Here we are again. Dark days. A nation in mourning. In shock. A nation praying and lighting candles. A nation divided.

One nation, under the Gun.

How many candles will we light while we remain under the Gun?

I’m sick of dancing around the subject of gun reform and will just say what’s in my heart: You may be part of the problem.

If you are not willing to acknowledge that guns (and our mishandling of them) are a major problem in this country, then you are part of the problem. If you are not willing to demand changes even if they may mean personal sacrifice so that we can protect people going to a concert or a nightclub or a Bible study, then you are part of the problem. If you want to point to weak hotel security or mental illness or ways other than guns to kill each other (But what about the trucks? What about knives?) to distract attention from the current state of the gun trade, then you are part of the problem.

When gun after gun after gun takes life after life after life, those who rally around their guns instead of rallying to protect the inherent sacredness of human life are making a bitter choice that lessens us all, weakens us all, and ensures that we have too many more dark days ahead.

There has to be room for compromise on this issue, but so far, the “compromise” has been to silence those calling for gun control and to continue letting blood money determine the flow of guns in this country.

I invite you to read about some of the victims in Sunday’s shooting. It’s a heartbreaking list of men, women, beloved aunts, only sons, wives, boyfriends, the old, and the young. The list doesn’t even include the hundreds of others whose lives were forever altered by this (no longer) unimaginable tragedy.

I invite you to read about bump-stocks—not so you’ll run out and buy one, though the gun industry sure is hoping your fears will drive you to buy them all—but so you can see how lost and far away we’ve come from the intent of the “well regulated Militia” in the Second Amendment. It boggles my mind that these were voted legal in 2010.

And I invite you to contact your US legislators. In 1954, Congress voted to add “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. If today’s Congress is unwilling to act on the gun problem in this country, it should go ahead and change that phrase to “under the Gun.” Because it’s pretty clear where the allegiance lies right now.

I’ll leave you today with this reminder from the Bible. I need to read it and reread it and read it some more. And maybe you need to read it, too?

Because, while I cannot comprehend the darkness in our country right now, I do believe in the Light. I believe the Light wins at the end of all this. And I need to remember that, above all, my allegiance is to the Light.