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Authors beat guns into plowshares in Birmingham
By Amy Yurkanin | ayurkaninal.com

Two days after a man gunned down more than 50 people in two New Zealand mosques, dozens gathered in a Birmingham sanctuary to take a page from the Bible by turning weapons into gardening tools.

For two hours Sunday, Mike Martin and Shane Claiborne preached and pounded at the Baptist Church of the Covenant, offering testimonials and tools inspired by verses from the Book of Isaiah.

“And they shall beat their swords into plowshares; and their spears into pruning hooks.”

The event was part of a cross-country tour in support of Claiborne’s book, Beating Guns. While Claiborne spoke, Martin transformed weapons in a makeshift forge. The pair offered people affected by gun violence turns at the hammer and podium in a Biblically-inspired effort reduce gun violence.

Dozens of people attended the event, where the organizers honored the New Zealand victims in an unusual way. Martin struck a heated gun barrel one time for each of the lives lost in the massacre. More than 50 sharp pings rang out over the neighborhood while attendees watched in silence.

Both men said the Sandy Hook shooting inspired them to tackle gun violence. In six years, Martin said he has made between 200 and 300 gardening tools from donated weapons. It’s not much, when you compare it to the number of guns out on the street, but Martin said it serves a larger purpose.

“We have also been creating a disarming network to help people disable their guns when they no longer want to keep them,” Martin said.

That networks connects gun owners to people who can safely disarm them. Not all of those guns become tools, but some are transformed into trowels and plows.

Martin rotated a molten revolver between a forge and an anvil doing exactly that. During the course of the event, he worked the metal into a gentle curve for tilling soil.

Meanwhile, inside the sanctuary, Claiborne made a Christian case against guns. He said Jesus told his disciples to turn the other cheek and put the sword back in its place, lessons his followers should take to heart.

“We stand on the side of love,” Claiborne said. “We defy a culture held hostage to fear.”

He said the church plays a critical role in gun ownership, and held up a Bible cover that concealed a handgun.

“Our gun problem is also a spiritual crisis in church,” Claiborne said. “One of the highest rates of gun ownership is among white evangelical Christians. But there are two different versions of power offered by the cross and the gun.”

Rachel Estes spoke of her experience surviving a mass shooting at a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville.

“I remember the sound of mamas screaming for their babies,” Estes said. “That’s the sound I hear every time one of these shootings happens.”

Names of the victims in other mass shootings flickered over a screen. Martin said after the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut, he received his first donated gun, an AK-47.

“We turned that into two to three garden tools that are producing pounds of food instead of violence in our street,” Martin said.

That shooting also marked a turning point for Claiborne.

“If you think about Sandy Hook, 20 children died, six adults and everyone said never again!” Claiborne said. “But it’s happened again and again.”

Local speakers also urged those in attendance not to forget victims of urban violence. More than 100 people died in gun homicides in Jefferson County last year – a larger toll than any mass shooting.

Justin Smith knew a couple of those victims. The 17-year-old became an activist after Courtlin Arrington died at Huffman High School.

“Only with gun violence do we say mourning is acceptable but talking about how to prevent another tragedy is unacceptable,” Smith said.

Claiborne and Martin hoped the trip to Birmingham would do more than change guns into gardening tools.

“Tonight we’ve got a forge and an anvil and a hammer, and we’re transforming guns,” Claiborne said. “We also want to transform our hearts.”

The sad thing for honest freedom loving people there is no place left to go. We fight and die here or are forever slaves to the liberal democrat socialist communist globalists.

Started reading post and realized this was in Birmingham, AL and not Birmingham England or some other B'ham.

The sad thing for honest freedom loving people there is no place left to go. We fight and die here or are forever slaves to the liberal democrat socialist communist globalists.