Friday, January 31, 2020

Jesuit Priest Short on Moral Logic (!)

Nah, it's not a surprise.

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?..."
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............

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:

Anonymous said...

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.