With so many gun owners and 2A advocates on the conservative end of the political spectrum, it’s no surprise that many (but not all) of them are also Christians. But even among Christians there are disagreements about whether believers should carry firearms at all, daily, or, maybe most controversially, in church.
2A advocate and YouTuber Colion Noir finally decided to take up the subject of Christians and firearms, but in this case, he takes the argument a bit farther than I’ve heard from other people. Noir actually asks if not just Christians, but the leaders of the flock, pastors, should carry firearms in the pulpit.
No doubt most everyone will have strong opinions about the subject (maybe not as heated as the ammunition debate, but I could be wrong about that), but there’s no question that Christians, who are called to love their neighbors as themselves, need to settle the issue of the ability to potentially do violence from a distance (because what else are firearms for?) with the call to do good to others and to live peaceful lives.
Noir, though not known as a deep theologian (and he says that he’s neither a theologian nor a “good” Christian in the video), makes some points about having the ability to do violence to protect people and how we are called to live as Christians. And those points are worth considering for non-believers, too, because the principles are sound.
You can watch his video below.
Now, before you argue that Noir goes too far by saying that a pastor should either be strapped in the pulpit or have people in the congregation who are carrying, step back and consider if you’re actually arguing that people should be defenseless.
Jesus told us to be wise with pure intentions, to be able to recognize and respond to the evil in the world in effective ways without being corrupted to adopt the world’s bad motivations.
That means that you should be able to protect people, such as yourself, your family, and others, without being the person who is causing the need for self-protection, without being the one starting the fight.
And that’s solid advice for any gun owner, whether Christian or not.
