Posted on 06/20/2002 9:01:01 AM PDT by aomagrat
South Carolina United Methodists held their annual meeting May 19-22. They approved, among other things, a resolution to oppose allowing concealed weapons on church property.
This well-intended resolution ironically states, “Houses of worship and learning are places of sanctuary in accordance with biblical teaching, custom and tradition and should be kept holy and safe.”
How may they expect their houses of worship to be safe sanctuaries when seditious murderers, to whom their resolutions mean nothing, are allowed to slaughter worshippers unimpeded?
Any place that Jesus taught his followers was a house of worship and learning. In Luke 22, Jesus instructs those who have no sword to sell their garment and buy one. Some disciples already possessed swords.
As for the concept of custom and tradition, worshippers in Israel are now arming themselves against attackers in their houses of worship. And South Carolina also once enacted a law that required all adult males to bring rifles to church.
In 1999, a man entered Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, and began murdering worshippers. When the siege was finished, seven were killed, seven wounded and countless lives forever scarred. Why would United Methodists subject their members to the same senseless killings?
In excess of 40,000 concealed weapon permits have been issued. According to state Sen. Jake Knotts, we only have two violations to date, making the Law-Abiding Citizens Self-Defense Act of 1996 the most successful law ever enacted by the General Assembly.
Resolutions mean nothing to criminals. Resolutions only render law-abiding citizens helpless. A house of worship should be a sanctuary and a place of safety, not a shooting gallery for criminals.
Worth repeating.
Swords, OK, but this is about guns. GUNS!! Jesus and his disciples never carried guns into houses of worship. This is Biblically based. ;-)
Swordsman goes berserk in churchBy Nicole Martin, Linus Gregoriadis and Sam Wallace
Monday 29 November 1999
A naked man armed with a 3ft samurai sword and a knife walked into a Surrey church yesterday and slashed indiscriminately at worshippers.
Six people, aged between 60 and 78, suffered slash and stab wounds. They were described as “stable” in hospital last night. One man had three hours of surgery for “horrific” facial injuries. Five others were hurt in the crush as the congregation fled.
Four hundred people were attending Mass at St Andrew’s Roman Catholic Church in Thornton Heath when the swordsman, described as a 26-year-old local man, burst in. Panic spread as mothers rushed to a neighbouring hall to fetch their children who were attending Sunday School.
Pc Tom Tracey, an off-duty policeman, ripped a 5ft long pipe from the organ to help overpower the man, aided by another member of the congregation who used a cross. He said: “The first thing I saw was people rushing to get out of the various exits of the church.
“I looked over and I saw a man wielding a sword around. People were rushing past and myself, along with several other male members of the parish, subdued the man just as he was near the altar. He was absolutely wild.”
Pc Tracey, who was attending Mass with his 13-year-old daughter, said: “Five minutes previously I was singing the psalm and the next thing you’re fighting a sword-wielding assailant.” Paramedics described how they were met with a scene of “blood and panic” as people scrambled across the slippery bloodstained floor to leave the church.
Among the most seriously injured was a 55-year-old man. Paramedics found him after following a trail of blood. The victim was slumped on the pavement two streets away with deep slashes to his face, neck and jaw. He had also lost a finger and thumb in the attack as he raised his hand to protect himself.
Kambiz Hashemi, consultant accident and emergency specialist at Mayday Hospital in Croydon, south London, said the victim had suffered the most horrific injuries he had ever seen. He said: “It was a very sharp, very powerful samurai sword that made a very clean cut. It is a miracle that his main artery was not cut.”
Marie Parcou, 66, from Thornton Heath, had to pull her husband, Jules, 73, to the floor to stop the attacker “slicing his head off”. She said: “I was just standing next to my husband and all of a sudden the man repeatedly cut him with his sword. My husband was spouting blood and I had to pull him to the ground before the maniac chopped his head off.”
Charles Ssuna, 35, a local businessman who was at the front of the church, recalled seeing blood on the floor and a man with his mouth slashed up to his cheek.
He said: “I saw the man completely naked with a long sword. It was gold and metal. He was just screaming but I couldn’t hear what he was saying over the screams of the congregation. It is unbelievable. I am still scared. If I were not a real Christian I would never come back.”
Tino Hernandez, 35, a press officer for Enfield Council, said: “I saw him slash at least 10 people. The two that stick in my mind are a pensioner who was slashed across the arm. I don’t know if it was severed but it seemed a terrible injury to me. I also saw a man slashed across the face and to see someone’s face split open and the blood pour out is not the sort of thing you ever want to see again.”
Nanette Frederiksson, a nurse who was taking a children’s service near the scene of the attack, told of “a mass of stampeding people rushing through the doors in hysteria”. She said: “There were at least 50 children at the liturgy. The door flew open as parents tried to make their way to get their children. It was mass hysteria and everyone was trying to escape.
“I picked up some of the children, one of my own and two others, and went rushing out of the church hall. I saw an elderly lady badly injured across her face. Her family was with her. I went inside a house and there was already a lady in there who had been slashed on her back.”
Evening Mass took place yesterday but was conducted at a Salvation Army hall where prayers were said for the injured. Fr John O’Toole, one of the three priests to take the service, said: “We can move so quickly from joyful, to ordinary, to tragic very quickly and it’s difficult for all our emotions to catch up so I am sure we are all numb with shock. It is not a time for words.”
Canon John Lennon, 78, who was celebrating Mass yesterday morning, said: “The choir was about to start singing when all hell broke lose. To my surprise I saw a number of men rushing down the aisle including, apparently, a man stark naked wielding a machete.”
He said: “I saw someone picking up an organ pipe and bashing him about the head. Five people grabbed him very quickly. I said to someone, ‘for God’s sake ring the police’. The police were there in about five minutes I suppose. I was waiting for the panic to subside. I was determined to finish the Mass. You don’t lightly abandon a Mass unless there is a nuclear explosion. A mere character with a machete wouldn’t put me off.”
Plastic surgeons at Mayday Hospital will today begin rebuilding the face of the most seriously injured victim, who suffered a sweeping cut from his jaw to the back of his neck. He is expected to suffer permanent difficulties in eating and speaking. He was transferred to intensive care last night after a series of operations.
One woman in her late sixties suffered a fractured skull from a blow to her forehead. A woman in her seventies sustained a deep injury to her right shoulder. A man in his sixties suffered cuts to his shoulder and neck, and a 36-year-old man suffered slashed tendons and a fractured forearm.
Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, last night extended his “deep” sympathy to the injured and their families.
A few volunteers were last night helping to clean up the church, where splashes of blood could be seen on the tiled floor in the aisle and in several pews. Hymn books and Mass books lay scattered across the benches and on the floor, along with personal items including a suede glove.
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 1999.
There is nothing wrong with carrying a weapon to church any more so in carrying one any place esle where one might have the need to defend ones self.
The sword was the "military assault weapon" of its time. It was the most potent personal arm available.
So they did carry the equivelant of guns into places of worship just as we should be able to do.
Because the established churches are more interested in become more politically correct than Biblical. This dovetails nicely with churches all over America proclaiming that Islam is a religion of peace. The ELCA "recognizes" Islam as a valid religion. Baal in next.
In ALL SERIOUSNESS, ONCE AGAIN, the United Methodist Church has demonstrated that it is an institution run and operated by a collection of liberal, left-wing activitists, not a Christian church. This is one of the many reasons, Islam is making inroads in the world today. Christian Chruches are more concerned with social agendas than with spreading the gospell and doing Christ's work.
This is why I left the UMC seven years ago. It is an apostate church.
I was predestined to be a member of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)
Let's put this resolution into perspective. The United Methodist Church has been anti-gun (and liberal) at the national level for years. As a Methodist this has irritated me enough to instruct my local church to withold my funds, prevent them from going to the national organization.
We have concealed-carry in Kentucky and went through this whole silliness of "no guns in church" during the debate on passage of CCW. However, the only penalty for being armed in church involves being asked to leave IF it's discovered you are in fact carrying concealed.
So, I'll continue to attend church armed. Should a goul enter my church while I am there and threaten anyone I'll deal with him. I suspect there are others attending who are armed also. I'm sure any crazy who does show up with mayhem in mind will be in for a big surprise!
Allu Akbar perhaps?
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