What if the shooter whose bullet grazed Donald Trump’s ear had no motive but the urge to have fun?

What if he woke up that day and thought, “Oh, I could take Dad’s semiautomatic rifle and go and shoot somebody famous today – that would be cool.” Why go to the firing range when he could play for keeps?

Such was the motive that led a shooter to kill 60 people with military weapons he fired from a hotel room in Las Vegas in 2017. It appears that he did it because he felt like it. Not out of hatred but because it was a satisfying form of entertainment. Some folks go to Vegas for the shows and the gambling. He went for the pleasure of shooting people.

What happened on Saturday ought to be the occasion for deep soul-searching by Americans of all political and religious persuasions. We have created a society that produces people who kill people for kicks. To turn this horror around, we have spiritual, cultural, and political work to do.

I run the risk of analyzing this latest event before it has been thoroughly investigated. But it isn’t too early to speak out vigorously against a lot of the rhetoric that has followed it. If indeed the mere urge to play motivated the shooting, it ought to re-frame the conversation.

As of today, it appears that Trump is not the victim of political violence, which, of course, should be universally condemned, but rather of recreational violence committed with a military weapon that no civilian should own. This event should mobilize citizens and politicians to ban civilians from owning weapons that have no practical purpose but the mass killing of human beings. And until serious gun control laws are passed, we must engage in the cultural work of making it cool to engage in life-affirming recreation and making it uncool to play with weapons of mass mayhem. (Calling all creatives in all mediums: let’s get busy with this!)

The shooter hardly fit the stereotypes of someone angry at Donald Trump. He was a white male who wore camo and patriotic tee-shirts and loved shooting guns, and was registered as a Republican. So Senator J.D. Vance’s instant reaction to blame the shooting on Joe Biden was particularly outrageous. Donald Trump is indeed a mortal danger to democracy, and Biden is absolutely right to make that case and to continue to make it. Speaking this truth is not an incitement to violence against Trump or anyone else. Let us not fall for this attempt to silence us about the threat to our constitutional order that Trump represents. He is going to use the nick on his ear to amplify his attacks against democracy. Let’s not let him get away with it.

Trump is no more a martyr than the 60 folks in Las Vegas who were killed just for fun.

Another outrageous response has come from so-called Christians proclaiming that the hand of God reached down to save Trump from death on Saturday because he is divinely anointed. This is spectacularly bad theology. It begs the question: why did God allow the bystander to be shot to death? Why did God let bullets rip through the other bystanders who were critically injured? God saves Trump but not Trump’s loyal followers? Why would an omnipotent God let anyone shoot at people just for laughs? This ought to be an occasion to reconsider belief in a supernatural God who picks and chooses those whom he allows to live and those he allows to suffer and die. Progressive religious people need to double-down on offering an alternative understanding of God as nothing less nor more than unconditional love.

We are called to lift up that love and spread it. And in particular, to share it with the socially alienated. We must transform our society from one that generates loneliness into one that extends conviviality. Progressive religious folks should count this terrible incident as a call to be more vigorous in inviting people, especially those who are isolated, into our faith communities. The salvation we offer is not from hell in an afterlife but from an empty existence in this one. What if someone had invited the shooter to play a game of tennis on Saturday? Or dominoes? Or to watch a funny movie together? (There are documented stories of people who were on the verge of violence but were held back because someone treated them kindly at exactly the right moment.)

Divine, unconditional love could have saved the day on Saturday. Through our personal and collective action, may it save the day for our country – today and tomorrow.

Jim Burklo – Blog: Musings,
Pastor, United Church of Christ, Simi Valley CA
Executive Director, Progressive Christians Uniting/ZOE: Progressive Christian Life on Campus