open to argument (why wouldn't Jesus, a social outlaw in his time, favor the Second Amendment?) and probably too simplistic (a moral appeal in this day and age?) and, to this lapsed Presbyterian and decidely unzealous gun owner, that still makes it perhaps the most reasonable stance so far. Not that anyone will listen, of course.

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