[WashingtonPost] In the United States, evangelicals are among the biggest supporters of gun rights. They are the major religious group least likely to support stricter laws. Evangelical Larry Pratt, who directs Gun Owners of America, even argues that all Christians should be armed.
For most of my adult life, I agreed. I believed that we had a God-given right to defend ourselves. I also believed that the Second Amendment guarantees a right to bear arms, and that anyone should be able to obtain a gun. So far, so good...
Then, I saw the after-effects of gun violence firsthand. In Pennsylvania, I visited the families of five murdered Amish schoolgirls, as well as the family of the shooter. And I watched as a mass shooting unfolded at the Washington Navy Yard, across from where I lived at the time. These experiences, followed by careful theological and moral reflection, left me convinced that my family of faith is wrong on guns. Those incidents did not involve defending one's own with a gun. Those were criminal acts committed by criminals against unarmed or unprepared individuals, not Christians defending themselves and their families with guns. This massively twists Biblical admonitions on dealing with evil through deadly force.
This isn’t easy for me to say. Forty-one years ago, I accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior under the preaching of an evangelical pastor. I attended an evangelical college and seminary, was ordained an evangelical minister, and now chair the Evangelical Church Alliance, one of America’s oldest associations of evangelical clergy. My Christian identity is solidly evangelical. Credentials.
I read a news report from a woman who said she was pro 2nd Amendment listing all of her qualifications: instructor, etc, and most of them state sanctioned. The woman was, in my view a statist in love with state imposed fees and requirements to obtain those qualifications. Credentials impress me very little.
But I disagree with my community’s wholesale embrace of the idea that anyone should be able to buy a gun. For one thing, our commitment to the sanctity of human life demands that we err on the side of reducing threats to human life. And our belief in the basic sinfulness of humankind should make us skeptical of the NRA’s slogan, “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.” The Bible indicates that we are all bad guys sometimes. Not all of us seek to shoot people for no reason whatsoever.
Additionally, anyone using a gun for defense must be ready to kill. Such a posture is antithetical to the term “evangelical,” which refers to the “evangel,” or gospel. The gospel begins with God’s love for every human, and calls on Christians to be more Christ-like. At no time did Jesus use deadly force. Although he once allowed his disciples to defend themselves with “a sword,” that permission came with a limitation on the number of weapons they could possess. Numerous Bible passages, such as Exodus 22:2-3, strictly limit the use of deadly force. The referenced passage makes an absurd restriction of the use of deadly force. The passage refers to killing a thief, when in fact the issue is breaking into a residence, which in some states is cause for use of deadly force.
Unfortunately, too many evangelicals ignore this. Instead, they jump on a secular bandwagon of fear mongering, contempt and bravado to gin up support for gun rights. Evangelical Sen. Ted Cruz, who I’ve prayed with several times, has said, “You don’t get rid of the bad guys by getting rid of our guns. You get rid of the bad guys by using our guns.” Sarah Palin, who I know and once supported, told an annual meeting of NRA members, “Nowadays, ammo is expensive. Don’t waste a bullet on a warning shot.” And Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University (one of the largest evangelical institutions in the world), called on his students to arm themselves in the wake of terrorist shootings. He joked about carrying a gun in his back pocket and made light of killing Muslims. (He later said he meant only Muslim terrorists, but his comments received lots of whoops and applause.) As well they should have. In the DC enclave, you are extremely likely to ignore the existential threat Islam poses to Liberty in the US, especially if our own politicians, policy makers and journalists are, as I believe they have been, receiving monies from foreign sources to destroy religious and civil liberties, and aid in the imposition of a hostile foreign religion.
To me, turning from Christian to secular sources on a paramount moral question indicates a failure in faith. The words of Cruz, Palin and Falwell seem to contradict those of Jesus Christ, who commands believers to “bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” Good Biblical sentiment, lousy public policy.
The response to my public comments on this spiritual crisis has, at times, been fiercely negative. Some have accused me of “siding with the enemy” or even aiding those that are annihilating Christians in the Middle East. A former supporter suggested that I’d been “bought” by George Soros, who has never offered me money. I wouldn’t take it if he had. In fact, airing my concern has only cost my organization financial support. Good.
Despite this criticism, I won’t be silent on this issue. The Christian gospel should quell our fears and remind us of our Christ-like obligation to love all people, even those who intend us harm. This generous view of the world calls us to demonstrate God’s love toward others, regardless of who they are, where they come from or what religion they practice. Assuming a permanently defensive posture against others, especially when it includes a willingness to kill, is inimical to a life of faith. If my pastor to told me to love and accept a religion or an individual that unabashedly advocates not just my own personal demise and the destruction of the social institutions that preserve and advance religious and civil liberties, but those of people I am sworn to protect, I would have to find another pastor.
The impulse to protect oneself is natural, especially after terrorist attacks. But evangelicals must be careful that the noble language of self-defense is not used to cloak a more insidious lust for revenge. St. Paul wrote to persecuted Christians, “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay.’” We must turn away from our fears, base human instincts and prejudices, and turn toward the example of Jesus in word and deed. Not revenge. Retribution.
The Devil can quote Scripture for his own ends, 'tis said.
#3
No. Pro-life is about protecting the innocent. Pro-gun is about protecting the innocent.
We begin with the KJV on the sited passage Exodus 22:2-3...
22:2 If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.
So, thieves in the night are unprotected by the commandment to not kill.
Next...
22:3 If the sun be risen upon him (the thief), there shall be blood shed for him (the thief); for he (the thief) should make full restitution; if he (the thief) have nothing, then he (the thief) shall be sold for his theft.
So, if a thief is killed while breaking up during the day, the person having killed the thief is liable for preventing the thief from making restitution for his crimes or being sold into slavery for his crime, but is not liable for having killed the thief. Sounds like a civil matter of money and restitution, not a religious one.
For discussions about just wars and civil responsibility of the Christian, pursue the writings of Saint Augustine, based on Romans 13-4, discussing the enforcement of the (civil) law through the authority of the government (Caesar), which in the USofA is in part enforced by the militia including all males 17-45, 10 U.S. Code § 311.
4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.
So, doing wrong invites the representatives of the ruler to open up a righteous can of wrathful whoop-ass on you and the Secular penalties to those representatives are as described by Secular law, which is sometimes sad for Police in Baltimore, but is much less bad for homeowners in Detroit. But no matter what the Secular law is, in this area of punishing wrong-doers, scripture is clear that "rulers do not bear the sword for no reason."
#4
Evangelical means "good news." The Gospel of Jesus the Christ is called, in Greek, the evangelium. The "good news" that is the Gospel is freedom from anything (e.g., rules, values) or anyone (e.g., prelates) that/who would come between God and any person. So, a person who wants to defend themself and/or their family or friends or even a stranger with a firearm or any other weapon is practicing the Gospel.
And, Jesus the Christ did too use violence when He deemed appropriate, as against the money-changers and as His curse upon the whole of Jerusalem for rejecting His offer of freedom, a curse made palpable by Titus in 72 AD.
I out-rank this moron, who is really a political activist, in pedigree and position and declare him an insane, lying, anti-Christian self-promoter. The tip-off is in the first sentence of his third paragraph: his words "gun violence." There is no such thing. Never has been, never will be.
Someone paid him good money to write this charlatan's nonsense. Who today call themselves evangelicals descend from the Left Wing of the Reformation, from Anabaptists. Their forebears always have fought the rule of law and argued for the rule of whim, which they call Divine Inspiration.
#7
TW, I am schooled in Latin, but uncomfortable in the translation subtleties here. My KJV says:
Exodus 20:13 Thou shalt not kill.
According to Bible Gateway, the New KJV says:
Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder.
So, I am not going to disagree with you. But I assert that either your or my translation yields the same spiritual guidance, which is that the death of a thief in the night is not proscribed.
#10
rammer, what matters is the original Hebrew, which was subsequently translated into Latin, and thence to English. Here is a succinct but thorough exegesis.
But I assert that either your or my translation yields the same spiritual guidance, which is that the death of a thief in the night is not proscribed.
Agreed. And so, clearly, would the rabbi at the link, were that question asked him directly.
I've kept myself alive with firearms for a long time and I do not intend to stop.
All of the states can do and say what they want and the emptysuit can issue any executive order he wants but the truth is I will always have a gun and I will always carry a gun.
Permit, I don't need no stinking permit. Self defense is a constitutional right and I believe permits are unconstitutional.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/02/2016 11:36 Comments ||
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#2
Well we know what side of the argument the author of this article is on.
Good thing he is writing from his concrete bunker with triple standard concertina so he can be liberal.
They used to call them limousine liberals, but now they are still liberal but the limousines are armor-plated and the driver has an AK.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/02/2016 11:43 Comments ||
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#3
What's so special there? When I got naturalized, it said very clearly in the document that employment with foreign armed forces was cause for forfeiting American Citizenship...But we are now used to see the last four Presidents of the USA not enforcing the law...
Posted by: Harry Sleanter6655 ||
01/02/2016 21:34 Comments ||
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[DAWN] A JOINT Investigation Team in Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... has been surveying the bank accounts of 200 seminaries in Punjab, and it has discovered that none of them channelled any substantial funds through their accounts. So either these institutions, some of which are quite large, are operating on minuscule budgets, or they are using channels to receive funds and make payments that conceal their transactions. The JIT now intends to question the management of each of these institutions to find out where they are receiving their funds from and how they process their transactions. The JIT would be well advised to first study the myriad options available to anyone in the informal economy to make payments as well as send and receive funds from abroad. Otherwise, it is possible the management of the seminaries could talk circles around them during questioning. If a madrassah has no visible means of support, shouldn't that be grounds for shutting it down and maybe jugging the proprietors?
The example of the massive growth of hundi and hawala in the past few years provides a good starting point. By some reported estimates, gleaned from exchange companies, the illegal hundi and hawala trade has crossed $15bn annually. The case of gold imports offers an example: imports of gold as shown in official figures are tiny, but the ready availability of the precious metal in markets around the country, as well as the relative stability of its price, indicates thon the lam quantities are being imported. However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... their value is not reflected in official data because the payments are processed through informal channels. There are numerous other examples, such as the misdeclaration of the value of goods in foreign trade, or the straightforward transfer of funds across national boundaries through cash carriers or hundi and hawala operators. A very large payments system exists in the country for managing bulk cash transactions, or cross-border payments and remittances, which conceals the transaction from the authorities in order to evade taxes and duties, or other regulatory requirements and limitations. The same system can also conceal the transactions of murderous Moslem groups and their controllers and handlers.
The findings of the JIT suggest thon the lam-scale concealment of cash flows by seminaries suspected of involvement in murderous Moslem activities is widespread. They may be conducting part of their operations in cash, or using bank accounts belonging to other people in their network, which would not show up in the investigation being carried out because it is focusing entirely on bank accounts registered in the name of the seminary under investigation. In order to curb terror financing, it will be necessary to also tackle the large informal payments economy, which means more attention being paid to measures to detect and shut down hundi and hawala as well. So long as these informal channels exist, murderous Moslem organizations will always find ways to carry on with their transactions without fear of detection. The effort to curb the informal payments economy is, therefore, a necessary part of the larger fight against terrorism and militancy.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/02/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] THE State Bank of Pakistain underwent major changes in the early 2000s. It became independent, went through a major reformation, gained in stature and prestige, managed to get some really good researchers and bankers on its payroll and started performing its functions well. But over time, the bank has gone back, almost, to the kind of institution it was previously. Most good people have left, institutional independence, and with it integrity has been surrendered, Governors have been forced to resign, and new governors have been appointed on the basis of loyalty it seems, instead of competence.
The tale of regression to the mean, where in Pakistain, for most institutions, the mean, or the average, represents a fairly incompetent, corrupt and nepotism-ridden structure with plenty of built-in slack, seems to be an almost inevitable outcome. Sometimes institutions are reformed, and initially they perform well. But then, over time, they regress to this mean. At other times, new institutions are built and whatever their initial trajectory, over time they too regress. There are plenty of institutions and organizations that tell this sad tale. There are few, if any, that defy it and prove to be the exception.
A new university gets created around a small core of very competent, highly motivated and committed faculty and administrative staff. Over the next few years, it sets a high standard in its field. This results in various kinds of pressures on the institution. The pressure to expand comes from parents who want quality education for their children, from trustees and board members who want the university to play a larger role in national life, and from prospective faculty and staff who want to join a good institution. As the pressure mounts, the university responds by expanding.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/02/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] IN the year that has just ended, law-enforcement agencies -- including the police and Rangers -- continued to make widespread use of so-called encounters to eliminate suspects. For example, in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , where clearly 'encounters' are a favoured method of law enforcers, nearly 700 suspects were killed in this manner in 2015, while the number of security personnel who fell in the line of duty is 95, as per official figures. If it is any consolation, the number of 'encounters' was less than in 2014; around 925 suspects were killed in the city in such shootouts that year. The Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... police is not too far behind, as regular reports of 'encounter killings' also came in from that province in 2015. In fact, one of the most high-profile examples of such slayings was that of dreaded Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... holy warrior Malik Ishaq and his sons in July last year. Though it is difficult to establish a correlation, Karachi police also claim that there was a considerable drop in assassination'>assassinations in the city last year as compared to 2014; in 2015, 986 people fell victim to assassinations while the number was 1,925 the year before.
As Pakistain wages an uphill battle against crime and militancy, it is clear that law enforcers continue to prefer short cuts such as 'encounters'. This is a deeply troubling approach. Perhaps the main problem is that senior police officials condone the practice in not so many words. For example, Rao Anwar, a seasoned Karachi police officer who is known as an 'encounter specialist', shrugged off questions from this paper recently about the use of extrajudicial methods in the course of police work. Police officials appear to believe that 'encounters' are a requirement of getting the job done, especially when it comes to dealing with suspects of notorious repute. However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... in order to maintain the sanctity of fundamental rights and due process, the police hierarchy, as well as the high command of other security forces, must take a clear stand against extrajudicial methods, including 'encounters', of eliminating suspects. In other words, security personnel cannot be allowed to play judge, jury and executioner, whether they are dealing with violent criminals, or forces of Evil of various persuasions. Instead, criminal justice reform -- something that seems to be completely missing from the official agenda -- is the only way to deal with dangerous criminals and turbans without violating the bounds of fundamental rights and misusing authority.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/02/2016 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
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