Can one of the Bible scholars in the audience help me out with something? I was just watching the WXYZ coverage of yesterday’s tense open carry showdown at Pioneer High, and I have a question. In the piece, Joshua Wade, the 20-something grandson of a former superintendent of Ann Arbor Public Schools who set this all in motion by insisting upon bringing a firearm and ammunition with him to a choir concert because he was terrified at the thought of being in “a target-rich environment” without lethal force, noted that it was his obligation as a Christian to be able to protect his loved ones.
“As a Christian,” Wade told Channel 7, “I have a moral obligation to be capable of defending those for whom I’m responsible.”
And I’d like to know if that’s true. Granted, it’s been a while since I’ve been to church, but I don’t recall Jesus ever instructing his disciples to be ready, at a moment’s notice, to dispense deadly force. I just remember a lot about forgiveness, and turning the other cheek… But maybe they’ve found some new gospels since then, where Jesus was more of a badasses gunslinger type.
Here’s the video.
For what it’s worth, I’m doubtful that I’ll get a response. I asked a similar question a few weeks ago, when a self-described Christian doctor here in Michigan refused to see the infant child of a lesbian couple, citing her deep religious conviction. I asked the more devout readers of this site how, based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, anyone who claims to be a Christian could deny this child help. And what I got back in response was a bunch of nonsense about how homosexuals should just do us all a favor and repress their desires. No one, it would seem, could demonstrate evidence that Jesus would have walked away from this child, even if her parents may have engaged in behavior he found sinful. And I suspect the same thing will be true here. No one, I suspect, will respond with a story of Jesus telling his disciples to arm themselves, because, I’m fairly certain, no such teaching exists. There is no moral obligation to defend against perceived threats. Maybe there’s a line somewhere that could be twisted to justify such behavior, but it’s certainly not one of Jesus’s central teachings, like our moral obligation as Christians to give up our worldly possessions in order to care for the poor and needy. That much I do remember. Sadly, though, I see little mention of that on Mr. Wade’s various websites… where, among other things, you’ll find him asking friends and family not to join him in caring for the homeless, but to give him $829.99 so that he can buy a handgun and concealed carry classes for his wife-to-be… Just like Jesus would have wanted.
