“Can we talk about guns?” is a July 21, 2012, blog post at The Christian Century by Richard A. Kauffman. “Could we have a civil conversation about our differences on guns and the deleterious effect of guns in our society?” he writes. “Any chance that churches could start that conversation?”

Read blogger Ellen Painter Dollar’s July 22, 2012, column on Patheos.com, in which she says that gun control is such a hot-button issue that some people of faith are unwilling to take it on.

Read a July 22, 2012, essay on Christianity Today’s site, “Making Non-Sense of the Colorado Shootings.”

Sara Shady is an assistant professor of philosophy at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn. She has worked on research involving environmental ethics.

Al Miles is the author of Domestic Violence: What Every Pastor Needs to Know and Violence in Families: What Every Christian Needs to Know. He lives in Honolulu and is a chaplain at The Queen’s Medical Center.

The Rev. Sharon Ellis Davis is a United Church of Christ pastor who teaches seminary classes on sexual and domestic violence. She is co-founder and pastor emeritus of God Can Ministries as well as a retired Chicago police officer and police chaplain.

Sister Joan Mueller is is professor of theology and Christian spirituality at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., and the founder of the Franciscan Sisters of Joy. She is the author of numerous books and articles on Franciscanism and the related topics of forgiveness, reconciliation and discernment, including the book Is Forgiveness Possible?

Lois E. Malcolm is associate professor of systematic theology at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. She is co-author of the forthcoming book Teaching Healing and Forgiveness: A Multi-Dimensional Approach.

John-Roger is an author, teacher and minister who wrote the book Forgiveness: The Key to the Kingdom.