Bring your own gun.<\/p>\n
From here<\/a>:<\/p>\n In an effort to increase membership, a number of U.S. churches \u2014 including the Church of Christ congregation in this rural village 30 miles north of Columbus \u2014 are offering an unconventional public service: Concealed weapons training.<\/p>\n \u201cChurch has done a good job with coffee klatsches or whatever, but we haven\u2019t really reached out to guys,\u201d said Jeff Copley, a preacher at the church. \u201cAnd guys in Morrow Country, they shoot and they hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n Hundreds of students have enrolled in the 10-hour course, which meets the state requirements for earning a concealed weapons permit. The training includes two hours on a church member\u2019s private shooting range.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up going to church, but hadn\u2019t attended in a number of years,\u201d said David Freeman, 52, a local engineering manager\u00a0who attended a firearm safety class at the church. \u201cAlways considered myself a Christian. I came for the gun classes and have been coming back for two years.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Unsurprisingly, the National Council of Churches disapproves, making the whole enterprise seem much more appealing:<\/p>\n [T]he National Council of Churches of Christ, which represents about 100,000 Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox and Evangelical churches comprising 45 million members nationwide, endorsed strict gun control in a 2010 position paper.<\/p>\n Conceding the need for an armed police force, the council wrote that \u201cto allow assault weapons in the hands of the general public can scarcely be justified on Christian grounds. The stark reality is that such weapons end up taking more lives than they defend, and the reckless sale or use of these weapons refutes the gospel\u2019s prohibition against violence.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Is carrying a gun with the intent to defend oneself and family contrary to Christian principles? If it isn’t, is there any reason that a church should not hold classes to teach people how to do it properly?<\/p>\n If it is<\/em> contrary to Christianity to defend oneself, then outright pacifism might be the only coherent response.<\/p>\n Of course, Anglican clergy would have little hesitation resorting to the ruse employed by 19-20th Century homosexual satirist and pacifist,\u00a0Lytton Strachey who, when asked: “If a German soldier tried to rape your sister, what would you do”, replied: “I would try to interpose my own body.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bring your own gun. From here: In an effort to increase membership, a number of U.S. churches \u2014 including the Church of Christ congregation in this rural village 30 miles north of Columbus \u2014 are offering an unconventional public service: … Continue reading