As Americans, we have experienced the headlines all too often over the last decade, a mass shooting in a shocked community. A lone gunman goes into a shopping mall, school, retail store, or concert, inflicting their malice upon innocent bystanders.  

For the next week, news coverage will be 24/7. We’ll hear testimonies from survivors, reports on the perpetrator’s life leading up to the shooting, and what lawmakers should do to prevent this from happening again. Churches even lift the names of the victims and pray for progress in our country. 

But then, well, we move on. The news coverage stops. Our lives are busy. We live too far away from the incident. 

We move on, but the victims and their families do not. 

“Most painful of all was the realization that those who turned away, who remained silent, were the ones I most expected to see on the front lines—leaning into my pain, joining with me to call out for healing, justice, reform,” said Taylor Schumann on the CBF Podcast Conversation. 

Schumann was the victim of a shooting at New River Community College in 2013. Since then, she has become an advocate for gun reform, authoring a new book, “When Thoughts and Prayers Aren’t Enough: A Shooting Survivor’s Journey into the Realities of Gun Violence.” 

We sat down with the activist to discuss the role of the church in gun violence and ownership. 

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CBF’s podcast shares stories from across the Fellowship and innovative practices of those working to renew God’s world. The vision is to share ideas, stories, and innovations from ministers, authors, and practitioners.

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This podcast episode is brought to you by The Center for Congregational Health, Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, and McAfee School of Theology Doctor of Ministry program. 

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Andy Hale is the creator and host of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Podcast. Hale is the senior pastor of University Baptist Church of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, following eight years as the founding pastor of Mosaic Church of Clayton and five years as CBF’s church start specialist. Follow on Twitter @haleandy