I love the NRA, you know, the organization that is all about guns.
Of course, I used to say I hated it, but because of Mississippi, not anymore, but I’m getting ahead of myself. First let me tell you a story.
A small group of us gather in our home each week to worship. Yesterday, though, I had a man standing guard outside the house, pistol holstered, but ready to be drawn at a moment’s notice.
No one knew about him being there but me. It was my decision alone, but given the world we live in today I’m sure it was the right thing to do.
A bad guy with a gun might come up our driveway any Sunday morning and the only thing standing between him and the rest of us would be the good guy with a gun.
I know, I know, the Bible says love casts out fear, but a bad guy with a gun doesn’t know that.
I also know that Jesus said loving my neighbor as I love myself is a commandment second only to loving God with all my mind, heart, and soul.
But Jesus didn’t live in the America of the 21st century.
He never heard Wayne LaPierre, President of the NRA, tell it is like it is: “When evil knocks on our doors, Americans have a power no other people on the planet share: The full-throated right to defend our families and ourselves with our Second Amendment. Let fate decide if mercy is offered to the demons at our door.”
If Jesus had heard these words I am sure he would understand why I want a good guy with gun standing ready to protect our small Christian group.
As Brother Wayne says so often, “Unless we protect ourselves we will continue to be slaughtered.”
Yes, it’s true that at this point we Americans have more guns than anybody else, but still have more violent crimes than anybody else as well, but that’s because we still haven’t reached the full threshold of gun ownership to turn things around.
That’s where Mississippi comes in. You see, that glorious state that has stood tall and proud as a bastion of freedom and justice for all lo these many years has now become an example to the nation.
Its new “Guns in Churches” law is going to change everything.
Any bad guy who dares to enter a church there will be met with the full fury of God fearing good guys who will not hesitate a minute to take him out.
Finally some politicians and evangelical preachers have come together to do the Christian thing and put guns in churches.
After all, every day we read about a church being shot up by a bad guy with a gun and no good guy with a gun there to take him down.
Okay, maybe not daily, or weekly, or even monthly, but it has happened, I know at least once. That’s enough to make any Christian fear for her life.
All that can change once we have gun toting guards all across the country conveying the message loud and clear, “Don’t mess with this church!”
That should discourage any strangers from showing up.
Of course, it will take some extra work to train small children to hide under the pews if any shooting does start.
It would be probably wise to take a portion of the Sunday School hour to practice some “floor sliding” drills so they can get under the pews as fast as possible.
But I am sure it will be reassuring to our kids in knowing that once they are under the pews, when a bad guy with a gun shows up and the shooting starts they will have good guys with guns on their side.
To be honest, I never would have guessed that Mississippi evangelicals would be so far ahead of the rest of us.
But I’m sure it won’t take long for evangelicals in other states to get their political leaders on board, and Brother Wayne will be right there to help.
Who knew the NRA held the key to Christians finally learning how to be real “soldiers” for God.
linnposts.com 
Do I detect a note of sarcasm in your blog?
Mississippi: leading the nation in poverty, Christian fundamentalism, obesity, and anti-LGBT legislation, will now show us the way to make churches safe for guns.
No, Liza, you detect an avalanche of sarcasm!
In fact, Jan, I would label this as a sarcastic masterpiece, one that points the (trigger) finger directly at the voices and agents of inevitable sorrow for innocent victims. Well-done, my friend!
The absurdity of the illogical NRA/LaPierre position is highlighted beautifully in your sarcastic post, Jan. Unfortunately, I know people who will think you’re the illogical one. What a sad state of affairs we as a nation find ourselves in.
This makes me think of a story of so-called “Bishop” Mike Reid, who ran a charismatic church in Brentwood, a suburb of London. It seems that he believed he had a right to install a 40mm twin Bofors anti-aircraft gun (ex of the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal) in the yard outside the church – the barrels of which were aimed at the local council offices.
The Police, needless to say, didn’t agree, and one day they descended on him and took the gun away. They weren’t in any hurry to give the gun back to Mr Reid, even when it was proved that the weapon had been de-activated.
Some years on, Michael Reid resigned, after he was found to have had an extra-marital relationship…
Really! I have problem wrapping my mind around this concept.
Jan, not sure what “concept” you are talking about. Hope you got my sarcasm. Good to hear from you.
I can only speak about laws in my state, but most states are similar.
You can also tell a lot about a man (or woman) by how much they “put their money where their mouth is”:
Jan, all you need to do is post a “No Weapons” sign on your house. Laws in most states prohibit weapons in a place of worship, i.e. Charleston, but since you are using a personal residence, a bad guy (woman, San Bernardino) might not know it is a “place of worship” so that law might not apply to the criminal in your state. After posting this sign you can get rid of your guy at the door.
As a matter of fact, if everyone would just post this sign (you know the little sign of a gun within the ghost buster sign) on their residence this would eliminate any armed individual from attempting to approach your residence entirely. Be sure to add a light to it or bad people might not see it at night. (The laws are on their side, don’t ya know!)
It would also alert any guest, salesman, friend, unarmed thug, etc., approaching your home that you are serious about stopping armed criminals from knocking on your door. You’re now telling them that they are WELCOME in your home as long as they are not carrying any weapons.
That would also let you sleep better knowing you and your family members are safe at night, so your quality of sleep will increase dramatically.
I might suggest that anyone that has the great foresight to do this (put their money where their mouth is) might want to purchase a good baseball bat, just in case an armed criminal does happen to enter your home. Once they see your sign, they will return to their mode of transportation and drop the weapon but they might retrieve their baseball bat and enter regardless of your sign. Bats might require a separate sign in your state. They do in mine! I have called my congressman to write a bill that would include the image of a bat in the same sign. We could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. Oops, I didn’t know how to PC that saying!
This move by the private homeowner also gives you more time to call 911 and time for the men (women) in blue to arrive. They do a marvelous job but it will probably take them a couple of minutes to arrive.
Hint: If you have coffee all ready made, it will make those minutes go a lot faster. I hear bad guys (gals) really like donuts so always keep a dozen of those on hand as well. This might slow them down when moving towards your bedroom. It’s a win win situation all the way around.
Peace
JM
Jim,
I don’t know you but Jan probably does. Ergo, he will determine if your remarks are as sarcastic as his were. In any case, I’ll share a perspective from a past acquaintance.
The crusty old guy who ran a pool-room I frequented would say every time a car (driver) ran a red-light and hit another, “well, a red light never has stopped a car.” Applied here, I’d suggest that “a sign never stopped a bad guy with ill intent”!
PRAISE GOD AND PASS THE AMMO!!!
That’s the spirit, Luke.
A confession: a part of my monkey brain looks forward to the day when my church uses untrained armed ushers (in my church, that would be kids mostly). My reason is entirely selfish. I would have a perfect reason to stop going to church & thus be able to sleep in on Sunday morning, safe in God’s arms.
With what’s going on these days, Charlie, I’m afraid nothing is unimaginable anymore.
Charlie,
Sorry to hear that you have a problem with your church. It’s up to us older guys and gals to support the “church” to help the younger generation know Christ.
Our church of about 1000, average age is probably about 30. Our “Gatekeeper” group is about 50 years old (average). Most of us are armed. All of us go through annual training and testing. We are a covert group, but most everyone knows we’re around.
6 are active PD of some sort, 1 is retired PD, 5 are security guards of some sort and 3 are past Marines. We are all CPR qualified. We practice active shooter, fire and tornado drills annually.
We’ve had some divorce, child custody, temporarily lost child, gas leak, drug and stalking issues. If you don’t have issues in your church of that size, your just kidding yourself and being an ostrich.
We get a discount on our insurance since we are pro active in our concerns for the “Safety” of our flock.
We may be wrong, but we’ll just have to let God sort that out.
Many years I stayed home and slept in because I had issues with “Christian” people and then I heard this quote, “If you have a problem with your church, you don’t have a problem with your church, YOU have a problem with God”. All of us have fallen short.
There are many different flavors of churches, may I suggest you find a different church before you sleep in, you’ll be missing out on a lot.
Peace,
JM, if how you described your church is accurate, I would suggest you find another one. The one you are in has been so Americanized that it doesn’t know the gospel from American culture. Everything you say could be said of a business or corporation because that is what your church has become. The idea that the way to deal with the problems you named is to have armed guards is so anti-gospel as to be appalling.
I have no desire to turn the blog I wrote into a disposition on the nature of the church, but I cannot let pass the kind of corporate mentality your thinking reflects that has turned the church into an institution Jesus would not recognize and I am quite sure would never approve of. The next chance you get you might want to read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and Luke instead of a training manual on gun safety.
Sounds like a social club not a “church,” JM.
Bill,
A “sign” is good enough for our school children, yep that’s all we need! It should be good enough for going to church. They are also “Drug Free”. Again, we killed two birds with one “sign”. Let’s all close our eyes and say we eliminated two issues….Amen.
JM
JM,
I think you did not understand my anecdote about red lights and signs not stopping things. If you had, we would be on the same page about signs as deterrents.
I realize it’s a subtle figurative point, and you strike me as a “literalist of the imagination.” In short, you have little of it. You prefer hard facts, like bullets.
Above you wrote, “The laws are on their side, don’t ya know!”, speaking of the bad guys. That is not only a paranoid notion common on the far-right, but my late uncle, a college professor, often used that “don’t ya know” phrase as a put-down to those he thought were uninformed. He was a pompous ass!
You can joust more w/Jan if you wish, but I suspect he’s had enough of your faux-Christian nonsense, I know I have….
Bill
Sorry Linn, I thought you wanted “Honest talk about Religion, Politics and Social Issues” I didn’t read that the way you do! My bad, I guess I don’t know the definition of the word Honest. It must mean “My way or the Highway”.
Our pastor was threaten because he tried to council a couple over their separation/divorce. The guy blamed him for their divorce and came for him drunk and armed with a firearm. Our pastor thought about quitting since it scared him so badly and to be honest “rocked” his beliefs to his core. Thank God he decided his teaching expertise is still in use helping lost people to come to Christ the American way.
Yes, we are American and yes we must be prepared for safety issues when you have a large group of people in a single location, What would you do if someone had a heart attack in your church. A tornado hit your building. Being prepared for the ultimate atrocity does not mean you have to reread the Bible.
It would be nice to be living back in JC’s time, where the were horrendous plagues, young average age, lot’s of acts of barbarism, slavery..etc. But I
I’m trying to live in todays environment where many advancement in those areas and more have been made. We are not or never will be as perfect as you are.
I said that there are many flavors of Christianity, I didn’t understand that if you didn’t believe in your SPECIFIC interpretation, it was wrong. THAT is the main problem with Christianity. You seem to honor Buddhism or Atheism at a higher level then Baptist, Quakers or Mormons.
Thanks for you time and I’ll pray for all of us…..In my American way and in my current church with properly trained safety people (Not “Kids” as Charlie stated). Enough said, good luck to you, and your minions.
Peace
Apparently you think it is being open minded when you have the freedom to express your views, on my blog, no less, but I am expressing a “my way or the highway” attitude when I take issue with what you say. If you put your opinion out there for others to read, be prepared to have it criticized.
That I have allowed you to say what you want as often as you want ought to be a statement in itself that I am quite willing to have my views critiqued. That you take offense at my challenge of what you think a church needs to do in today’s world to be a church tells me you are not.
The right to have an opinion does not entitle you to the right to say whatever you want without a critical response. The only requirement is that I do not make any personal attack you or anyone else. I have lived up to the standard. So if you do not wish for your views to be challenged, do not write on my blog. It’s as simple as that.
Lynn, sorry I’m a little late to the conversation, but transitioning back to MNResettling and some routine medical apps have delayed my seeing and responding to you post.
You make your point well with a nice satirical tone. It really is better than “sarcasm,” less heavy handed and bullseye on target. I am at loss to understand how increasing numbers of armed citizens can bring security to any of us.
Cheerz!
Gene, some people didn’t get the satire or sarcasm. Can’t imagine what they thought when they read it.
Jan,
Satire is a difficult thing for some readers. It requires being able to hold at least two perspectives in mind at the same time, producing a third reality. In this case, on needs to remember that your central, personal vision of life, as indicated by many previous posts, of peaceful, nonviolent conduct of life’s events (making it unthinkable that you would post an armed guard at your home worship service) and the scenario you imaginitively suggest of that armed fo worship fortress.
A reader who cannot hold the two ideas simultaneously will struggle to grasp the meaning resulting from the tension between the two.
It is a kind of dialectic . . . A opposes B, resulting in C. Hegelian dialectic, if my memory hasn’t dimmed too much over the years.
Cheerz!
Gene
Gene,
I would add that F. Scott Fitzgerald famously stated that “the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind and still retain the ability to function.” The poets (writers) usually get it right!
Gene and Bill, you both bring enlightenment to my simple intention to shine an indirect light on the darkness of today’s upside down thinking among so many. Many thanks.
Great post Jan. While not always the case, the NRA has become a despicable extreme organization, exploiting fears and driven by money. Keep up the strong voice.
I will do my best, as always, Wilbur.
jabrowning807@gmail.com
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