Does your parish have a policy regarding guns at church? Congregations in Georgia are grappling with this issue after passage of a state measure allowing guns nearly everywhere, leaving it up to leadership at individual churches to decide whether to ban or allow guns. From WALB News in Albany, Ga.:
Would you want the person next to you on the church pew packing heat?
A bill that passed the General Assembly late Thursday night allows guns in churches but only if church leaders take a vote saying it’s okay.
… Saint Patrick’s Episcopal Church Rector Jay Weldon says bringing guns into his church is more than a political issue.
“For those who disagree with me, (of the opinion that) we need to have guns in church to protect what goes on there. Which seems to me to goes against the general narrative of Jesus and what he taught and what he expects from us,” said Weldon.
Before the new measure passed, it was illegal to bring a gun into a church in Georgia. Just down the highway where I live in Florida, anyone with a concealed weapons permit can bring a gun to church unless the church posts a sign on the premises to the contrary. What’s the law and practice where you live, and what do you think– is church an appropriate place to bring a gun?