Metabolizing Moral Shocks for Social Change: School Shooting, Religion, and Activism
“Moral shocks” are unexpected events or pieces of information that so deeply challenge one’s basic values and sense of the world that they profoundly reorient a person’s understanding of life and even self. Yet those who experience significant moral shocks rarely participate in related activism and...
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MDPI AG
2025-05-01
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/5/615 |
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| author | C. Melissa Snarr |
| author_facet | C. Melissa Snarr |
| author_sort | C. Melissa Snarr |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | “Moral shocks” are unexpected events or pieces of information that so deeply challenge one’s basic values and sense of the world that they profoundly reorient a person’s understanding of life and even self. Yet those who experience significant moral shocks rarely participate in related activism and instead experience grief as highly privatized and apolitical, a reality that serves the status quo and most powerful. This article considers how religious resources can help metabolize private grief into public lament and catalyze political grievance. Analyzing the rise of gun control activism after an elementary school mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, I argue religious resources help metabolize moral shocks into social change in five significant ways: (1) cultivating practiced, purposeful pathos, (2) offering collective lament, (3) building networked resiliency materially and theologically, (4) risking new alliances of accompaniment, and (5) storying hope. This case analysis contributes to a broader claim for political theology: Christianity can be understood as a movement based on a moral shock. This framing then animates practices of care to accompany those in moral distress and help disciple grief into a movement of faith that resists death-dealing political and social policy. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-de6911bff7e643f7bf118cb524d671a6 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Religions |
| spelling | doaj-art-de6911bff7e643f7bf118cb524d671a62025-08-20T02:34:01ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442025-05-0116561510.3390/rel16050615Metabolizing Moral Shocks for Social Change: School Shooting, Religion, and ActivismC. Melissa Snarr0Graduate Department of Religion and Divinity School, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240, USA“Moral shocks” are unexpected events or pieces of information that so deeply challenge one’s basic values and sense of the world that they profoundly reorient a person’s understanding of life and even self. Yet those who experience significant moral shocks rarely participate in related activism and instead experience grief as highly privatized and apolitical, a reality that serves the status quo and most powerful. This article considers how religious resources can help metabolize private grief into public lament and catalyze political grievance. Analyzing the rise of gun control activism after an elementary school mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, I argue religious resources help metabolize moral shocks into social change in five significant ways: (1) cultivating practiced, purposeful pathos, (2) offering collective lament, (3) building networked resiliency materially and theologically, (4) risking new alliances of accompaniment, and (5) storying hope. This case analysis contributes to a broader claim for political theology: Christianity can be understood as a movement based on a moral shock. This framing then animates practices of care to accompany those in moral distress and help disciple grief into a movement of faith that resists death-dealing political and social policy.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/5/615moral shockgrieflamentpolitical grievanceagencyactivism |
| spellingShingle | C. Melissa Snarr Metabolizing Moral Shocks for Social Change: School Shooting, Religion, and Activism Religions moral shock grief lament political grievance agency activism |
| title | Metabolizing Moral Shocks for Social Change: School Shooting, Religion, and Activism |
| title_full | Metabolizing Moral Shocks for Social Change: School Shooting, Religion, and Activism |
| title_fullStr | Metabolizing Moral Shocks for Social Change: School Shooting, Religion, and Activism |
| title_full_unstemmed | Metabolizing Moral Shocks for Social Change: School Shooting, Religion, and Activism |
| title_short | Metabolizing Moral Shocks for Social Change: School Shooting, Religion, and Activism |
| title_sort | metabolizing moral shocks for social change school shooting religion and activism |
| topic | moral shock grief lament political grievance agency activism |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/5/615 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT cmelissasnarr metabolizingmoralshocksforsocialchangeschoolshootingreligionandactivism |