THE DAY THE SHOT RANG OUT

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The Blog That Speaks: The Day the Shot Rang Out

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Image by Ulf Åkesson from Pixabay

Being approximately eight months apart in age, they had earned a reputation for causing mischief, such as lighting cherry bombs at a local Bible camp. The two friends shared a love for motorcycles. They were seen by the neighbors riding their Indian motorcycles, giving them a reputation for being quite the daredevils. 

But then Quinton joined the Marines and fought in the Korean War while Emil remained home to work the family farm. 

When Quinton returned from Korea, he had changed. He was described as less congenial and more aggressive and competitive. Unfortunately, the change ruptured the bond between the two friends.

Both of the young men enjoyed trapping for mink in local creeks or streams and for fox in open fields near animal carcasses. Unfortunately, it was also common that other trappers stole traps, and if there was an animal in the trap, that, too, was taken. In hopes of curbing such thievery, many trappers had their initials etched in their metal traps, but such safeguards did little to stop the thefts. 

As a man with deep feelings, Emil was infuriated that someone was stealing his traps. These thefts were a personal violation. And his prime suspect was Quinton. Wanting to verify his suspicions, he encroached on Quinton’s land to see if his former buddy had indeed been taking what was rightfully his. But Emil got caught by Quinton. If there had been any hope of mending their previous bond, it evaporated on that day.

Quinton was irascible. His hot-temper flared as he saw Emil trespassing. Quinton grabbed his rifle and fired a shot at his former best buddy. It is not known if the ex-Marine’s aim failed or if he had simply issued a warning shot. As he approached Emil with his rifle in hand, he gave it to an associate who was with him, telling the associate to return it to the pick-up. The two former friends exchanged heated words, but the argument turned physical. Quinton kicked Emil in the leg, causing it to break. He then left Emil to crawl back on his own to his pick-up and drive home. 

The two friends had become enemies.

But the suspicion, anger, and dislike did not end there. Emil passed it to his children via story. As the story of theft was repeatedly told, his children learned to distrust Quinton. Emil’s children heard again and again that Quinton was a liar and a thief, and they learned about Quinton harming their father. Thus, all actions of Quinton became suspect. Quinton was a pilot who was hired to spray crops for neighboring farmers. If Quinton was spraying in a nearby field, the children were told that Quinton had purposely spooked Emil’s cattle or that he had deliberately sprayed the family’s garden. Having impressionable minds as children do, the children learned to believe that Quinton was evil and to be feared. 

In the minds of Emil’s family, Quinton moved from being a neighbor to being sub-human. He was no longer viewed as a human being with similar feelings, needs, likes, and dislikes. Instead, he was more closely akin to the devil incarnate.

Enemy images had emerged.

As is the case with Emil, the stories that we tell influence us. The narrative that Emil told not only impacted him but also his family. They believed the worst about Quinton. Although Quinton never confessed to deliberately spooking Emil’s cattle or spraying the family garden, these were interpretations that were being made due the narrative of Quinton being a thief, a liar, and a combatant. As a result, he became seen as a threat. The family assumed that Quinton’s actions were hostile toward them. In the eyes of Emil’s family, Quinton was guilty; Emil was innocent. Quinton was bad; Emil was good. Quinton was the enemy of all that was right and just while Emil bore the image of virtue and fairness. Thus, the repeating of the narrative birthed enemy images of Quinton. 

When enemy images are constructed, any altruism carried out by the other side is deemed suspect and/or discounted. Even attempts toward peace by the so-called enemy are regarded suspiciously. If Quinton had tried to heal the broken bond, Emil may have been cynical of Quinton’s intentions, believing Quinton was being forced to make peace either by the church or his wife. Furthermore, Quinton’s motives to make peace probably would have been seen as a concealment of his hostility toward Emil. It may have been interpreted as a ruse to cause Emil to drop his guard. In short, none of Quinton’s actions were to be trusted.^[2] He was viewed as a threat to their very way of life and existence. Nothing about Quinton was seen as similar to Emil. If Quinton and Emil would have experienced corresponding hardship, the fact that Quinton was also suffering would have to be ignored lest he be seen as human. (For more on enemy images, see When Enemy Images Emerge.)

As seen in the above account, narratives influence us. The stories we tell about situations, persons, groups, experiences, ourselves, etc., shape us. If I am teaching a class and I see a student with her eyes closed, I may say to myself, “She is sleeping. I must not be very interesting.” Or I may say, “She is sleeping. She is an unmotivated student.” These are the possible narratives I may tell myself based on my interpretation of the student’s action. Thus, I end up harshly judging either myself or her based on the narrative I tell. Yet, new information and new experiences may change our perspectives about those same situations, persons, groups, experiences, ourselves, etc., both in the past and/or in the present. If I learn that my student had a headache and was closing her eyes because the light bothered her, it changes the narrative that I told about myself or about her. In that case, new information and a new way of thinking alters my perspective. 

Like Emil’s family, our nation has become quite familiar with the narratives of hostility—enemy images.

We have watched in more recent years as the antagonistic political rhetoric has heightened between the Left and the Right. Each side sees the other as a threat. It is reported that threats on the lives of politicians have continued to rise. In this year alone, both sides have experienced the loss of life and attempts to take lives. In June, shots rang out as Melissa Hortman, the Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, and her husband were assassinated, and Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were shot. Three months later, political conservative activist Charlie Kirk was gunned down. Add to that the act of arson at the residence of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro in April. This does not include two assassination attempts on Donald Trump’s life while he was campaigning in 2024. And now, words declaring war have been uttered in our nation. The Right blames the Left, and the Left blames the Right.

Enemy images have been formed, and anxiety rises.

The increased anxiety reveals our pre-occupation with our own nation and our own selves. Anxiety is a closed system. We become consumed with our fear, which, as Maggie Ross writes, “locks us in time instead of gesturing toward eternity.”^[3] Anxiety does not have faith in the unseen of God’s kingdom. It fears what it cannot control. Anxiety sets its sights on the immanent, not the Transcendent One, since it is consumed with self. It does not see and/or trust God or place hope in God. It emerges as I become consumed about me and my experience, but it is quieted as I center on God and God’s kingdom. Anxiety neglects to recognize that as a follower of Christ, I am a participant in Christ’s ministry in the world. It fails to remember that I am partaker in God’s story as it loses sight of the reality that I am not the beginning and the ending of the narrative of God. I am a mortal who is a participant in the story of God.

We add to our anxiety when we spend much of our time attempting to restore what existed previously. This may be seen in our nation (e.g., Let us make America great again) or in our churches (e.g., Let us be like the New Testament church). This places the onus on us. It is dependent on our effort to re-enact what used to be. It is up to us to return to what was. We are attempting to copy the past while also trying to assure ourselves and others that any repeat of the past will be authentic. This increases our anxiety as our eyes are on that which is immanent, not the Transcendent One.

That is, our focus is on the agency of the self, not the agency of the divine.

However, if we profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, there is a different narrative to which are invited to live out. That narrative is of a future with a new heaven and a new earth, a time when God will be all in all (1 Cor 15:28). Scriptures describe this time as when predator and prey will no longer exist. A wolf will be beside a lamb, and the cow and the bear will graze together (Isaiah 11). No longer will there be a patriarchy, and neither will there be racism or tribalism (Gal 3:28). This means that a new world is coming, but it is not out of our own initiative. Instead, we are participants in this movement toward the healing of our world. The Holy Spirit is moving throughout the world, and as a human being, I am being invited to join in that healing movement. I am being beckoned to join the dance of the Triune Godhead of healing ministry in the world. 

I believe that the Apostle Paul understood this. The first letter to the church in Corinth reveals problems that the church was having. Much like our nation and the church today, the church in Corinth was full of competitiveness, dissension, divisions, fighting, aggressiveness, bickering, and the like. They demonstrated arrogance as members claimed that their favorite biblical teacher was better than yours. They revealed divisions as the wealthy ate the best food at the church’s potlucks before the poor (the working class) had even arrived. They displayed competitiveness as members asserted, “I am more important because my spiritual gift is more visible.” In short, their attention was on the self. 

However, Paul attempts to center their eyes elsewhere: the eschaton. With each issue, Paul seeks to correct their attitudes and behavior by trying to turn their sight to the time when God is all in all. That is, there exists an eschatological thread that is visible throughout 1 Corinthians. For Paul, the future, in which God is all in all, is to dictate a Christian’s behavior in the present, the now-but-not-yet. We are to envision the new heaven and the new earth and live that out today by emptying ourselves. When Paul connects the Corinthians’ present problems with eschatology, Paul is calling for the Corinthians to live out their future—the coming revelation of Jesus Christ—in the present.

To apply this to our contemporary setting, we are to pre-enact the future by participating in what the Spirit is already doing instead of trying to re-enact the past through our own abilities.^[4]

This pre-enacting of our future is characterized by the Apostle’s words in chapter 13. We are to be patient and kind rather than bragging or being puffed up, which mirrors the philosophy of American-can-doism. Pre-enacting our future is not self-serving, like those who participate in self-aggrandizement, and neither is it rude by degrading others on social media. Love is displayed with attitudes of mutuality and equality within a community by suffering and rejoicing with one another, no matter if one is rich/poor, baptized/not baptized, immigrant/native, Black/White, male/female, Conservative/Liberal, or healed/hurting. Drawing from James K. A. Smith, pre-enacting our future is a practice of “a theology of public life, the life we share in common in the meantime.”^[5]

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^[1] While the story is true, the names have been changed.

^[2] Psychologists for Social Responsibility, “Section II: Effects of Enemy Images: Theory & Example,” Enemy Images: A Resource Manual on Reducing Enmity, edited by Steve Fabrick, under heading “Cognitive Biases: Selective Perception and Memory, Cognitive Dissonance, and Causal Attribution, https://pamengelbert.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/b1231-enemyimagesmanual.pdf.pdf

^[3] Maggie Ross, Writing the Icon of the Heart: In Silence Beholding (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2013), 8.

^[4] I want to thank Joseph Dutko for this insight on re-enactment vs. pre-enactment. See Joseph Dutko, The Pentecostal Gender Paradox: Eschatology and the Search for Equality (London: T&T Clark, 2024).

^[5] James K. A. Smith, How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2022), 155, Kindle edition. Please note that parts of this last section on 1 Corinthians may be found in Pamela F. Engelbert, See My Body See Me: A Pentecostal Perspective on Healing from Sexual Violence (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2024).