The constitutional right to bear arms is technically about the right of an individual to defend and protect themselves and their family against intruders and those who wish to do them harm.

I need to do a lot more thinking and study in this area, but in general, I fully support such a right, and believe that the constitutional right to bear arms is valuable,  important, and necessary in a world such as ours.

I do sometimes wonder, however, what Jesus would have thought about the right to bear arms, and the subject of self-defense.

Would Jesus Own a Gun?

After all, He would not even allow Peter to raise a sword in His defense (Matt 26:52), nor did He utter a word in self-defense at His trial when false accusations were leveled against Him (Matt 27:12-14).

But self-defense is a complex issue, and it is not primarily the issue that concerns me here.

My main concern is with what seems to be the duty and obligation of our churches to provide moral support for the wars of our nation against other countries and against some within our own borders.

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The freedom of assembly is another right guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States which Christians have used to defend their right to gather in church buildings and other public areas for the purpose of worship and fellowship.

It is unlikely that the founding fathers had religious assemblies in mind when they wrote about the right to peaceably assemble, as religious assemblies would more properly fall under the right to practice religion. The right to assemble more likely had in view the right of people to assemble for political reasons, such as for peaceable protests and demonstrations.

Nevertheless, the church sometimes has claimed the right to assemble for purposes that are contrary to the example of Jesus and the values of the gospel.

Churches have sometimes used the right to assemble to obstruct the rights of other people. Some churches picket businesses which engage in practices the church condemns. Some churches try to hinder other groups of people from gathering to celebrate their lifestyle or religion. A few churches have even used their right to assemble for the purpose of interrupting funerals and blocking parades.

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When it comes to speaking the truth in love, what matters is not how you think you are speaking. What matters is how others perceive it.

I sometimes hear Christians say the meanest things to other people, and when confronted about it, they say “I am just saying what needs to be said to rescue their soul from hell. If you saw someone walking toward a cliff, wouldn’t you shout and yell at them if it would keep them from walking off the cliff?”

I understand the analogy, but people walking off a cliff and people headed toward eternal separation with God are two very different things, and when God sought to rescue humanity from eternal separation, He does not choose to yell at us, but instead chooses to love and serve.

No example of this is greater than Jesus Christ.

A quote from The Myth of a Christian Nation by Greg Boyd is particularly appropriate here:

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In many places in the world, people have to be careful about what they say, and to whom they say it, especially when talking about their government. In general, people who live in most Western nations do not have this fear. We have the right to publically state our opinion about what others are doing, and even disagree with the direction our government is taking.

This is a wonderful and amazing freedom, as people in power do not usually like to see dissent from those who have less power.

Certainly, there are some areas where the freedom of speech is restricted, such as shouting “fire” in a movie theater, talking about bombs on an airplane, and all forms of hate speech against people of other races or religions. But beyond this, the freedom of speech is a valuable right that we enjoy, and which, at least in the United States, is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

But just as with all the other rights in the Constitution, this one also can be abused, especially when divorced from godly values and perspectives. When people lose their respect for others, and stop believing that all people have basic human dignity and value, the freedom of speech can become a curse.

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We can thank God that we live in a country where we have the freedom of religion, but we must be careful how we go about trying to maintain it.

Depending on the government for our religion freedom is counterproductive, and leads people to believe that freedom of religion is based on the other freedom which the governments grants, such as the freedom to collect tax-free tithes, the freedom to assemble, and the freedom of free speech.

But such things are not necessary for following Jesus, and depending on such things may actually lead us away from the values of Jesus and the Kingdom of God.

Stanley Hauerwas put it this way:

…The question is not whether the church has the freedom to preach the gospel in America, but whether the church in America preaches the gospel as truth. The question is not whether we have freedom of religion and a corresponding limited state in America, but whether we have a church that has a people capable of saying no to the state. No state, particularly a democratic state, is kept limited by constitutions, but rather states are limited by people with the imagination and courage to challenge the inveterate temptation of the state to ask us to compromise our loyalty to God.

In other words, by looking to the state to affirm our right to practice religion, we have sacrificed our ability to be the voice of conscience to the state. Depending on the government for our freedom of religion has made us a government chaplain in the pay of the state, afraid of losing our jobs if we offend our employer.

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