Skip content
Collateral Damage by James E. Atwood
  Send as gift   Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Make the switch
Libro.fm app with gift bow

Gift audiobook credit bundles

You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.

Start gifting

Collateral Damage

Changing the Conversation about Firearms and Faith

$20.99

Get for $14.99 with membership
Narrator Al Kessel

This audiobook uses AI narration.

Weโ€™re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

Learn more
Length 6 hours 47 minutes
Language English
  Send as gift   Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account

More than ninety people die from gun violence every day in the United States. Some fifty children and teens are shot. There are more than 35,000 gun-related deaths every year. Yet many Christians say gun violence shouldn't be talked about in church.

In Collateral Damage, pastor and activist James E. Atwood issues an urgent call to action to Christians to work together to stop gun violence. An avid hunter for many years, Atwood enumerates the tragic and far-reaching costs that accrue in a country with more guns than people. Collateral damage includes a generalized fear and loss of trust. Suicides and homicides. Trauma for children in neighborhoods plagued by gun violence and in schools with frequent lockdown drills. A toxic machismo that shapes our boys and men in unhealthy ways. Economic costs that exceed $229 billion per year. Atwood also considers the deeper story of racism, inequality, and mass incarceration in which the conversation about gun violence is lodged.

Gun violence has been called the theological emergency of our time. The church has a moral and spiritual obligation to side with life against death. Will we rise to the occasion?

James E. Atwood is pastor emeritus of Trinity Presbyterian Church of Arlington, Virginia. A leader in the faith-based movement for good gun laws, he has served as chair of the anti-gun violence group Heeding God's Call of Greater Washington, interfaith coordinator of the Million Mom March, and a member of the National Committee of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. Atwood is the author of America and Its Guns and Gundamentalism. He is the recipient of the 2018 David Steele Distinguished Writer Award by the Presbyterian Writers Guild. He and his wife, Roxana, served as mission workers in Japan and now live in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Al Kessel is a full-time narrator and voice actor currently living in Arizona, where he works from his professional home recording studio. For Al, performing is passion. Audiobook narration was the logical career choice for him since, for as long as he can remember, he's been a voracious reader, acting all the characters out in his head, and often entertaining his family with his dramatic reenactments of books, movies, and television. Al prides himself on the ability to bring any character to life with his voice, a voice often described as "smooth as melted butter," or "like an old friend you just love hearing tell you about their day." He has recorded numerous audiobooks from just about every genre. When not bringing stories to life, he loves hiking in the desert with his wife and puppy, visiting Disneyland and, when time permits, reenergizing on the beach.

Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Make the switch
Libro.fm app with gift bow

Gift audiobook credit bundles

You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.

Start gifting