MennoNet.com

Does anyone else have a problem with this idea?

CNN wrote:The Bible says we're all sinners. But does that mean a church should have its own police force?

A megachurch in Birmingham, Alabama, thinks so, and state lawmakers agree.
The Alabama Senate voted Tuesday to allow Briarwood Presbyterian Church to hire fully deputized officers who would carry weapons and have the authority to make arrests.

A church-run police squad would be highly unusual. The ACLU even says it's unconstitutional.

But officials at the church, which also houses a school, say armed officers are needed to keep their flock safe in a volatile world.

Guns keep people safe?

Hats Off wrote:Guns keep people safe?

Hopefully they do better in training than Chicago does.

Dan Z wrote:Does anyone else have a problem with this idea?

CNN wrote:The Bible says we're all sinners. But does that mean a church should have its own police force?

A megachurch in Birmingham, Alabama, thinks so, and state lawmakers agree.
The Alabama Senate voted Tuesday to allow Briarwood Presbyterian Church to hire fully deputized officers who would carry weapons and have the authority to make arrests.

A church-run police squad would be highly unusual. The ACLU even says it's unconstitutional.

But officials at the church, which also houses a school, say armed officers are needed to keep their flock safe in a volatile world.

Yes, I do. To me there should be a peace in our hearts that God will not allow us and our loved ones to be prematurely removed from this world. We are not to live in fear of death. The Lord decides the number of our days. If I believe that absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, then death for me and my children is only a temporal, human suffering thing (we miss their presence with us). For those who die in Christ, which we all will eventually anyway, death is the greatest thing to enter into the presence of God and other loved ones who passed on before. What a time of reuniting ? A time of going home. No longer a stranger in a foreign land. And we get new bodies too. Sure am looking forward to that.

I don't think we are to walk into a place where there is a high chance of being killed either but to live in fear in our normal areas of living I don't believe is a Kingdom way to live. Actually, there are some places Christians have risked their lives and that is when spreading the Gospel. And even there, God provides boldness and is still in control.

Dan Z wrote:Does anyone else have a problem with this idea?

CNN wrote:The Bible says we're all sinners. But does that mean a church should have its own police force?

A megachurch in Birmingham, Alabama, thinks so, and state lawmakers agree.
The Alabama Senate voted Tuesday to allow Briarwood Presbyterian Church to hire fully deputized officers who would carry weapons and have the authority to make arrests.

A church-run police squad would be highly unusual. The ACLU even says it's unconstitutional.

But officials at the church, which also houses a school, say armed officers are needed to keep their flock safe in a volatile world.

Have heard of this for awhile, last year the governor did not sign this. The Constantinian hybrid carried to it's logical conclusion. Can you imagine church discipline from these folks?

J.M.

One more strike against the Presbyterians and the fruit of their "reformed theology."

Perhaps some of you are rushing to judgement without understanding the context here. I'm not saying it is the right thing to do, but there is a whole lot more going on at Briarwood than just a church and most institutions like this would have similar practices. I am not sure why the media is making such a big deal about it.

http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2017 ... rch_2.html

undershepherd wrote:Perhaps some of you are rushing to judgement without understanding the context here. I'm not saying it is the right thing to do, but there is a whole lot more going on at Briarwood than just a church and most institutions like this would have similar practices. I am not sure why the media is making such a big deal about it.

http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2017 ... rch_2.html

Difference between security guards and police is one can arrest people. largely the other cannot.

1. Who will these Police answer to....the church?
2. What will these church cops do that private security and local law enforcement not do?
3. For us mennonites, is not this the ultimate fusion of church and state, the church taking over a state function?

Yes, at least for us, it is a big deal if this gets common.

J.M.

undershepherd wrote:Perhaps some of you are rushing to judgement without understanding the context here. I'm not saying it is the right thing to do, but there is a whole lot more going on at Briarwood than just a church and most institutions like this would have similar practices. I am not sure why the media is making such a big deal about it.

http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2017 ... rch_2.html

It's certainly in line with their Reformed theology.

The Baptist church school here has signs at the door reading

We have guns and we are trained to use them