The largest student protest in American history took place on Saturday. More than two million students and their supporters packed the streets in Washington, DC, and more than eight hundred other events in the US and around the world.
The DC rally was funded by Oprah Winfrey, George and Amal Clooney, and other celebrities. It was led by students from Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, who vowed to make reducing gun violence the central issue of their generation. The White House issued a statement Saturday: “We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their First Amendment rights today.”
Meanwhile, other groups gathered at the nationwide marches in support of the Second Amendment. “I came to open dialogue,” one participant explained.
The first recorded use of a firearm was in 1364. While guns were obviously not available in the biblical era, Scripture does encourage self-defense (Exodus 22:2-3; Luke 22:36) while forbidding murder (Exodus 20:13) and mandating protection of the innocent (Genesis 9:6). We are to uphold the law (1 Peter 2:13-14), but we are also to change the law when necessary (cf. Acts 15:1-31).
Our society will continue debating the best ways to reduce gun violence. Meanwhile, my attention this morning is focused on the young people around our country who marched last Saturday.
Consider what they did–whether you agree or disagree with why they did it.
“Let no one despise you for your youth”
Paul’s encouragement to Timothy is God’s word to us as well: “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). There are two commands here.
The first, “Let no one despise you for your youth,” is a present-tense imperative, a divine order. “No one” means just that–no person, with no exceptions. “Despise” means to “look down on” or “depreciate.” Youth are not to let any person depreciate the…
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