Is it OK for a Christian to Bear Arms?

Turn the other cheek?

But in 1943, several hundred thousand Jews who had been crowded by the Nazis into a squalid, walled-in section of Warsaw, Poland, balked at German demands to turn over 7,000 Jews a day – knowing that the Nazis were dragging their families to their doom at the nearby Treblinka death camp. For more than a month, determined men, women and children fought back – refusing to cooperate any further – inspiring such films as Aleksander Ford's 1948 “Border Street,” Leon Uris's bestselling 1961 novel Mila 18 and scores of other works, including the 1978 NBC miniseries Holocaust by Marvin J. Chomsky and Roman Polanski’ 2002 Academy Award-winning film The Pianist.

Turn the other cheek?

In the United States,“It is clear,” claim the editors of the Religious Freedom Coalition , that an “all-out war" is being "waged against religious liberty within the U.S. armed forces.” Christians are being “threatened with the loss of their careers if they dare speak out” against policies such as the recent removal of the words 'so help me God' from the official Air Force oath. Indeed, Lt. General William Boykin was forced to retire from his post as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense after a Los Angeles Times reporter recorded him testifying of his Christian faith in churches in Oklahoma and Texas. Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt was forced to resign after he refused to quit praying in the name of Jesus.

Turn the other cheek?

“Becoming a Christian as a teenager only intensified my desire to discover what ‘doing right’ in this matter really meant,” writes Alexander. “I grew up during the Vietnam years and many were questioning. Becoming a believer only intensified my questions. Should a Christian bear arms? Reading the Sermon on the Mount leaves little doubt: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called children of God;’ ‘Do not resist the one who is evil. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer him the left also;’ ‘Pray for your enemies … that you “may be like your Father in heaven,’ ‘The Son of Man came not to destroy men's lives but to save them;’ ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink’’ ‘Our weapons are not carnal....’

Turn the other cheek?

But what if the attack against a Christian is not physical – but psychological – or preventing the Christian from following his or her calling from God? A recent lawsuit alleges that the leader of a San Diego-based Department of Veterans Affairs chaplain training program severely mocked two conservative Christian trainees because of her disdain for their conservative theology. One of the chaplain trainees eventually left the chaplaincy program because of the ridicule, according to the Christian News Service . "No American choosing to serve in the armed forces should be openly ridiculed for his Christian faith, and that is most obviously true for chaplains," says retired Navy Commander J.B. Wells, executive director of Military-Veterans Advocacy. He told CNS, "Not only was the treatment these men received inappropriate, it was also a violation of federal law and the religious freedom guarantees of the First Amendment."

Turn the other cheek?

Army Major Steven Firtko and Navy Lieutenant Commander Dan Klender, entered the San Diego Veterans Affairs-Department of Defense Clinical Pastoral Education Center program in August 2012, writes CNS reporter Russ Jones. Their lawsuit alleges that “shortly thereafter, the program's supervisor, Nancy Dietsch, began to harass the two men for their beliefs. On various occasions and without provocation, she admonished them not to pray in Jesus' name or cite Scripture, sometimes pounding her fists on her desk, accusing them of ‘not giving a [expletive]’ about VA patients and other members of the military, and threatening to fail them. She continued to openly ridicule them and their beliefs openly in class.”

Turn the other cheek?

“We thought it wise to surrender Masih to the police by bringing to the judge’s notice that he would have most likely been killed by Islamist extremists belonging to the banned militant outfit, Jamaat ud Dawa, which had been demanding from the police that he be handed over to them,” the attorney said. She added that the 26-year-old evangelist was deeply frightened. “This hapless man knew he did not have any option – the odds were against us, and Masih knew we could do nothing else except seek refuge in courts,” she said. “My heart grieved when I handed him into police custody. I’m determined to prove his innocence, because I believe that he has been wrongly accused.”

Turn the other cheek?

Masih’s wife and two young daughters have sought refuge in another town for their security. Should he be fighting back? Should he and his family arm themselves? Or just trust in God’s protection? “Jesus teaches us how Christians should respond to persecution in Matthew 5:38-42,” writes Southern Baptist pastor Jared Moore. He says he words of Jesus are clear:

“You have heard that it was said, ’An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.”