Mike McDaniel
You’ll find several buildings of note in any American city. Among them, the courthouse and at least one major church. In the courthouse, lawyers and judges ply their trade. The rule of law is observed and, sometimes, realized.
In the church, men, women and children of all races come together to worship God in faith and fellowship. The inhabitants of both buildings acknowledge the existence of evil, and its unceasing work among us. But they have very different ways of dealing with the potential for evil arriving on their doorstep.
At the courthouse, those in charge take steps to protect those within. There are metal detectors at the entrances. Armed security guards the doors. Armed guards may patrol the halls. At least one armed guard stands in the courtroom, protecting the judge and those under his supervision.
Lawyers and judges working in courthouses have a clear understanding of evil, and its ever-present danger. Truth be told, many of them take extra precautions against violent attack by carrying concealed weapons themselves in direct contravention of the law. They know that the chances are low that they will be arrested for violating a law that common citizens must obey on threat of imprisonment.
Now consider the situation at churches.
There are no metal detectors. There are seldom, if ever, armed security, though that’s changing. In part, that’s because few churches can afford the cost, even if they are inclined to recognize the need.
In some states, such as South Carolina, churches are legally defined “gun-free” zones. No non-law enforcement civilian can carry a firearm into any place of worship without the express permission of the minister.
In 2015, a killer murdered nine people in a Charleston church. Last week, another man walked into two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand and slaughtered 50. Both had high hopes of sowing division and hate.
People have an inherent desire to believe there are concrete reasons for violence. Reasons that allow us to anticipate apparent madness and stop it before anyone is hurt. Those who seek to impose gun control on the general populace will pander to that desire. In the absence of an obvious motive, they will shift the blame for these atrocities to an inanimate object. The gun.
My children are grown/gone, but I remember those times & if I knew the teacher was carrying a gun, I would suddenly become a home-schooler. Guns in the classroom, the theater, the church, the mall/this is not what we want for our kids as they go into their future. @maddowblog https://t.co/3X3CsIkQfe
— Victoria Wolf (@wolfiemouse) March 21, 2019
To do this they have to deny the existence of evil.
It doesn’t matter whether one believes Satan to be the author of evil, or consider evil the result of a moral choice made by flawed human beings, doesn’t matter. For if evil exists, we must defend ourselves against it, both within ourselves and our fellow man. Those pushing the disarmament of the law-abiding cannot acknowledge the existence of evil because they’d have to see it for what it is: ever-present and inherently unpredictable.
Evil actively works against those who strive for good. Evil is planned, considered, nurtured and festered. It waits and watches and looks for weakness. It learns from experience. It sees laws designed to protect the innocent as the simple and simplistic barriers that they are. It exploits those weaknesses to corrupt or destroy whatever it wants or needs to corrupt and destroy.
Would magazine capacity limits have stopped or even slowed the Charleston or the New Zealand killers? Would mandatory background checks between father and son have prevented him from accessing a firearm to slaughter the devout? To believe so is to underestimate the enemy.
There is only one way to stop evil: confront it. It is always preferable to confront evil before it acts out. But it is not always possible. Evil is clever and patient seeks to preserve itself. To accomplish its mission. Just as life finds a way, so does death.
Sometimes evil can only be stopped at the sharp end, when it finally reveals itself. At that moment, innocent lives must defend themselves with all the intelligence and, yes, force they can muster. Otherwise they will be taken. And how better to defend oneself against an imminent threat of death or grievous bodily than with a firearm?
Why should innocents be denied the ability to protect their lives by force of arms when they’re in a church? Are their lives of greater value on the sidewalk in front of the building than inside it? But it’s God’s house! It’s holy ground! Instruments of violence have no place therein! Weapons will disturb the very atmosphere of the church! Not nearly as much as the blood of innocents.
Guns in church? Alabama bill resurfaces – https://t.co/0w8xfsOPOA
“A number of people bring a gun to church anyway,” Johnston said. “When they’re getting ready for church, they get their Bible and their gun.”
If you need a gun for church, just stay home https://t.co/B8Lt1qUggm
— Kenneth Johnston (@KW_Johnston) March 17, 2019
Just as the New Zealand shooter had planned, we’re hearing the usual calls from all the usual suspects for the imposition of draconian gun control measures – despite their manifest failures. People of faith must resist the urge to seek unrealistic solutions. They must realize that evil is more than parable, more than metaphor. It is among us and waiting for its chance to wound, maim and kill the innocent, anywhere and at any time.
Being ready for the appearance of evil, or allowing oneself to be rendered helpless against it, is the ultimate moral choice. One that must be made before it strikes. And strike again it will.
Mike McDaniel writes at Stately McDaniel Manor.
Again, to these people, the Globalist/ Liberal D-bags, SJWs, and their co-conspirator shills in the fake news media complex want to make it known that no citizen can be trusted with any weapon because in their twisted authoritarian reality…All citizens have the potential to become criminals…All citizens are guilty till proven innocent…To THEM, There is NO infringements, and the US Constitutional/ Bill of Rights is old and made by white European men…So who cares what THEY say…Why give them weight…We’ve already let them infiltrate into our court and justice system…Which is now a joke…We the People NEED to pull our heads out of our collective @$$es and pushback against these pompous, self-important dolts that we have allowed to takeover our country and curtail Liberty!
How?
“How?”
Vote, and take people you know who don’t vote to vote with you…
Oh okay, I will give it another shot, the last one doesn’t seem to have done much good.
Fish or cut bait. All of the bad bravo sierra we pushed back with WW 2 is now the progressive/democrat/communist campaign platform. McCarthy was right, our country and our way of life is under attack. and most people are too distracted to notice it. -30-
Good piece, Mike.
My synagogue prefers no firearms in the building. I don’t care. 8>)
Oh, and it’s “sowing”, not “sewing” division
My neighbor is a Rabbi, a family man, a combat veteran…he carries concealed all the time. In his own words…”I am one Jew who will not go defenseless into the Dark.” I asked him why most American Jews identify as progressive Democrats…he said that people have short memories and don’t believe that “it” could ever happen to them. He added that it’s sad that they have already forgotten the pogroms of WWII and accept the daily, constant threats against Israel as normal….some even act guilty regarding the existence of Israel…thereby playing into the hands of the anti-Semitic.
Such is our world where morality is deemed undesirable and licentious behavior is rewarded.
He understands and remembers, “Never Again”.
In the Bible, Jesus states that if some does not have a sword then he should sell his cloak and buy one. This is ignored by the people that think that if you are defenseless then nothing will happen to you. We that are not ignorant have seen how this theory works out. Despite what the politicians rant about, we have the God given right to protect ourselves where ever and when ever we are. This can be enforced by jury nullification . refuse to convict self defense in so called gun free zones and refuse to convict people that carry in these ” prohibited ” places or self defense free zones. Jury nullification is legal and the simple way to stop these laws from being enforced.
People feel safe, or want to feel safe. Bad things happen on TV , in far away places for some reason they don’t care about. They are unaware of any threat or danger. Tell them they are under threat and they think call 911. They are sorely mistaken if they think help will arrive in time.
The disarmists don’t care about the issues that they cause, they just want the guns gone. How they disarm bad people is a open question they can’t answer. I guess we all need to learn judo instead.
NZ gun rights are now gone forever and nothing will change that. There is no do over at this point. I hope they don’t have more problems as a result but history is not kind to that point.
“If you need a gun for church, just stay home.”
Very thoughtful! Try this one; Fuck you.
Lolz, I believe, is the technical term for the interwebz.
No one, absolutely no one, should ever need a gun in a church.
Or in a movie theater.
Or in a school.
Or in a nightclub.
Or in a concert.
Or on a city street.
Or in a convenience store.
Or in any other place public or private.
Now if only we could get the bad people to stop being bad, to quit the evil business, well then life’d be just peachy now wouldn’t it?
I got it, let’s make it illegal to be bad, or evil. Just pass a law saying “NO! BAD IS NOT ALLOWED!”.
Now how hard was that? I mean, really, why do I have to com up with all the answers?
“Don’t be evil” didn’t work so well for Google, did it?
“Though defensive violence will always be ‘a sad necessity’ in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men.”
St. Augustine
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
Edmund Burke
Evil is a fact of this fallen world. To be prepared to face it is the duty of rightly ordered men. Traditional Christianity teaches we have a duty to face it.
Yer going to the wrong church…my church of choice is the most pro-2A place(next to a gunrange) I’ve ever been to. Evil exits. Criminals abound. And this ain’t NewZealand…Hammond,IN 1st Baptist Church.
I used to carry a small black water pistil to church and discreetly shoot people in the head. Wasn’t as discreet as I thought, Dad drug me to the vestibule and tanned my ass. That was embarrassing I must say…….The gubmint ought not have no say so on what goes in in a church
Amazing how the Left tells the government to stay out of the bedroom. But the Left wants to tell you, using the government, what to do in every other room and private building. And the Left DOES BELIEVE in using the government to tell you what to do in your bedroom. If you are receiving WELFARE.
And they love “gun free zone” public housing projects.
I try and not frequent gun free zones, why would I go into a zone where the criminal has the advantage, and me the honest citizen could be arrested for defending myself and/or someone else….if everyone just stopped going into these places things would change…but its hard to convince all the sheep…
On a day to day basis, evil does exist and as in New Zealand, should be prepared for. Sadly few do.
However, the even greater realization should be the evil of government taking full advantage of such horrific situations to steal power from the people they govern in a “democracy.” Your privately owned firearm is a means of self preservation and protection from a dictatorial government. As such, it is a form of distributed political power! Those in power ALWAYS crave more power and want to control that power!
In the U.S. we have always seen self preservation as a human right. As such EVERYONE on earth should have that right. It is a pity that so few have given up their rights and are dependent on the government for “protection.” As a result, democide has been the second leading cause of human death in the 20th century. Check that out and let THAT sink in for awhile!
Tough topic IMO. Kudos for the author for tackling it and for doing it rather well.
Personally I don’t believe in “evil” per se. I think that’s just the word we use because it’s easy and English doesn’t really have a word that encapsulates certain levels of “bad behavior”.
As I’ve said before: The sooner we realize that we’re just animals, aggressive, territorial, opportunistic creatures that use the main tool we have at our disposal, the creativity housed between our ears, the faster we’ll start to deal with these kind of things better.
Most behavior can be explained if you understand enough about the world-view of the person committing the acts and start to understand how the human brain is generally wired. There are rare cases where a serious mis-wiring of the brain, which we generally refer to as mental illness, is the root cause, and those cases are difficult to deal with from an ethical point of view.
However, the vast majority of violent crime makes sense if you start to understand the way individual people see the world, how their brain processes information and put the overarching situation into context.Now, that doesn’t excuse the behavior or mean that society can tolerate it, but it starts to explain where that behavior arises from and offers clues on how to change circumstances to prevent that behavior from becoming a rational choice in the first place. This means that while we cannot eliminate the problem we can greatly reduce it’s prevalence.
It simply doesn’t suit the Left or the Right to do the rational thing because doing the rational thing doesn’t benefit them in terms of personal political power, prestige or money. They ALL want you dependent on them for one reason or another, how else can they be assured of your vote?
I would also point out the following:
“But it’s God’s house! It’s holy ground! Instruments of violence have no place therein! Weapons will disturb the very atmosphere of the church!”
This is a reasonably important statement given the topic at hand. The author does well to highlight it.
From a purely religious philosophy perspective or from a purely spiritual perspective the statement makes no sense. The people uttering it are either ignorant religious folk of little-to-no faith or statists in sheep’s clothing. Maybe both.
Philosophically speaking we all carry around within us a soul contained in every bit of our body. (I’m not going to get into that bit of discussion though because that’s about 2000 pages of argument in each direction coming from people who spent more decades thinking on the topic than I have on this Earth.)
That soul is, for lack of a better term, the “divine spark” with which God has imbued us. Regardless of how you think the soul is made up, stacked human upon animal upon plant or specially created just for humans or whatever, if you believe in these religious ideas then you believe that we all carry a bit of God around within us, it’s what makes us, well us. Therefore God goes everywhere we go and anywhere we tread is Holy Ground because even if God’s not omnipresent he’s still there because we are. His presence with you means it’s God’s ground. Even if you walk off into total wilderness 100 miles away from the next person you’ve carried God with you. Where ever you go, there you are, and God is too.
Further, to get even more basic, we can go to what Jesus said “Render unto Caesar…”. If we stop to think even for a moment about the rest of the Bible we know that this means everywhere in the entire universe (and beyond potentially) is Holy Ground. Caesar is but ashes and dust temporarily animated by God Himself. He has created nothing on his own. In fact, Caesar himself belongs to God just like everything else in creation. God on the other hand created the whole universe. “Render unto Caesar…” was actually a clever way to say “Give the government nothing and give God everything because everything belongs to God since he created it all and we’re just passing through this life”. (No wonder the Romans eventually nailed this dude to a cross.) Either way, everywhere you go, it’s God’s front lawn and if it’s God’s front lawn it’s the very definition of Holy Ground.
From a spiritual perspective the argument makes even less sense. God’s House… OK, for a moment let’s assume that there is something special about a Church in terms of “atmosphere”. Maybe it’s because all those “divine sparks” came together for the very purpose of acknowledging their existence, creation and the One who created them. Whatever gets you through the day. OK, if we’re to think that this is the case and the Church is special in some regard to spirituality then it’s the last place the “atmosphere” can be “disturbed” in a meaningful way because it is exactly where God’s presence on this Earth is the strongest. To argue otherwise would be to argue that the gunman is stronger than God Himself. In itself that’s flat out blasphemy that denies the very nature of God and calls into question the very reason you’ve come to the Church in the first place. Only one of very little, and very weak, faith would make such an argument.
So I would say this:
If you’re going to go to Church then carry a gun with you. There’s no reason not to. Government diktats are just that and since you’re going to Church why would you “Render unto Caesar…” while you’re in Church where the whole point of going was to render unto God? It is, quite literally, the last place you should be worrying about what the government says is acceptable in terms of defending yourself. You have nothing to fear from God. From those other two legged predators wandering around, well, that’s a different story and why you’ve got a gun in the first place, right?
To God you owe your very existence. To the government, at best, you owe some taxes.
“Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.” – Ecclesiastes 9:7
strych9,
I will make a brief argument that evil does exist. Consider the following which defies any type of “nature” explanation:
(1) Pedophiles who rape toddlers.
(2) Serial killers.
(3) People who commit suicide.
(4) Sadistic scumbags who torture people.
Sure, some of those examples of the worst in society no-doubt are mentally ill. Most are not. There is no “survival” incentive when a pedophile rapes toddlers. There is no survival incentive when serial killers murder people for “pleasure”. There is no survival incentive when people commit suicide. And there is no survival incentive when sadistic scumbags torture people.
Animals kill other animals to defend territory (to ensure survival), to eat (to ensure survival), to eliminate another’s offspring (to ensure THEIR survival), and literally to ensure their survival when another animal attacks them for the reasons I just listed. Nowhere in nature do you see animals that try to mate with grossly immature animals in their species. Nowhere in nature do you see animals that go around killing dozens of their own kind for “pleasure”. Nowhere in nature do you see animals killing themselves. And nowhere in nature to do you see animals torture other animals for “pleasure”.
And even if you want to try and write-off all of those examples as mental illness, how come this “mental illness” only affects humans and not other animals?
If you put a little thought into it, I am sure that you can find additional examples of destructive behavior which defy any natural (survival) explanation. Absent any obvious survival explanation and in light of the Bible, evil is the obvious explanation.
+1
People try and rationalize evil. Man since the fall has always done terrible shit to each other. In the past it was wise to have a sword. Today it’s wise to have a firearm. Evil is very much alive and well in the world.
Generally speaking I don’t like the term “evil” not because it fails to encompass the whole conversation, though that is a problem, but because it’s generally thought of as a semi-religious reference which is therefore attributing someone’s behavior to an outside force that we cannot perceive. I am no more a fan of calling someone “evil” than I am of allowing them to argue “The Devil made me do it”. If the Devil made you do it then we have no hope of understanding the behavior and since we can’t find a way to “beat” the Devil we have no way to deal with the behavior since it’s not the person’s behavior but rather that of the Devil acting through that person. This defeats the entire notion of personal responsibility.
Further, I would argue that in the vast majority of cases evolution and other factors explain what we call “evil”.
Mental illness can probably be brought on by nature or by nurture but usually is probably a combination. There’s also some nuance here as to what is mental illness. Do you have hallucinations? YOU’RE CRAZY! Oh, wait, based on the definition of what a hallucination is quite literally everyone on the planet has them. Are we all crazy?
Then there’s genetics which works shockingly well in some regards. However, improper genetic copying does happen. Type 1 Diabetes, MS, Lupus etc are autoimmune disorders caused by improper genetic copying. Schizophrenia, a commonly known mental illness is a miswiring of the brain. None of these things is “evil”. They just are mistakes made within biological systems which are not perfect. Caffeine is a good example. Mostly the plants make caffeine and do so for a reason but unlike caffeine created in a lab or an industrial process the plant makes other things as well. These things are similar to caffeine but not quite right. These isomers sometimes have unexpected effects. This is thought to be why some people get jacked up off of coffee (natural but not perfect) as opposed to soda with the same caffeine content on paper. The coffee has isomers that that person is likely sensitive to and so they get a greater effect.
The reason I bring this up is because improper copying, or in other cases evolutionary dead-ends due to mutation, will show up from time to time and may cause a wiring of the brain which produces behavior we don’t like and which society cannot tolerate. Not all mutation is going to be beneficial to the individual or the species. In some cases it may cause what we see as hyperaggression. This problem is compounded by the imperfect nature of biological systems.
It’s important to note that as a species we, to some extent, enjoy violence. There is a very good evolutionary reason for this. If you fight the lion and win you feel good about it because you get a release of a cocktail of “feel good” hormones and neurotransmitters. This is good. You should feel good. If winning the fight against the lion made you feel bad our species would have significantly less chance of having survived this long. Your brain is giving you a reward for doing the right thing and thereby encouraging that behavior in you and those around you as well as your offspring and that of the group. BUT, tweak that reward system just a bit in the wrong way and you get someone who’s a complete pacifist who will not defend themselves under any circumstances or, going the other direction, someone who gets off on torture.
This kind of “stacking tolerance” in genetics plus environment can probably explain everything from OTT violence to pedophilia to serial killers and a host of other issues. Really they’re all basically compulsive disorders at their root. They’re just more serious than mild OCD.
Suicide is a really wide ranging topic that I don’t think should be lumped in here because it is known to stem from a variety of factors ranging from purely logical to disturbed though patterns which could be due to a chronic issue that’s genetic or an acute issue due to environmental factors or even societal factors where it’s seen as a form of atonement for failure or wrongdoing. To simply discuss it in black and white terms is to really avoid the core issues in a way that it’s not worth discussing the topic at all and discussing it is a really, really, really long conversation.
Overall, IMHO, “evil” is basically a way of saying “That person’s actions are so extreme that I cannot understand them” but the root of that thought really is that we all tend to think that other people think the way we do. If we cannot find any justification for what the person has done in our own mind we call them “crazy” or “evil” because we lack an explanation for their behavior. We cannot empathize with their point of view at all and therefore can’t understand it so we write it off.
You can call it what you want. I don’t want to waste my life trying to understand their evil actions. Some men just need killing. “Science” has a hell of a time explaining the motivations of men. The human heart is fickle. Every day we can take a step closer to God or we can step away.
He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Gospel of Luke 22:36 Jesus commanding his followers to be armed.
That is half the reason why people oppose firearms in church. The other half of the reason: because people believe that God will divinely protect their church.
Of course both lines of “rationale” are demonstrably false. That does not matter, though, to about half of the population which operates on emotion, fantasy, and “virtue” (as they define it).
Being rude, nasty and stereotypical is foolish. Carry a gun and be nice.
An armed society is a polite society.
There are certain politicians who want to push a certain type of governing system that they know a large percentage of citizens will reject. This form of government whether socialist, communist, Sharia Law, etc. will most definitely infringe on the rights and Liberty of everyone except those in charge. The sheeple will just bow down, but the Liberty-minded free thinkers will fight back. They will resist.
To quell that resistance several things must occur: Misinform (lie) to the citizens about their true intentions. Demonize free thinking. Demonize free speech. Indoctrinate from a young age with group-think. Punish children who resist bullies so they are brainwashed into thinking that fighting back is bad. Boys resist bullies more easily than girls so they need to be emasculated. Deny that there are biologically inherent differences in males and females. Call any speech that doesn’t fit the narrative as either racist or hate speech. Stop teaching American history. Demonize tools of Liberty such as any weapons (guns, knives, free speech, etc.) Outlaw any tool or method that may aid citizens in resisting the new totalitarian government. Drug the citizens and remove their initiative. (Or let them drug themselves by legalization then use the collected taxes to further infringe rights.) Distract them with weather disasters that increase taxes. Take over as many industries as possible to control the citizen’s money. (Banks, Health Insurance, etc.) Then call anyone revealing these plans a nut job conspiracy theorist. No, wait. Nah. That’ll never happen.
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