It's Bring Your Gun to Church Day

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



It's Bring Your Gun to Church Day

By Bill Berkowitz, Smirking Chimp. Posted March 2, 2009.

Arkansas takes the lead in bringing America's obsession with firepower to the pews.



On February 11, Fox News reported that the Arkansas House of Representatives had "approved a bill allowing concealed handguns in churches, despite hearing arguments that lawmakers should put their faith in God, not guns." The bill, which easily passed in the House and is headed to the Senate, "removes churches and other houses of worship from the list of places where concealed handguns are banned," leaving only bars as "private entities where concealed weapons are banned."

Five days later, Jim Adkisson pled guilty to last year's shooting rampage inside the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church that killed two parishioners and wounded half-a-dozen others. In the coming years, other state legislatures will no doubt debate the wisdom of allowing churchgoers to carry weapons inside of churches. In the meantime, Jeff Hawkins, a former chief security officer for a world-wide Christian ministry, has founded the Christian Security Network (CSN), as a response to burgeoning violence against Christian churches, schools, ministries and missionaries. "Christian organizations - churches, schools, ministries and missionaries - still struggle with concept of security and how it applies, if at all, to their institution and the Christian community as a whole."

On their website, the Christian Security Network says that it's "a national organization dedicated to the advancement of security, safety, and emergency planning for Christian churches, schools, ministries, and missionaries."

We address every day risks such as lawsuits and liability, medical emergencies, crime, disasters like fire and destructive weather, violent situations, "active shooters", and lost or abducted children; further we believe that by being proactive, the Christian community as a whole can minimize these risks. "We are not 'alarmists.' "We do not believe in a 'knee-jerk' reaction to things that happen in our world by taking unrealistic and sometimes dangerous and liable measures. "However, we are 'realists.'

The Christian community is at risk from all these things and as a whole is behind the curve compared to the secular world in terms of security and emergency preparedness. These situations will occur in the Christian church, in the Christian school, at the Christian ministry and against Christian missionaries.

Jim Hamilton, a senior writer for Neighbor Newspapers, recently pointed out that there have been 20 people killed in church shootings in the past two years, and the Christian Security Network claims that it "has tracked over 100 criminal incidents in over 25 states against churches." .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/rights/129509/it%27s_bring_your_gun_to_church_day/

[lazer47]

1. We need our guns in church,, Too many Rightwing nut jobs on the loose

[LiberalEsto]

2. And what do the Unitarians think about this?

Nobody seems to have asked them, and they were the targets and victims in the Tennessee church shootings.

Speaking as a UU, I don't think members of our congregation in Maryland would arm ourselves for worship services. I think they would be dead set against it. If there was some kind of serious threat of this type against the congregation, they might discuss something like hiring armed security guards outside the worship hall during services, or requesting police protection.

[rosesaylavee]

7. I agree.

UUs will not be arming themselves. Or not the ones I know. We have stepped up security measures at our UU church. Was kind of hoping that those would eventually go away. I guess not anytime soon. This is crazy.

[Donnachaidh]

3. So a shoot-out situation is their response to gun violence?

God really must get annoyed at the level of stupidity found in his believers. :eyes:

[pleah]

4. Jesus Get Your Gun is playing in a church near you.

OMFD!

[ixion]

5. WWJP

What Would Jesus Pack?

:eyes: :rofl:

These people are goofy, albeit lethal.

[jody]

6. "Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry!"

From the poem "Oliver's Advice", about Oliver Cromwell, by Valentine Blacker.

[jeepnstein]

8. I tire of all this "Security Theatre".

First let me start off by stating clearly that I am a gun owner, a cop, a CCW holder, and by a self-confessed "gun nut".

The day my Church is so under the threat of violence that I need to start carrying concealed at services is the day we take the thing underground like the first century church.

I can't imagine having armed guards at the door. I wouldn't stand for it.

Remember Malchus' ear.

[rurallib]

9. A few gun barrels pointed at the preacher could shorten the sermon

It gets harder and harder to tell reality from the Onion.

[T Wolf]

10. Hey - if more of the Christist whack-jobs want to off themselves in gawd's house, I'm all for it.

I'd also encourage the use of weapons in church - let the spirit move them to shoot while in the throes of bliss.