I don’t get it that Christians claim they need guns to “protect” themselves in America.
We aren’t in Somalia or Burma or North Korea where the state has direct animus against us or the citizens are terrorized on the street by anarchy and a government that can’t govern.
We live in arguably one of the most powerful, safest nations in the world—and we as Christians appear to be terrified to the point where we leave all our reason and faith behind as we worship guns and violence ourselves.
Here’s my response to this video:
Theologically, orthodox Christianity taught that Jesus emptied himself of all his God-powers to become incarnate, and therefore used only his own gifts as a man (his intelligence, his moral suasion, his faith in God the Father) as a means to both teach and to do. So I can’t see him using a gun to accomplish God’s will, whether it is to fight the bad guys or to protect the good guys. During his ministry recorded in the New Testament he is shown as using his words, and he reserved his anger for those who were most religious and most likely to use their assumed godliness as a means to oppress other–not to fight back against Romans or thieves or the worst of the worst. Guns–useful maybe in the hands of the police. Useful maybe if you want to hunt. Guns don’t belong in the hands of the populace as a means to “protect” or assert authority. We have too many guns, and we have way too few Christians who are following the example of Christ in their actions and words.