Social media updates from Episcopalians at March for Our Lives events

Posted Mar 23, 2018

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopalians and Episcopal leaders from across the U.S. were in Washington, D.C., to participate in March for Our Lives on March 24, while others attended corresponding local rallies.

The youth-driven movement behind March for Our Lives was sparked by outrage over a high school shooting Feb. 14 that left 17 students and adults dead in Parkland, Florida.

Episcopalians attending the Washington march or marches in other cities were encouraged to use the hashtag #MarchEpiscopal when posting to social media from the events. You can review their updates on the feed below.

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Comments (4)

  1. Doug Desper says:
    March 26, 2018 at 1:14 pm

    The organic (naturally occurring) movement of sorrow and outrage over yet another mass murder by guns flowed from teachers, parents, students, and whole communities. This movement was promptly co-opted by the same shadow organizing groups that fund professionally organized marches for nearly any cause so long as it targets government as the blame. Money, media, and celebrity were quickly introduced into the mix. The original concerns of the organic movement were transformed into nearly a 100% protest about the NRA, weapons in general, and selected politicians in particular. That’s what happens when a natural movement gets absorbed by the money and priorities of organizations who stand ready with canned speeches to hand to 11 year olds, truckloads of professionally printed signs, and media-ready teens. Better gun control and safety? Needed for sure. But, look back carefully. In nearly every mass shooting (particularly Sandy Hook), a dysfunctional home was the nest for twisted emotions and actions to begin. It’s easy to pick out the NRA, a few politicians, and a hunk of metal with a trigger. But, don’t forget that homes and families with terrible nurture launched the killers on their way. Don’t forget that the Parkland shooter was already known to school officials and police who didn’t intervene effectively. In many of the mass shootings there have been families and officials “in the know” and poised to intervene — and didn’t. Gun reform? Yep. But, now is the time that the Church can step in with more than vestments and banners and signs dragged off to march after march after march demanding that someone “fix” something. The incubator of the violence in the last many years was in the home. Gassing up for another march is easy. Being a needed light and help in the community and in its homes is harder work. The ways to nurture the homes of the community – ALL of them – are there for a Church that wants to work and not just be heard.

  2. Doug Desper says:
    March 26, 2018 at 2:17 pm

    As a P.S. I was asked “what do you mean by nurture”? C.S. Lewis explained it succinctly when he wrote that: “The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only — and that is to support the ultimate career.”
    There may be some who champ at the bit with resentment about that idea, but it has never been proven to be more needed than now. We have seen our national culture strain at self-acceptance and self-actualization to the point that home is often considered to be a place to exist until something more important happens. When the Church values home as an institution, promotes homemaking as a vocation, and is seen assisting with home needs then wouldn’t the nurture be different and more positive? Just a few practical suggestions of how the Church can value homemaking and create a godly influence: free childcare for Mom and Dads nights out, free teen internet cafes that promote a welcome and value to each person, home visits to talk with parents, organizing teens to be caregivers to their community’s elderly, offering free 1st Aid/CPR classes, organizing/hosting gun safety classes in neighborhoods instead of being seen as abominating all ownership, and much more. Training activists and raising awareness about public policy has a limited place when the home is the primary nest for dysfunction or for nurture. Promoting and supporting homemaking is the real mission ground.

  3. Tony Oberdorfer says:
    March 28, 2018 at 3:27 pm

    The fact that Doug Desper’s extremely sensible commentaries have evidently had no response at all suggests how unwilling present-day Episcopalians have become to entertain any ideas that deviate from what the almost entirely left-wing Episcopal hierarchy dictates. That is very sad indeed and suggests that the future will have trouble holding our society together even if a few people still go to church on Sundays.

  4. Joe Prasad says:
    April 3, 2018 at 2:10 pm

    In comments, when “left-wing” words are used to describe activities of church then it is difficult to agree on agenda that might benefit majority rather than a select group of people. I don’t think that the Episcopal Church is following a leftist agenda. I personally know parents who are participating in such marches. They are capitalists; they are concerned about their children and grandchildren.
    Why is it that priests such as Archbishop Romero or others who express a genuine concern for poor and needy people are accused of being leftists? After all, it was Jesus who asked to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. What is leftist about this statement? Church played a role in bringing down the Communist governments.
    Those shadow organizations that co-opt marches with their own agenda have to be identified and addressed in some way.
    Perhaps many organizations including church are trying to figure out how to deal with governments, financial institutions, corporations that say one thing in public but then have a secret agenda of their own.

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