Photo courtesy of Brian Lary
I’ve been reading John Howard Yoder’s little book entitled, “What Would You Do?” which deals with the philosophical question of what would you do if someone were threatening your spouse or child. It’s always been a difficult question for me to think through, as it is for most followers of Christ. To start with, I’m a jumble of contradictions when it comes to violence. As an American citizen, I believe in the individual right to bear arms as written in our Constitution. I own multiple guns and am a card carrying NRA member. Yet I’m anti-war and anti-hunting. I’m very much for animal rights and a massive lover of all of God’s creation. I suppose you could say that I own guns in hopes I never have to use them. Still, I’ve worked to become a very accurate shot should the need ever arise. It’s a dichotomy I’ve never really been able to unravel.