Saturday, March 3, 2018

The Limits of Christian Morality

In my last post I mentioned that the arms (or gun) control debate has become the (main) topic of conversation online these days. I said "I like to say I'm learning through the conversations, and I am."

One thing I'm learning, that I woke up thinking about before 4 AM today, leads to this post about "The Limits of Christian Morality." Personally I don't believe there should be limits on which areas or arenas of life where Christ reigns supreme. But I'm learning that some people do, or, at least, they haven't looked carefully at certain issues through Christ's eyes. Some people seem to leave Christ centered teaching behind as they venture, for example, into areas such as their personal finances. Some don't consider Jesus' teachings as applying to their personal sexual relationships. Others seem to do it in regard to the right to bear arms. This last point is what I've been learning about in recent days.

The American second amendment right to bear arms isn't really about self-defense. It's actually, as two of my friends have written, more about having arms at the ready in case it would be necessary to rise up against a despotic or tyrannical government as the early Americans did in the Revolutionary War, or, I'd add, as the southern states did in what we now call the Civil War.

But I wonder whether Christian morality can stretch far enough to justify violence in defense of freedom, or whether such justification needs to come from other sources, from teachings that don't harmonize with the ways and words of Jesus. I'm hoping that someone from the Christian community can show me how this is done. If not, I believe such rationale would point out that this is one more area where Christians leave Christianity behind.

I'm hoping to say more about this later.

God's peace to you all.

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