After the devastating school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that left 17 dead and dozens injured last week, a host of prominent evangelical leaders are saying enough is enough. Pledging a response of both prayer and action, a variety of pastors, church leaders and influencers have issued a petition urging the faith community to acknowledge their Biblical responsibility to protect life amid the nation’s gun violence epidemic.

“As we mourn for our brothers and sisters who have died, we pray fervently for their friends and family who grieve. We also accept and declare that it is time to couple our thoughts and prayers with action,” states the petition. “We call on our fellow Christian believers, church leaders, and pastors across the country to declare that we will decisively respond to this problem with both prayer and action.”

Rob Schenck

Statement from Rev. Rob Schenck, President of The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute and Subject of Emmy Award-Winning Gun Violence Documentary, The Armor of Light

“The murder of school children in a mass shooting is never just ‘another.’ That’s not acceptable in a civilized culture. When children wake up in the morning, they should only worry about homework or a test, not whether they will be killed in a hail of gunfire. No parent should worry that a gun battle will break out or that they’ll be met at the end of the school day at the emergency room by a grim-faced chaplain. If the solution to this deadly disease in American society is more guns, then the United States—with over 300 million weapons in general circulation—would be the safest place on earth. We have a moral emergency in our country. It’s time we wake up, face it, and fix it. Now. Fellow faith leaders, I hope you’ll join myself, along with other church leaders and pastors and sign this petition letting the rest of our nation know that we’re committed to responding to the gun violence plaguing our nation with both prayer AND action.”

Joel Hunter

Statement from Dr. Joel C. Hunter, Faith Community Organizer and Former Pastor of Northland Church

“If not now, when? When will Christian leaders and all people of faith, the moral leaders of our society, recognize that our culture has so radically changed from the one that established the Second Amendment that its intent would now be better fulfilled with common sense qualifiers. In a society that is normalizing violence daily by constant news focus, video games and epidemic anger, why not at least keep weapons of mass murder out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have had a gun in the first place, such as the mentally ill or domestic abusers? Such a movement will not start with politicians who are simply angling toward their own reelection. It is up to us.”

James Aten

Statement from Dr. Jamie Aten, Founder and Executive Director of the Humanitarian Institute at Wheaton College

“I have dedicated my career to helping people prepare for and respond to disasters, including mass shootings, and over the past few years this has more and more frequently meant helping communities heal after mass shootings. Unlike natural disasters, these kinds of human-caused disasters are more preventable. As Christians we owe it to the victims and survivors of mass shootings, and to each other, to pray for all those impacted and also to do what we can to try and prevent this from happening again to more people and prioritizing that in our policies.”