In several states, one of the fronts on which the battle between gun rights and citizen disarmament is being waged is over the right of worshippers to carry a defensive firearm in church. For me, the controversy is a little difficult to understand--why should going to church necessitate surrendering the ability to defend oneself and one's family? Churches may be sanctuaries, but going to one is clearly no certain defense against people bent on evil--with the killings at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church last summer being just one example.
Some religious people might prefer to trust their faith to shield them, but personally, I much prefer the results of relying on a courageous, armed, private citizen.
This debate has returned to the forefront in light of passage in the Arkansas House of Representatives of a bill to repeal the state's church gun ban.
The Arkansas House of Representatives has narrowly approved a bill allowing concealed handguns in churches, despite hearing arguments that lawmakers should put their faith in God, not guns.
The bill passed Wednesday on a 57-42 vote and now heads to the state Senate.
I'm not sure I agree that a 57.6% majority is all that "narrow" a margin--when Obama won the presidency with 53% of the popular vote, we were encouraged to believe that the margin represented a "mandate from the people"--but I digress.
As always, not everyone is happy about the idea of lifting the state mandate of defenselessness in churches. Before the House vote, one pastor expressed his grave misgivings.
But that's little comfort for John Phillips at Central Church of Christ.
"I was a minister of a church in another part of the city and unbeknownst to anyone there was a man in church with a weapon. At the end of the service he pulled a gun out from under his coat and yelled something about baptism and proceed to shoot me," says Phillips.
Phillips says it was 23 years ago this month that a man named Larry King walked into the Ward Chapel Church in east Little Rock and shot him and another man who was trying to help him. Shot twice, Phillips spent months recovering. He says the courts sent King to the state hospital then jail for another crime, but the memories still haunt him.
I really don't mean to trivialize Mr. Phillips' suffering, but twenty-three years ago, public concealed carry was illegal everywhere in Arkansas, let alone in churches. In other words, I cannot imagine how Mr. Phillips has arrived at the conclusion that keeping the law the same as it was when he was shot would . . . help him and others avoid being shot.
Finally, the proposed law change would permit churches to prohibit firearms, the only change would be that churches could permit them.
In the end, the lives of churchgoers have just as much value, and are therefore just as worthy of defending, as the lives of anyone else.
Check out the latest from other Gun Rights Examiners:
Austin: Senator Boxer’s fictions to promote ‘sensible gun control’ (Part 1)
Charlotte: Students want concealed handguns on campus
Cleveland: Changing the culture of violence is the key
DC: DC taxpayers will pay for City Council’s gun ban redux
Denver: Defending a Young Marine
Los Angeles: How do we really get out from under the financial crisis? No, really? State Sovereignty.
Milwaukee: Time to change our attitude about guns
Minneapolis: The folly across the river
National: Savage strikes back
Comments
Mr. Phillips' logic is flawed, as you point out, Kurt. I think it's an epidemic.
Each week I sit at the back of the church here in Wyoming, openly armed - alert to everything going on around me. The pastor and congregation are fully aware and supportive. When the offering plate goes around, everyone knows that I've offered my life for our safety, as well as the cash I might be able to contribute.
What are the chances some murdering monster might come in? Slim at worst, but there isn't a square inch on earth where the risk is zero.
Will God save us? Of course. We depend on God for everything, but we don't expect food to fall onto the table by magic because of that. We work and become good stewards of what we have, then buy and prepare it. We don't say that is not trusting God, do we?
Why would defending ourselves from harm be any different?
I fail to see how one can truly worship the Prince of Peace, the God who says "love your enemy" and "turn the other cheek", while packing a gun with the intent of using it to kill someone.
Unless of course you are trying to define irony.
Drklassen, there is no contradiction in being peaceable and in simultaneously refusing to be defenseless. In a church, as in any other location, one may find oneself faced with someone who will kill, unless forcefully stopped from doing so.
By the way, how does "packing a gun" equate to having "the intent to kill someone." Is it your assertion that all armed police officers and security guards intend to kill?
Jesus was much better at turning the other cheek than I could ever be. Nevertheless I’ll keep striving to emulate his divine example.
In the meantime however, I’ll jealously guard my life and the lives of my family with the skills and weapons I’ve chosen to acquire toward that end. No man stands in danger of me in the least, so long as that man comprises no threat to me or mine.
And no man will deny that right…ever…EVER.
Some Didn't READ Their WHOLE Bibles.
Matthew 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
www.christianwarriorministries.com
Over the centuries, millions have died while trusting in God and government to protect them.
Without going into a long metaphysical discussion as to my God's protection of my existence in the here-and-now as opposed to his protection in the hereafter, I will tend to depend upon my Glock, my Winchester, and my acquired skills to protect me and mine in my present life. The "good" thief on the cross may have been granted life in heaven, but he still hung on that cross until he died on earth. People denied a means of self defense by the state and whose only choice is to dial 9-1-1 and then kneel and pray to God are well and totally fornicated as far as the here-and-now is concerned.
"Praise the lord and pass the ammunition."
I am stealing this from a commenter somewhere else, but it bears repeating.
Do you trust God to provide your house, heat, food, and transportation? Or do you do as He expects and provide these things for yourselves?
How is defense of His second most precious gift, the gift of life, deserve less?
The original Commandment read "Thou shalt not murder". Murder being the unjustified killing of a human. Despite what many theologians tell you, it did not say thou shalt not kill. The instruction manual he gave us lists justifications for killing and exhorts us to do so when it is justified.
Now all of you are perfectly free to attend any church you wish. I for one will not attend one which says God's gift of life is worthless and should not be defended. Even I place more value on life than churches of that ilk do. And I am far from Holy. How far below me on moral grounds are those churches? Too far!
Kurt, I would much rather carry my gun to church and potentially save the lives of my Pastor, my father, and many close friends than to be unarmed in a 'church invasion' and have some thug murder all of them.
Thugs are increasingly targeting churches. Those of us who have some sense must be prepared to greet them with the means of self-defense the Good Lord gave us the wisdom to develop and use!
drklassen - God may very well have said to "love your enemy" and "turn the other cheek". What He clearly didn't say was "be an idiot and let some scumbag kill you while you are defenseless".
Thank God some of us have the common sense to understand this.
BTW - Kurt, you are doing an EXCELLENT job with these columns!
drklassen - God may very well have said to "love your enemy" and "turn the other cheek". What He clearly didn't say was "be an idiot and let some scumbag kill you while you are defenseless".
Thank God some of us have the common sense to understand this.
BTW - Kurt, you are doing an EXCELLENT job with these columns!
@Thomas (yeah, that one)
Clearly you may have read the Bible, but you really don't understand what Jesus is saying. When he uses the term "sword" it is metaphor. The Bible is full of them. What he is saying to his disciples as he is sending them out is basically, "What you have to say will upset people. It will disrupt families. It will cause them to argue and may break them up. But, what you have to say is important, and then have to hear it."
That had nothing to do with warfare. Try actually understanding what you are reading, and stop using the Bible as a way to justify your violence, hate, and cruelty. They are not of God. They are of you.
Jonathan,
Where, pray tell, do you get the idea that being prepared to defend one's life, and the lives of one's family, is indicative of "violence, hate, and cruelty"?
I have to say, that's also one far-out "metaphor."
Self defense is a complex issue in the bible. Mainly because Jesus never speaks on it. If you follow his example and the example of his followers, they certainly didn't act out of self defense when the Romans came to crucify him. So there is one example.
The other example is my father who is a retired priest. He was quite a religious teacher.
The author of the post I was responding to was clearly not really talking about self-defense. Anyone who quotes that passage isn't either in this instance. Nor is the website he posts really advocating only self-defense. It advocates something more akin to the Crusades.
As to the notion of self-defense. Well, if someone tried to hurt me or those I care about then I would defend myself to whatever degree was necessary. Necessary is the key word. I wouldn't kill unless I had to. I would try to spare my attacker and see that he is arrested. If I killed them, there is still "penance" to be paid for my actions. There is that which is moral in a worldly sense, and that which is moral in a spiritual sense. Defending myself in a worldly sense is fine, but doing so in a spiritual sense puts weight on a person's soul. Harming another human being is wrong, even when you have no other choice. Like I said, it's complex.
As an Arkansan (or Arkansawyer, as some prefer) and a minister, I will gladly encourage our parishioners to carry their licensed handguns into the building. Do you use locks and alarms on your doors? Would anyone argue that churches don't need fire extinguishers? Shouldn't a church have policies to prevent sex offenders from working in children's ministries? (If a church even appears to be lax in that area, just watch the firestorm of anti-Christian bias and hatred blaze!) Like it or not, there are evil people in the world, and Jesus never told us to roll over for them. I don't want to hurt anyone and pray that I will never have to do so, but I also intend to fulfill my obligation to protect the weak and helpless.
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