Ken Pagano, the pastor of the New Bethel Church here, is passionate about gun rights. He shoots regularly at the local firing range, and his sermon two weeks ago was on “God, Guns, Gospel and Geometry.” And on Saturday night, he is inviting his congregation of 150 and others to wear or carry their firearms into the sanctuary to “celebrate our rights as Americans!” as a promotional flier for the “open carry celebration” puts it.“I don’t see any contradiction in this. Not every Christian denomination is pacifist.”
I never saw the "turn-the-other-cheek" doctrine as advocating that one should become a human door mat. Rather, I think it stands for the philosophy that if your enemy attacks you in an unreasonable fashion, you do not do likewise . . . but exert reasonable force to defend yourself.
And this is found in law, with a good example being the use of deadly force. You cannot use it to defend property - sorry, no shooting skateboarders on church grounds, 'mkay? - but it is justified in the defense of human life.
I believe we do have a right to carry firearms as Americans. History has shown that when a regime wishes to come to power by force, the first thing they do is strip the private citizen of that right, so as to limit resistance. I wonder how the Iranians feel about that?
1 comments:
You're absolutely right in your interpretation :) of the turn the other cheek verse
Though since we can't shoot the skateboarders on Church property, we can use the Fr. Erik Skate Zapper patent pending, haha.
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