Ohio faith leaders go beyond the pulpit to fight gun violence
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Reverend Arthur Butler typically preaches to the pews of Providence Missionary Baptist Church. But, on a night in December, he took his sermon instead to the Lima Public Library for a special forum.
“It’s a gun violence situation that needs to be corrected and the only way we're gonna do it is pull together,” he said to a gathered crowd of community members.
Butler is part of the Lima Area Black Ministerial Alliance. The alliance’s reasoning for organizing the forum was two-fold: on one hand, peacemaking is an inherent part of their jobs as church leaders. But, more personally, Butler said they also handle the aftermath of gun violence. Grieving families within the church make the issue impossible to ignore.
“Sometimes the person that has committed the crime, we have to go to the court and stand up in the court for that person to see if that person can get some help,” Butler said. “And then we have to turn right around with the person that they've killed and eulogize them. That's hard on us.”
“This kind of work is evangelism. Evangelism is not just about getting people into heaven. But it's also about getting heaven into people."
Reverend Jack Sullivan Jr., executive director of Ohio Council of Churches
Firearm-related deaths in Ohio rose around 30% from 2013 to 2023, according to preliminary data from the Ohio Department of Health. And churches are getting involved: pastors are putting gun violence prevention at the center of their sermons and going beyond the pulpit to address the deaths.
In Lima, Butler’s organization is leading the charge for solutions. They’re partnering with city leaders, police officers and judges to make change.
“We're going to do what we have to do to protect the community of Lima, Ohio,” Butler said.
A long history of activism
Butler’s church is just one of many across the nation that have picked up the mantle of activism, said Angela Siner, the director of Africana Studies at the University of Toledo.
The Black church, in particular, Siner said, has a history of advocating for social change. In the past, Black churches have organized marches and town halls to fight Jim Crow laws, segregation, voting restrictions. Now, Siner said gun violence is a focal point.
“This discussion around gun violence is just another in the long line of areas where they have taken the lead in the forefront to fight for justice in the community,” Siner said.
In Ohio, gun violence is an issue disproportionately impacting people of color. Black Ohioans made up around 40% of deaths due to firearms in 2021 despite only being around 13% of the population, according to data from KFF.
But, to the Lima pastors, it’s not about race. Butler said their priority is the safety of the community, regardless of its demographics.
“The community is built up of all nationalities, so we're out there for everybody,” Butler said.
Mobilizing through ministry
Church membership is on the decline across the country. Yet, Siner said churches still hold a lot of organizing power. And they can grow their influence by working with city leaders, like the Lima pastors did, or by joining forces with other congregations or faith institutions.
In northeast Ohio, the Interfaith Violence Prevention Coalition of Stark County is a group of churches, synagogues and mosques who are committed to advocating against gun violence. It recently launched workshops to train clergy of all faiths on how to talk to their congregations about the issue. The sessions will focus on creating tools for faith leaders who might be hesitant to tackle the controversial issue.
Rabbi John Spitzer, a leading member of the coalition, said faith leaders should view talking about gun violence as an attraction, not a hindrance, for religious participation.
“This is a reason to join our synagogue, our mosque, our church,” Spitzer said. “Because we do something that is important, that's godly, that's holy, that's meaningful, and makes us whole.”
And congregations aren’t just making change within their cities and counties. The Ohio Council of Churches, which includes a variety of Christian denominations, said they’re working to enact change on the state level. Reverend Jack Sullivan Jr., the organization’s executive director, said he’s seeing more and more congregations across Ohio make gun violence prevention a priority.
“This is hard work. This is work that will not lead to overnight successes. But essentially, as we talk about peacemaking and nonviolence, we're talking about changing the culture,” he said.
Putting prayer into action
Of course, Sullivan said many pastors spend their Sundays preaching a message of nonviolence to their congregations. But, they don’t stop there.
The Ohio Council of Churches’ members write letters to legislators, advocating for universal background checks and assault rifle bans. They mount opposition to legislation that they believe exacerbates gun violence. They collaborate with other advocacy groups, like the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, to spread the message.
“This kind of work is evangelism. Evangelism is not just about getting people into heaven. But it's also about getting heaven into people,” Sullivan said.
Back in northwest Ohio, the Lima Area Black Ministerial Alliance is putting the feedback from the community gun violence prevention forum into action. They’re organizing a gun buyback program, where the church will work with law enforcement to pay people to turn in their firearms. Congregations in Akron and Euclid have hosted similar programs before.
Butler said he knows it won’t solve the issue. But, he said their job – their vocation – is to lead by example.
“If we sit and do nothing and allow these types of things to go on, then we need to remove ourselves from behind the pulpit,” Butler said.
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