Church In New York Honors Children Killed By Gun Violence With Haunting Display

As part of its Holy Week observance, a church in New York is also taking time to commemorate and honor the memories of children who have been taken far too soon from communities across the United States by gun violence.

St. Marks Episcopal Church in the Bowery section of New York City has some 70 T-shirts draped around crosses. Each shirt bears the name and age of child, along with how they died. The children represented by the memorial were all under 12 when they perished.

Rev. Winnie Varghese said the parallel between the deaths of innocent children and the crucifixion of Jesus is not accidental:

“We wanted to commemorate something that sort of parallels what happened to Jesus during the last days of his life.”

Rev. Varghese has also been posting a blog during the leadup to Easter Sunday and she recently wrote:

“The question for us is whether these 700 injuries and deaths are acceptable, the unavoidable cost of the right to bear arms, or if they are an unacceptable sacrifice to an industry that is trying to convince us that a sacrifice acceptable for the 2nd amendment is our children.”

This powerful display of what has happened across America in the year since Easter Sunday 2014 should lead each of us to examine the true cost of gun rights in the nation. Do we, as a country, want to see hundreds of children die each and every year just so we can enrich the firearms industry and embolden the National Rifle Association?

As has been said by better men than me, the gun industry in the United States represents death and destruction, mayhem and chaos. They are truly merchants of death, and there is blood on their hands.

How will they ever atone for their sins?

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.

 

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