RI faith leaders implore state 'leaders to lead' with assault-weapons ban and safe storage law

PROVIDENCE – One by one, Rhode Island's faith leaders took turns at a microphone in the State House on Tuesday to implore the state's "leaders to lead" by using their voices to help end violence wherever it exists in the world and the power in their home state to bring to a vote measures to ban "assault weapons" and require the safe storage of firearms.

Speaking out a week before the House Judiciary Committee holds it annual marathon hearing on proposed gun bills, they talked about the right to live without fear of gun violence at school, the grocery store, the movie theater, the shopping mall, Gaza.

And they talked about the shared beliefs that brought them to the State House.

"We as faith leaders stand together representing all communities to uphold the universal truth that human life is a sacred gift of God," said the Rev. Howard Jenkins Jr., pastor of the Beth-el AME Church.

Then they each walked over to a table at the front of the State House Library to sign a letter in solidarity with Everytown for Gun Safety addressed to "All Elected State Executive and Legislative Officials, and to All Citizens of Rhode Island," that said, in part, "We, the undersigned, and all those who stand with us, together and today proclaim that gun violence in our nation is a grave injustice that has caused the appalling loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and inflicted insufferable pain on millions more.

"When these tragedies occur, we often send our thoughts and prayers.... It is not enough," the statement said.

"It is, indeed, our moral obligation to take action to stop the needless horrors wrought by the many forms of gun violence.... those who die by gun suicide ... [and those] murdered, wounded and scarred in spaces we have long thought were safe: places of worship, schools, shopping malls, roads, theaters, grocery stores."

"Democracy is a principle in our faith,'' said the Rev. Elizabeth Lerner Maclay, senior minister at the First Unitarian Church of Providence, "so it comes as a special charge to me to say again this year, today, that we are not OK with the status quo around gun violence and gun laws in our state."

As "for those who ignore or resist these bills, your choices are undemocratic," she said.

"They are irresponsible. We are not willing to wait for the mass deaths of our children, our congregants, our families, our people ... to the unstoppably vicious and powerful projectiles of an AR-15 ... and then pass this legislation."

Along with Jenkins and Maclay, those signing the letter on camera included: the Rev. Dena Cleaver-Bartholomew, Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island; the Rev. Eugene T. Dyszlewski, pastor, Little Rock Baptist Church, Lincoln, and president, Rhode Island State Council of Churches; Adam Greenman, president and CEO, Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island; Mufti Ikram ul-Haq, imam, Masjid Al-Islam, North Smithfield; Angela Howard-McParland, justice resource manager for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, Cumberland, and co-founder of Nuns Against Gun Violence Coalition; Jeremy Langill, executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches; the Rev. Effie E. McAvoy, lead pastor, Shepherd of the Valley United Methodist Church, Hope/Scituate; the Rev. Nancy Soukup, pastor, First Congregational Church, Bristol; Rabbi Howard Voss Altman, Temple Habonim, Barrington; the Rev. Dr. Jamie Washam, pastor, First Baptist Church in America, Providence; and Swami Yogatmananda, minister, Vedanta Society of Providence.

Catholic Bishop Richard G. Henning was not present for the State House event, but he sent a statement that was read aloud, in which he said, in part: "I share your grief at the terrible loss of life and injustices resulting from gun violence."

When the hearings take place, Henning promised, the Rhode Island Catholic Conference will testify in support of the safe storage of weapons and a ban on assault weapons "and will encourage our state leadership to pass these bills for the sake of the common good and the defense of human life."