Armed & Dangerous

In the men’s dorm at Golden Gate Seminary, my first roommate was a clean-cut young man from Washington state who I will call "Ernie." At first, Ernie seemed overly pious, often dropping phrases like "Praise the Lord" and "God willing" into conversations. However, another side of Ernie was revealed one day when he pulled several firearms out of his closet and began handling them lovingly. "Are you a hunter?" I asked warily, as Ernie slid a .380 Beretta into a shoulder holster.

"No," he replied, "but I do believe in self-defense."

As Ernie sighted down the barrel of a 12-gauge riot gun, I gently suggested that, in the unlikely event a criminal mastermind decided to steal our ancient microwave, peppering him with small arms fire was not the most Christian of responses.

Ernie was ready for that one, countering, "Before he was arrested, Jesus told the disciples to buy swords, so why can’t a Christian have weapons?"

"But Jesus also told Peter to put his sword away when he actually started to use it!" I insisted, as Ernie shrugged and returned to his arsenal.

Such are the limits of biblical authority. At the end of the day, you still have to choose which verses to emphasize, which interpretations to follow. It's tough to get away from the final authority of human judgement. And if you run across a man who's packing a .380, hope he judges well.