As individuals, we are responsible for our choices, especially the choice to kill. But something in our collective heart appears diseased. We cling to guns, it seems, more tightly than we cling to God.

To return to joy, to build a safe world for our children, to heal, we must take a stand against guns. To be people of courage, integrity, heart and grace, we must see it through this time.

When God fails to intervene in human suffering, the acceptance of a loving deity who cares for his children arouses fresh doubts.

For too long, the work of many of these groups attracted little public notice. Hopefully, however, that will now change. They will not be easily dismissed.

In the spirit of the Magi who brought gifts to the Christ Child, let's take a few moments to consider what gifts we should bring to all of God's children.

Providing an opportunity for public school children to reflect on their unique values through a moment of silence does not need to violate the first amendment's prohibition on establishing a religion.

All the guns in the world will never "fix" the problem of fear. They will not rescue gun-supporters from a need to live in constant hyper-vigilance against our fellow human beings. In fact, they will result in the opposite: They will only increase violence, threats, fears and cynicism. Idols have a way of doing that.

In the end, I believe that the NRA will find out that the Rev. Canon Gary R. Hall, Dean of the National Cathedral, was correct when he said: "I believe the gun lobby is no match for the cross lobby."

We now find ourselves in a liminal space, knowing that this is precisely the time in which we, together, will either effectively address our country's obsession with limitless and needlessly violent weaponry, or slide back into our typically self-focused and detached existence.

When did we as a nation allow the right to bear arms to supersede children's right to bear dreams? There are more gun dealers in our nation than there are houses of worship. When did the hunger for weapons outstrip our hunger to glimpse God's dream for us as a people?

Do we want a God who is all-powerful or all-loving? We can't have both and be satisfied with a God who permits the Holocaust, genocide, war and tsunamis.

I am concerned that some of these efforts have rendered people like me -- nonreligious Americans -- invisible. And sadly, the idea that godlessness inspires or allows for a tragedy of this nature isn't a new phenomenon.

I don't usually comment on the negative comments that others make about what happens in our society. However, I am having a very hard time keeping my fingers from writing about the comments that have been made about God and what happened in Newtown, Conn.

There is room for debate about which weapons lend themselves to fostering self defense of life, liberty and property. But to be truly mindful of the Second Commandment -- and the Second Amendment -- we must stop idolizing and glorifying any weapons as cultural ornaments and markers of identity.

Newtown and Jesus' Bethlehem are bound together by a common horror: slaughter of the innocents. The world into which the Christian Messiah enters is shattered by terror.

Will the God who let this happen now provide us with the strength to accept it so that we can go on worshiping Him? Will we be punished further if we forsake our faith and conclude that we are blameless victims of a random fate?

To minimize violence we need to learn how to control the toxic emotions of anger, ego, deceit, and greed by focusing on the development of their antidotes, namely forgiveness, love, compassion, humility, honesty, and contentment.

You have just revealed more about yourself than you realize. I see no difference between your view of God and that of the extreme fundamentalists who actually believe their god uses them to torture and kill others.

I was suddenly transported from a stadium of screaming frenzied fans of around 68,000 people to a high school auditorium in Newtown, Conn. A small town where only days before 26 people, 20 of them between 6- and 7-years-old, had been murdered.

The United States leads the developed world in gun-related fatalities: Americans are 20 times more likely to die from a gun than a citizen of another developed country.

I have officiated at many funerals, supporting families in their grief; I have experienced loss, I have been to untimely funerals and lived through national and international tragedies. Yet, it took this unspeakable massacre to really teach me.

What I've witnessed following this recent tragedy convinces me that the social and spiritual ills encircling our world can be solved through concerted efforts at dialogue, inclusion and compassion. Try love, not fear, not cursing the darkness -- or shooting at it.

Shock, sorrow, surprise. Since the Newtown murders on Friday, Dec. 15, this trinity of responses has reverberated in the media and public and private exchanges among observers to the slaughter. But how can any observer be surprised?

As proud as I was of how my magazine chose to approach the topic, I was more than a little disturbed at what seemed to me an overall exploitation of the death of Noah Pozner, the one Jewish boy who was killed in the attack.