Time will tell if the latest protests against the prevailing gun culture will prove effective in the United States. There are encouraging signs, but there have been false dawns before, and I have the feeling that this could prove yet another moment of misplaced hope.

Given his attachment to, and his dependency on the gun lobby, I was not surprised to hear Mr. Trump arguing that one effective way to contain the problem would be to arm selectively trained teachers with concealed guns. They could, he argued ‘immediately fire back if a savage sicko came into school with bad intentions.’

This is not the first time I have heard this argument. One of my friend’s teenage sons advocated it a few years ago when we were discussing the issue over a Mexican meal in Fort Worth, Texas. Far from being insane, he saw it as a highly-sensible proposal. At least he did then. I haven’t had chance to discuss it with him since.

This highly-intelligent young man was simply reflecting the values of his particular culture, and, as we all know, cultures vary greatly. For example, my wife and I found it strange to be told that we could leave our bikes completely unattended for hours when we were visiting Japan some years ago. But we could (and did) because theft is viewed as dishonorable. Bowing didn’t come naturally to us either, but we quickly realised that a warm Welsh ‘cwtch’ could prove highly offensive to our Japanese hosts!

The late and great John Stott was right when he wrote: “We have all drunk in our cultural inheritance with our mother’s milk. The way we think, judge, act, talk, dress, eat work and play are all to a large extent determined by our culture, and we usually do not realise how much our cultural inheritance has enslaved us.”

That’s why it’s good to travel and to mix with people who behave very differently. It is vitally important to evaluate our culture for if we don’t we can end up behaving in the most awful ways. Take the Roman world of the first century. Infanticide was rife.. It was common for parents to leave unwanted females or sick babies to die on rubbish heaps or to drown in rivers. Even in large households, it was rare for more than one daughter to be reared. In fact, it was such an acceptable practice that gynecological works included sections such as ‘How to Recognise the Newborn that is Worth Rearing.’ (Do I detect anything reminiscent of our culture here?).

Sadly and to our shame, the church has often allowed itself to be shaped by the prevailing culture rather than challenge it. In the past, it has justified slavery, apartheid and racial segregation for example, and that’s just a small sample of our blind spots.

This is why I value the work of William Wilberforce. Most people will readily identify Wilberforce with the fight against slavery but he should be admired for much more than that. His concerns were much wider than this single issue.

He is said to have been involved in at least 69 different causes either as a campaigner or as a patron in one way or another. But varied as his interests were, they all flowed from one single conviction: the Bible offers us an inspiring vision of justice and the basis for all sound human relationships. Wilberforce knew that it’s not enough to change the law. We need to constantly evaluate the core assumptions of the society in which we live (i.e. our culture). And the Bible should be the yardstick.

Rob James is a Baptist Pastor broadcaster and writer who currently operates as a church and media consultant for the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is available for preaching and teaching throughout Wales and can be contacted at [email protected]