Letters: Jesus would want disciples to carry guns

Jesus would want disciples to carry guns. True, Jesus did not need to be armed. After all, he is God. We need to look to scripture to see what Jesus said about being armed: 

“And He said to them, ‘When I sent you without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?’ So they said, ‘Nothing.’ Then he said to them, ‘But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one’” (Luke 22:35-36).

As a retired pastor, I have no problem with law-abiding citizens carrying weapons, and in this time, it actually makes sense. 

Had there been an armed person at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Dylann Roof probably would not have the conversation, because this horrible crime would have been stopped before he could kill nine innocent people.

Jesus wanted his disciples wanted to have some way to defend against people who would kill them. We are his disciples today.

John Quigley

Bracketville

Churches will be the next ‘target’

The words of Justice Alito might give you pause to rethink your confidence that our current administration and Supreme Court will correctly interpret the Constitution.

In his dissent, Alito wrote: “Hard questions arise when people of faith exercise religion in ways that may be seen to conflict with the new right to same-sex marriage—when, for example, a religious college provides married-student housing only to opposite-sex married couples, or a religious adoption agency declines to place children with same-sex married couples. Indeed, the solicitor general candidly acknowledged that the tax exemptions of some religious institutions would be in question if they opposed same-sex marriage. There is little doubt that these and similar questions will soon be before this court. Unfortunately, people of faith can take no comfort in the treatment they receive from the majority today.”

He also wrote: “I do not doubt that my colleagues in the majority sincerely see in the Constitution a vision of liberty that happens to coincide with their own. But this sincerity is cause for concern, not comfort. What it evidences is the deep and perhaps irremediable corruption of our legal culture’s conception of constitutional interpretation.”

Currently, laws in several states punish business owners with deeply held, religious convictions concerning same-sex marriage. No doubt, churches will be the next “target.”

Dan Taylor

Mobile, Ala.

Samaritan’s Purse boxes touch lives

I’m writing just to let everyone know how much the Samaritan’s Purse shoe boxes we send are appreciated. 

My fiancé in the Philippines said the house church her brother pastors, Path of Life Baptist Church in San Mateo (part of Metro Manila), received 150 boxes recently. They have three outreaches totaling about that number of children. The kids physically need the items, and they know that we Baptists here really do send them along with our love. They can see that Christians, and Baptists in particular, really do have the love of Christ in our hearts.  

I was privileged and blessed enough to be able to attend one of the three outreaches while visiting there in spring of last year.

God is still working in the world, and I’m thankful we Baptists are helping bring others to his Son and our only hope—Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Mick Tahaney

Port Arthur