I can't say that I'm a fan of having a concealed weapon in a church. There's a sort of cognitive dissonance about it which makes it uncomfortable. With that said............
A Jesuit priest took to Twitter just 12 hours after armed parishioners in Texas stopped a gunman who opened fire during a church service and appeared to condemn those who would allow guns in church for security purposes....
When a follower pushed back and asked the Jesuit priest if it wasn’t a good thing that that armed parishioners were able to stop the gunman, Zipple would not agree....
"...we’ll not permit guns in our church. Some Christians gotta be bold & say no more killing & we trust God enough to take care of the rest,” Zipple tweeted. “And some will say that’s imprudent and foolish and I’ll say, but where are the fools for Christ?..."
One thing is perfectly clear here: this Jebbie does not have a wife and children. If he did, he'd think differently. The moral norm at play with self-defense is one thing and it's not the same as the moral norm at play with defense of others. We can choose to be shot (martyred?); we can licitly sacrifice our own life. But we may NOT licitly allow someone to kill or maim others, assuming we have the capability to prevent it.
As a corollary, no authority on Earth can take away the God-given right to self-defense, nor take away the God-given responsibility for the defense of others.
(If one is not capable of preventing mayhem or murder, there may be a moral case made for self-sacrifice in hope that doing so will reduce the number of casualties. But that's a 'greater good' question, too: will self-sacrifice bring about greater good than raising the family you have? If you're old and past child-rearing...well.........)
If you KNOW that you can take down or disable/disarm a shooter--with or without a gun of your own--you should do so. If you're not certain--but have calculated that the greater good requires you to counter-attack because the odds are in your favor--you may be required to do so.
If you have assessed the situation and know that you CANNOT take down/disable/disarm the shooter, you are still required to help as many others as possible to escape, starting with your own family.
Oh yeah--call 911.
Moral logic is not as simple as the Jebbie would like, is it?
1 comment:
Yeah, I trust the 80 year old usher to protect me. I carry to Mass. My kids are too important. I mean, someone has to carry the torch. I am the one responsible for them. Granted, I have legal authority to carry, but for others, let's say some things should go unsaid.
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