BLUFFTON — The symbolic act of turning violence into peace has been written about since Biblical times, but an event happening Thursday in Bluffton will help bring this concept from an abstract idea to a real-world purpose.
RAWtools, a Colorado-based organization that advocates against gun violence, will perform a three-hour blacksmith demonstration as part of its Swords to Plows initiative.
Taken from a Biblical passage that reads, “they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks,” Swords to Plows is a program where blacksmiths repurpose weapons into hand tools that can be used in the creation of something new. According to the RAWtools website, the goal is to prevent the weapon’s use for violence and create a “cycle of peace.”
Starting at 3 p.m. today, blacksmiths from RAWtools will forge guns into garden tools during a demonstration at Bluffton University. The public is invited to watch as a variety of guns that have been donated by area individuals and police departments are transformed.
According to event organizer Wendy Chappell-Dick, most people who donated a gun are ready to see it transformed into something new. One of the guns was even used to commit a crime.
Chappell-Dick said today’s event will mark the first time a Swords to Plows event has occurred in Bluffton.
“As far as I know, there’s been no events or even discussion about gun violence in the area,” Chappell-Dick said. “We certainly have had a lot of it (gun violence), but that conversation has not really taken place here until this event.”
At 7:30 p.m., the public is invited to attend “PeaceMaker,” a church service in which songs, art, stories and scripture will be shared, as well as a live-steaming demonstration of a gun being transformed into a gardening hoe. A large screen TV will allow service-goers to witness the transformation in real time, Chappell-Dick said. The event will take place in Founders Hall, which is on the Bluffton University campus.
Also at the PeaceMaker service, speaker Stephanie Ingram will share her personal experience dealing with gun violence. Ingram is an advocate for youth in Lima, serving as a mentor for the Tomorrow project. Ingram’s passion to reach out to youth in her community stems from the murder of her son, Quantez D. Tennant, who was shot to death three years ago at age 21.
Chappell-Dick said event organizers are using the platform to allow people to share their own stories and let the public decide what to take from the event.
“In terms of the statement the event will make, that’s really in the eyes of the beholder,” she said. “There is no small print to this event. It is what it is — a gun being transformed. Some people may see that symbolically, some people may see it literally. But what we really want is for this to be about opening that conversation.”
Chappell-Dick added that she believes the image of swords being turned into plowshares — or in this case, guns into garden tools — is an idea that is strong in people’s consciousness, but a modern representation of this concept is lacking.
“This is a chance to really bring that Biblical concept — that abstract idea of violence to peace — into a physical experience,” she said. “I think that will be quite profound for people.”
When the demonstration is finished, the garden tools will be on display in a multimedia art exhibition called “From Swords to Plowshares; Our Process of Transformation.” The exhibition will be open from 2 to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays in the Grace Albrecht Gallery of the Sauder Visual Arts Center at Bluffton University. It will be open to the public until July 30.
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