This year Texas Impact is engaging the state legislature through a variety of means including our Issue Teams; teams focused on working on advancing policy goals for a specific issue. Currently we have teams for Reproductive Rights, LGBTQ+ Rights and Ending Gun Violence in full swing, all led by different staff members.
As the Texas Impact Human Rights Fellow, I am fortunate enough to be leading our Ending Gun Violence Issue Team. The team is working on this issue in a variety of ways: by engaging faith leaders, meeting with key legislators, and creating actionable dialogue in diverse communities to address gun violence. Several of our members have started taking action with exciting results. Thanks to work done by our team member, Presbyterian Pastor Rob Mueller, Mission Presbytery voted on and passed a resolution calling on the Texas legislature to take action! The letter they are sending to the Chair of the Select Committee for Community Safety, Representative Guillen, is featured above.
What is Mission Presbytery?
Mission Presbytery is a connectional body of churches and minister (teaching elder) members in South Central Texas. “Geographically this is an area that stretches from the Rio Grande Valley to Del Rio, into the Hill Country as far north as Adamsville, southeast to Collegeport, south to Brownsville and places in between, including Austin, San Antonio, Victoria, and Corpus Christi.” Mission Presbytery consists of 134 churches, 300 Teaching Elders and approximately 21,800 lay members.
What is this resolution?
This resolution is an affirmation by Mission Presbytery of the church’s role in addressing gun violence through both their service and by placing public pressure on the Texas legislature to implement common sense and widely popular gun reform. The presbytery voted on this resolution last week on March 4th by a vote of 208-1.
Why is this important?
Mission Presbytery represents a large and diverse geographical area. Their resolution is a demonstration of both the church’s voice on this issue as well as a large number of Texas citizens. It provides clarity on where the faith community stands and gives Texas Impact demonstrative evidence that the issues we work on are supported by mainline faith communities.
Are there other similar resolutions?
Mission Presbytery is actually not the first faith community to pass a resolution calling for more policies to address gun violence. Most mainline protestant communities as well as other faiths have released statements on this issue. Earlier this year, Texas Impact staff, including Josh Houston our advocacy director and myself, attended the Lutheran Ethicist Gathering, a national conference where theologians, lawyers, and academics of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) meet to discuss pressing moral and societal issues. The ELCA similarly was debating how to publicly make a statement on this issue. They had previously made statements both in 1993 and 1994 condemning gun violence and calling for gun reform, and released a Social Policy Resolution on Gun Violence Prevention in 2016. Other mainline faiths such as Methodists and Jewish groups have also made similar statements. We hope that other faith community members will continue to pass similar resolutions and put pressure on the state legislature.
Next Steps
If you also find this issue to be important and compelling, join the Texas Impact Issue Team! Work on this issue with other Texans from around the state. Learn more about the data on gun violence, and what you can do in your communities and at the State Capitol.