To the Editors of ByFaith,

As the official magazine of the denomination of the Presbyterian Church in America, of which I am a teaching elder, I am concerned with the discernment you used in printing the recent article from David Cassidy titled “Prayer and Work in the Face of Violence” in which he called gun violence “the leading cause of death among children in this nation” (source: https://byfaithonline.com/prayer-and-work-in-the-face-of-violence/). This is incorrect information and is misleading. Gun violence is absolutely not the leading cause of death of children in the United States, and it’s not even close.

According to Pew Research, the number of gun deaths among those under 18 rose an alarming amount from 2,281 in 2020 to 2590 in 2021 (source: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/06/gun-deaths-among-us-kids-rose-50-percent-in-two-years/). However, that number is radically dwarfed by the number of abortions that took place in 2020 alone. According to the CDC, there were over 600,000 children dead in this nation because of abortion. According to the Guttmacher Institute that number was over 900,000.  (source: https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/report/key-facts-on-abortion-in-the-united-states/).

Why is this relevant? Because Cassidy’s article says that guns are the leading cause of death among children in the United States when nearly a million were murdered in 2020 with no guns involved. Cassidy’s statement is simply wrong, and he should know that if he believes (along with our denomination) that unborn children are children too. We believe that these murdered children are, in fact, children and human persons. And yet the numbers quoted by Cassidy omit these lost little ones. To include Cassidy’s statement with no correction (as of May 9, 2023), is irresponsible and dishonest. It is a serious lapse of wisdom on the part of the ByFaith editorial team to run it or not to push back on it before publishing.

600,000 children (at least) are dead in the United States because women are willfully murdering them. I realize that including that information steals some of the outrage and rhetorical force from Cassidy’s article.

Rhetorical force aside, we are to be people of truth. Our denomination ought to be characterized by truth, so far as we are able to ascertain it, and by humility where we cannot. This especially should be the case with our denominational magazine, which the PCA funds, and which the denomination is supposed to have oversight of.

None of this means that gun violence is not a problem. But it is disturbing, not only that David Cassidy would make such a blatantly factual error, but that the editors either did not notice, or were negligent to make the correction.

Beyond the factual inaccuracy that depersonalizes the unborn, I am also concerned that our denominational magazine would use its platform for a piece where the overall tone seems to be a repetition of so much of the bitter invective that we hear in the aftermath of horrible crimes, where Christians are sneered at because they believe in the power of prayer and because they promise to lift up the hurting before God. “Save your prayers and actually do something” sneers the cultured despiser in the comments section. It is sad to see our denominational magazine becoming just another opportunity for Christians to be derided in the face of seemingly (humanly) unstoppable evil.

Cassidy is right about at least one thing: we do need to work. We have the tools, but they are not political. Ultimately gun violence is something that is a spiritual issue that goes to the level of the heart. This means that God’s people aren’t helpless in the face of human evil and violence.  The area of the heart is the real problem here, and it is our specialty. Jesus says that “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder…” (Matt. 15:19). In a nation with more guns than citizens, Christians do their best work in preventing gun violence by focusing on the work of hearts: evangelizing their neighbors, giving hope to people who might otherwise be tempted to harm their neighbors, and by faithfully living in this fallen world as Christ’s Church. This is something that Christ’s Church is uniquely equipped for, and which politicians are miserable at doing. Christians have the hope. We have the tools. God has given them to us, and he’s told us how to use them.

The result of that work looks like the growth of the kingdom, the spread of the gospel, and the changing of hearts. If the Apostle Paul’s murdering heart can be changed, then why would we not do the work Jesus has given his church to do so that more hearts can be softened from hearts of stone into hearts of flesh?

What the church cannot do is speak as Christ’s church from God’s word on the specific legislative answers that Cassidy winks towards but does not elucidate. This vagueness of what he is calling for is strange. The piece at once seems to fault the church for knowing the limits of its calling, but seems itself to be afraid of the very same thing it chides praying Christians for: pulling back from areas of culture and politics that are beyond its Scripturally bound purview.

I am concerned about this article, I have congregants who are concerned, and I ask that you either retract your article with an apology, or at the least your editors include a rejoinder and an editorial note indicating the initial misstatement by Brother Cassidy. I would suggest that the editors think carefully before running such editorials in the future. As our denominational magazine if you have something to say, it should be said responsibly. Thank you.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Adam Parker

Evergreen Presbyterian Church

Beaverton, OR