Don't Bring Your Gun to Church

[CalHunter]

Interesting issue in Wisconsin.

FINDLAW.COM

Please Don't Bring Your Gun to Church'

By Stephanie Rabiner on November 7, 2011 5:44 AM |


Guns in church.


Few would guess it, but guns in church are a huge issue for religious gun advocates. In fact, it's so important that the Wisconsin Catholic Church has decided to weigh in.
And it wants parishioners to leave their guns at home. This is in spite of the state's new concealed weapons law.




That law is actually what prompted local bishops to speak out. On Monday, Wisconsin residents gained the right to carry concealed weapons. Some 80,000 applications were downloaded that morning alone.


Individual parishes will be allowed to choose whether or not to ban guns in church, according to Reuters. But the Catholic bishops wanted to remind attendees that churches are sacred spaces. In an official statement, they also stated that "violence, destruction, and murder are antithetical to the message and person of Jesus Christ."


State law does not ban guns in churches or other places of worship. But churches are private property and thus can require visitors to leave their weapons at home.


This decision did not have to be left to Wisconsin's churches, mosques, temples and synagogues. Concealed weapons laws in Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi and North Dakota outright ban guns from religious sanctuaries.

http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_lif...MP=NWL-pro_top

[sm]

Possession of a firearm is not violence, nor destruction, nor murder. At one point, Jesus directed his disciples to sell cloaks to buy swords. Was that antithetical to his message and person?

[Aught Six]

Yeah, this is a bit of a gray area in the Church. Although a bishop can ban guns in his diocese, and a pastor could ban them in his parish, the Pope hasn't definitely spoken one way or the other about the issue.

Most people seem to think the Catholic Church refers to the bishops, but in reality, it encompasses all faithful, whether clergy, religious, or layman. I would certainly encourage all Wisconsin Catholics to write to their respective bishops about the matter. Their voices have weight to it.

The fact remains that evil people have attacked and murdered innocents in churches and other houses of worship, and that we are obligated to defend and protect the lives of our Brothers and Sisters.

I wonder if the Wisconsin bishops are familiar with Saint Gabriel Possenti, aka Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. http://gunsaint.com/history.asp

[Sfury]

No official word has come down from my parish yet. Although, our main worship hall is part of the local University which put signs up before the law was signed by the Governor. I don't attend mass there because we have a second site that has a time more conducive to me with a better location.

The primary location is where we have all the major services though. It's something I will have to consider to attend, or not attend, when I get my CC permit.

[bigbulls]

Ban them all.... cause you know there's never anything going on at a church that would require a person to return fire.

[RobertSubnet]

Possession of a firearm is not violence, nor destruction, nor murder.

You are exactly right SM.