[size=13pt]
I remembered in my secondary school day, My School Principal a Catholic Rev. Fr. He used to threaten students that if he see us Jumping fence or sneaking out of school at night, he will shoot the person, he even claimed he has a camera that can capture your face when taken from your back side. With all these both teachers and students are scared of him.
But he suprise us all the day a new hostel (designed by oldboys association) dedicated. I watched him open his white Mercedes Benz, brought out a double barrel gun professionally cork & explod 6 bullet.
Also I've had cases were armed robbers were repelled at parish house by a priest, pastors using guns during Elections.

My ?
Should Men of God handle weapons.

Cc: Lalasticlala, OAM4J[/size]

THE KINGDOM OF GOD SUFFERETH VIOLENCE




AND THE ...... TAKE IT BY FORCE...

The weapons of out warfare are not canal

Operation kill them before they kill you...LOL!!!!

Depends on d area one is operating...if na gangster area...why not

MOORCHMOORE:
I remembered in my secondary school day, My School Principal a Catholic Rev. Fr.
He used to threaten students that if he see us Jumping fence or sneaking out of school at night, he will shoot the person, he even claimed he has a camera that can capture your face when taken from your back side. With all these both teachers and students are scared of him.

But he suprise us all the day a new hostel (designed by oldboys association) dedicated. I watched him open his white Mercedes Benz, brought out a double barrel gun professionally cork & explod 6 bullet.

Also I've had cases were armed robbers were repelled at parish house by a priest, pastors using guns during Elections.

My?
Should Men of God handle weapons.

Cc: Lalasticlala, OAM4J

[size=34pt]He that answereth by fire(arms)[/size]



Opinions are divided in many US churches as some church goers believe that their faith in God only can protect them. Whilst others believe that faith in God is much stronger if they have their guns tightly concealed inside their Bibles during church services.

When associate pastor Brian Ulch is preaching at Trinity Lighthouse Church in Denison, Texas, he’s armed with a Glock (a type of pistol).
It sits on his right side just under his suit jacket or dress shirt. And when he’s not preaching, he’s training other churchgoers around the state to protect themselves.

In Jackson, Michigan – as Bishop Ira Combs preached the gospel on the pulpit, he was flanked by a man on each side of the pulpit, each armed with handguns beneath their suit coats. Other members of the church’s security team were scattered among the crowd. Congregants did not know who was armed and who was not – an undercover approach that is part of the security plan.

He reassured his flock, the shootings that killed nine people in a Charleston church could not happen here. “If they had security, the assailant would not have been able to reload,” Combs declared. “All of us here are not going to turn the other cheek while you shoot us.”

He was referring to the mass shooting on the evening of 17 June 2015, at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Nine people were killed including the senior pastor, state senator Clementa Pinckney; a tenth person was shot and survived.

The 17 June church shootings in Charleston, have ignited fierce debates within and outside the country over hate crimes, the Confederate flag, and gun control.

They also have laid bare an uncomfortable truth for religious leaders: churches and other houses of worship. Such places can be among the most vulnerable, especially because they are the most open and welcoming places in the community.

“Nobody should have to worship in fear or be looking over their shoulder,” said Charles Ellis, pastor of the Greater Grace Temple, a Pentecostal megachurch in Detroit with 6,000 members.

Ellis’ church has a trained, armed, 25-man security force, nicknamed “The Ministers of Defense.” Many have backgrounds in law enforcement. Some are stationed conspicuously on the stage while others blend in with the crowd.

Not everyone supports the presence of guns in sanctuaries that are supposed to be devoted to peace and reflection.

At Denison, Texas, Ulch says “We feel like we owe it to our congregation to engage any type of threat. If people aren’t willing to combat a threat, then they’re making themselves vulnerable.”

Church goers at Tulsa are concern about such threats, as a result one business owner in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has offered free gun training to local pastors.

Many pastors argue that arming congregants go against religious teachings of non-violence and that guns have no place in a place of worship. Many states, including South Carolina, specifically prohibit guns in church. “The presence of a cross in our sanctuary reminds us that God’s response to violence is never greater violence,” Pastor Baron Mullis of Atlanta’s Morningside Presbyterian Church a told a local TV, WGCL-TV. “This is a place of peace. … This is not a place for guns.”

But increasingly, a more states have recently passed laws allowing concealed weapons in churches, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Illinois and North Dakota.

Bryan Crosswhite, president of 2AO, an organisation that advocates for Second Amendment rights, says that roughly 25 states allow concealed carry weapons in churches. But after the shooting in Charleston, his group is pushing for more states to open up their churches to firearms.

“Churches are often gun-free zones,” Crosswhite says. “That makes them a major target for those who go to worship. In most churches, the congregation has their back to the doors. People could walk right in and shoot so many people if you don’t have a plan in place.”

Several organisations specifically work with churches to arm congregants that volunteer to provide security. Chuck Chadwick, founder and president of the National Organisation for Church Security and Safety, says that his organisation has worked

with thousands of churches since the group’s founding in 2005, including churchgoers who attend security seminars and pastors who go through gun training.

“We train men and women to run toward the sound of gunfire,” Chadwick says.

NOCSSM has worked with churches around the country, but in Texas, where the organisation is located, Chadwick says his group has trained hundreds of officers who are now deployed throughout the state. Since the Charleston shooting, Chadwick says he’s been getting flooded with calls from churches looking to boost their own security.

The shooting in Charleston has already reignited the push to allow guns in church, but it could potentially have a lasting effect on people of faith who no longer feel like their churches are sanctuaries from violence.

Ulch doesn’t see it that way. “Personally, I would not attend a church if it didn’t have armed security,” he says. “There’s no other place where everyone is welcomed and people can come and go freely without question. I believe every ministry owes it to their people.”
http://www.testifynews.com/2015/07/07/he-that-answereth-by-firearms/

^^^
I picked up the hardcopy of the above "Testify" free tabloid last week in the bakery where I do my weekly "Agege" bread purchase.
Found the "He that answereth by fire(arms)" article written by one Kingsley Ahamefulah very interesting then
and now have found the opportunity to reproduce it here as it is relevant to this topic

When talking of weapons the disciples definitely handled weapons, were armed with them and Jesus didnt complain about it
Jesus only complained when Peter actually used the sword to cut off one of the temple guard's ear when they came to arrest Jesus.

Now some would be tempted to quote verses like Luke 22:36, to pass on that Jesus advised his disciples to buy physical weapons or swords:

³⁵And he said to them,
"When I sent you without a money bag and without wallet and shoes, did you lack anything?
And they were saying to him, "Nothing!"
³⁶He said to them,
"From this hour, whoever has a money bag should take it and thus also a wallet,
and whoever lacks a sword, let him sell his tunic and buy a sword for himself
- Luke 22:35-36

The truth and fact of the matter is that, Jesus wasnt talking of physical swords in Luke 22:36 but rather He was talking of the word of God

Conventional wisdom in Hebrews 4:12, has it that, the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword

For the word of God is living and all-efficient,
and much sharper than a double edged sword,
and it pierces to the separation of soul and spirit and of joints, marrow and of bones,
and judges the reasoning and conscience of the heart.
- Hebrews 4:12

Proverbs 23:23 and Ephesians 6:17 even elaborates on what message Jesus really was passing on to the disciples in Luke 22:36 when he talked of buying swords

Buy truth (and do not sell it), [that is,] buy wisdom, discipline, and understanding
- Proverbs 23:23

Also take salvation as your helmet and the word of God as the sword that the Spirit supplies.
- Ephesians 6:17