Firstly - no one is talking about the government confiscating anything. I’m encouraging church leaders to disciple their people in laying down their rights & privileges for the flourishing of human life - just like Jesus did for us (Philippians 2). Christians follow Jesus Christ; not Joseph Stalin.
And Luke 22:35-37 is definitely *not* about guns or the 2nd Amendment. This is a really bad, America-centered interpretation of the Bible that doesn’t line up with global & historic orthodox Christianity. It’s basically heresy to interpret the text in this way.
I agree that we should lay down our own lives and rights—I'm not even convinced we truly have rights before God—but does that mean we have the right to ask our non-Christian neighbor to do the same thing? I can lay down my “right” to keep and bear arms, but I don't think it's fair to tell the rest of the world that they can't protect their communities or families or selves.
Appreciate your thoughtful response, Wayne. It’s a good ethical / political theological question to wrestle with!
Here’s where I personally land: Gun violence is currently the largest killer of children born in America (more than car accidents). I only realized this after moving from the US to Canada and realizing that even as an adult - I am now 8 times less likely to die from gun violence because I moved across the border. Given that gun violence is that rampant, I think there’s a theological argument to be made to intervene and prophetically speak truth to power for the protection of life.
Thanks for the reply. I find the possibility of a theological argument for legislative intervention interesting, but personally I find myself in a more anarchist position not unlike that of Tolstoy's. Definitely something I'm still exploring, though.
It’s good that you’re still wrestling with this, Wayne. My goal is never to get people to think like me. I just want us to think. And then seek justice. 👊🏽
In their book of collected essays titled ‘God and Guns: The Bible Against American Gun Culture’, C. L. Crouch and Christopher B. Hays conclude that guns are incompatible with the God of Christian Scripture. Full stop. Further, John Piper, noted Evangelical author, writes “The mindset that plans to save its life by killing is not inviting the protection of God, but the violence of man.”
I share these POV's. The single purpose of a sidearm is to inflict bodily hard on, or kill, another person.
The Second Amendment doesn’t require Christians in the US to own weapons. But Jesus does insists that we not repay evil with evil. He also tells us that 'whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it'. Go ahead and spiritualize that verse. As American Christians, it's what we do.
Don't wait for church leaders to speak with any authority on this issue. Instead, submit to the authority of Jesus, and obey his commandment that we love, not kill, our enemies.
Any effort to confiscate weapons from law abiding citizens is short sighted. The tragedy of gun violence is real but so are the evils of genocide by governments upon unarmed citizens. The horrors of the disarmament of China, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and countless other countries where millions were slaughtered keeps US Christian leaders from preaching against the 2nd amendment. Perhaps the criminally insane, Joseph Stalin, said it best when he said (paraphrasing) when some die to gun violence, that’s a tragedy but when millions die, it’s just a statistic. As insane as he was he knew the power government had over an unarmed populace.
Firstly - no one is talking about the government confiscating anything. I’m encouraging church leaders to disciple their people in laying down their rights & privileges for the flourishing of human life - just like Jesus did for us (Philippians 2). Christians follow Jesus Christ; not Joseph Stalin.
And Luke 22:35-37 is definitely *not* about guns or the 2nd Amendment. This is a really bad, America-centered interpretation of the Bible that doesn’t line up with global & historic orthodox Christianity. It’s basically heresy to interpret the text in this way.
I agree that we should lay down our own lives and rights—I'm not even convinced we truly have rights before God—but does that mean we have the right to ask our non-Christian neighbor to do the same thing? I can lay down my “right” to keep and bear arms, but I don't think it's fair to tell the rest of the world that they can't protect their communities or families or selves.
Appreciate your thoughtful response, Wayne. It’s a good ethical / political theological question to wrestle with!
Here’s where I personally land: Gun violence is currently the largest killer of children born in America (more than car accidents). I only realized this after moving from the US to Canada and realizing that even as an adult - I am now 8 times less likely to die from gun violence because I moved across the border. Given that gun violence is that rampant, I think there’s a theological argument to be made to intervene and prophetically speak truth to power for the protection of life.
Thanks for the reply. I find the possibility of a theological argument for legislative intervention interesting, but personally I find myself in a more anarchist position not unlike that of Tolstoy's. Definitely something I'm still exploring, though.
It’s good that you’re still wrestling with this, Wayne. My goal is never to get people to think like me. I just want us to think. And then seek justice. 👊🏽
In their book of collected essays titled ‘God and Guns: The Bible Against American Gun Culture’, C. L. Crouch and Christopher B. Hays conclude that guns are incompatible with the God of Christian Scripture. Full stop. Further, John Piper, noted Evangelical author, writes “The mindset that plans to save its life by killing is not inviting the protection of God, but the violence of man.”
I share these POV's. The single purpose of a sidearm is to inflict bodily hard on, or kill, another person.
The Second Amendment doesn’t require Christians in the US to own weapons. But Jesus does insists that we not repay evil with evil. He also tells us that 'whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it'. Go ahead and spiritualize that verse. As American Christians, it's what we do.
Don't wait for church leaders to speak with any authority on this issue. Instead, submit to the authority of Jesus, and obey his commandment that we love, not kill, our enemies.
Get rid of your guns now.
The simple things are too seldom easy.
Any effort to confiscate weapons from law abiding citizens is short sighted. The tragedy of gun violence is real but so are the evils of genocide by governments upon unarmed citizens. The horrors of the disarmament of China, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and countless other countries where millions were slaughtered keeps US Christian leaders from preaching against the 2nd amendment. Perhaps the criminally insane, Joseph Stalin, said it best when he said (paraphrasing) when some die to gun violence, that’s a tragedy but when millions die, it’s just a statistic. As insane as he was he knew the power government had over an unarmed populace.
Luke 22:35-37