tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9926207.post2663544202792720131..comments2024-03-04T00:50:02.182-08:00Comments on KeithGiles.com: Proactive AgapeKeith Gileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00328300571647154699noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9926207.post-80424007481184410502015-12-08T16:35:59.198-08:002015-12-08T16:35:59.198-08:00Hey Joe. There are many things that can be done t...Hey Joe. There are many things that can be done that don't require taking someone else's life in this situation. We've been so conditioned that violence is the only option we can't see past that option. <br /><br /> Just a reflection in regards to the "lesser of two evils".... there is no such thing. Evil is evil.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06283691310946994924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9926207.post-58981381295380381482015-12-08T15:24:24.231-08:002015-12-08T15:24:24.231-08:00The following is an extensive quote from Lee Camp&...The following is an extensive quote from Lee Camp's book Mere Discipleship (pg 39-40). It contrasts two ways of living. It is the perfect contrast to what Keith, and so many others, have been preaching about non-violence and pre-emptive love. The stories highlight that the world is watching and that the God's plan is for the church to display His manifold wisdom, which is Christ.<br /><br />"'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. A .38 for a .38?' Or so queried a 1998 Associated Press account that reported on the amendment to Kentucky state law that extended the legal right to ministers and church officers to carry a concealed weapon in church buildings, even during church services. Reports cited a preacher in Somerset, Kentucky, as having a pivotal role in the new legislation. Interviewed by Maria Shriver on NBC's July 16, 1998, Today show, the preacher reported that individuals looking for money often visit churches and further intimated that having a gun would provide protection from those who might desire to steal church contributions. Bewildered Maria Shriver - representing the media, which Christians often portray as having little comprehension of the good news of Jesus Christ - asked the preacher if he did not understand that his reliance upon a handgun stood at odds with the Christian proclamation of peace and reconciliation.<br /><br />"Imagine having the wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger - Hollywood's poster boy for violent entertainment - remind the church that the gospel bids believers to resolve conflict with other methods. The preacher responded that he was merely interested in having the right to carry a licensed weapon, a right granted to all other citizens. An on-air critic remarked that had Jesus heard this, it would have made him want to 'puke.' The critic reminded the preacher that churches are supposed to be an enclave of values markedly different from the world around: Christians are supposed to be protected in the armor of light, the breastplate of truth. Significantly, the preacher stated his disinterest in that argument as having any relevance to the current debate; such concepts, he replied, are about a spiritual battle.<br /><br />"The gun-toting preacher stands in stark contrast to Joan Black, a nurse at the University of Southern California Medical Center in Los Angeles. Tom Tripp recounts that in August of 1993, a young woman, Sopehia Mardress White, brandishing a .38, came looking for a nurse named Elizabeth Staten, who had allegedly stolen away White's husband. Firing six shots, White hit Staten both in the stomach and in the wrist. When Staten ran into the emergency room, White followed her, firing again.<br /><br />[From Tom Tripp, "Christ's Love," Leadership 15, no. 1 (winter 1994)] "There, with blood on her clothes and a hot pistol in her hand, the attacker was met by another nurse, Joan Black, who did the unthinkable. Black walked calmly to the gun-toting woman -- and hugged her. Black spoke comforting words. The assailant said she didn't have anything to live for, that Staten had stolen her family. 'You're in pain,' Black said. 'I'm sorry, but everybody has pain in their life...I understand, and we can work it out.' As they talked, the hospital invader kept her finger on the trigger. Once she began to lift the gun as though she would shoot herself. Nurse Black just pushed her arm down and continued to hold her. At last Sopehia White gave the gun to the nurse. She was disarmed by a hug, by understanding, by compassion. Black later told an AP reporter, 'I saw a sick person and had to take care of her.'"<br /><br />If you have not read Lee Camp's book, then I suggest you get it immediately. It is absolutely fantastic!!!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04860975094512693470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9926207.post-55765552588756060742015-12-08T13:36:50.705-08:002015-12-08T13:36:50.705-08:00How do you stop a shooter or someone trying to kil...How do you stop a shooter or someone trying to kill someone else? What ability do we have to stop it?<br /><br />This teacher did it by hugging the shooter at her school. - http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1732518<br /><br />Also, in Lee Camp's book Mere Discipleship he recounts the story of an ER nurse stopping a shooter in the hospital by walking up to her and hugging her until she put the gun down. I can't find the story online though. I think it happened a number of years ago.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04860975094512693470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9926207.post-66802048071929852662015-12-08T12:51:32.593-08:002015-12-08T12:51:32.593-08:00Great thoughts! Do you think violence is never jus...Great thoughts! Do you think violence is never justified as the lesser of two evils? I'm not completely certain at this point either way. I agree that the call of Jesus is to <a href="http://godsfoolishness.blogspot.com/2009/04/most-everything-turns-to-sht-rejoice.html" rel="nofollow">love</a> our enemies even to death... However, I have questions about what that looks like when someone is trying to kill someone else and we have the ability to stop it in some way. Anyway, just a question I have. Thank you for the excellent post!<br /><br />http://godsfoolishness.blogspot.comAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05775423593353210290noreply@blogger.com