Go ahead. Make my day.

In case you didn't know, the Pyromaniac isn't a pacifist:

Several years ago, at the church I was attending at the time, we had a kind and godly deacon who had served as a counselor in our church for many years. He was also a city cop. One Sunday he shot and killed a drug-crazed reprobate who drew a gun in the church parking lot during a church service. It was his duty as an off-duty officer to do what he did. It was also, according to Romans 13:4, his biblical duty.

Sometimes church discipline has to be done the hard way.

This just days after Steve Camp outlined his approach if he had been taken hostage instead of Ashley Smith:

I would have reached for my Beretta, called 911, and ministered the gospel to him. If he tried to hurt me or my family in any way, I would have trusted the Lord that my aim was straight and the clip was full... and then "ministered to him" in a different manner.

Both attend the same church. Not sure if I attribute their views to that fact or an excess of testosterone, but you may want to watch your step if you attend Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. These guys shoot from the hip, and that's not a figure of speech.

Correction: Steve Camp now lives in Nashville, and is a former member of Grace Community Church. Guess you'd better be careful in Nashville too.

Comments

[Ron]

Uh, dude. Camp has lived in Nashville, TN, For at least 5 years. I think he goes to a church there.

[Mike DeVries]

How sad. Someone should remind these folks that when the Scriptures said "an eye for an eye" it was a limitation for retaliation, not a prescriptive action. I also loved that Camp tries to subtly defend Ashley's use of meth, by saying that it "worked, didn't it." So... do we base what is right now by what works? Hmm. Sounds like Campo is shooting himself in his own foot. Nice job, Steve.

[Jacob]

Darryl, There is so much awesome, deep, rich material showing up on Phil's blog. It's vastly becoming one of the most respected blogs on the Christian web. I'm surprised you picked something like this to make your first reference to Pyromaniac. Kinda inconsistent as you always seem to post postive stuff when referring to emergent blogs (and you and I both know there's a lot of crap posted on emergent blogs).

[Ken]

No surprise to me that the pyromaniac is not a pacifist, but I was a little disappointed in what you selected to quote. Below is another quote from the same blog. The pyromaniac said:Every policeman faces a similar moral dilemma every day when he straps on his gun. I hope you wouldn't argue that there is something morally unsavory about a cop who has to use deadly force to stop a child molester in the act of attacking a helpless child. And the person he was talking to said: Jesus taught us to love our enemies. Even defending a little girl, how does a 38 Magnum "love" its victim? I have to say that Phil seems to make more sense here than his pacifist friend. Is his friend saying that we should not take extreme measures against someone who is going to maim and possibly kill a child? I would have no hesitation in using deadly force (it wouldn't be a gun since I don't own one and have never fired one)to protect my children from someone who was going to seriously harm or kill them. This is not a violation of turning the other cheek. It is protecting the helpless. The times we see Jesus using violent language is when He is addressing those who abuse others especially the helpless.

[Darryl]

I quite enjoy both blogs, actually, as evidenced by the fact that I read them. And I do also post some stuff that's disturbing from emerging type blogs - just posted one this morning actually at dyingchurch.com. This post is partly tongue-in-cheek and partly pointing out that both Steve and Phil are quite, shall we say, combative. Yes, that is the word. Not a bad thing in itself, but I thought these excerpts could illustrate this and have a little fun at the same time. Steve's post in particular was refreshing because it could have turned into an attack on Rick Warren and it didn't. I probably agree with him in a lot of what he could have said, but I'm still glad he didn't say it. Part of my reaction too is that Americans and Canadians are different. Although gunplay is becoming more common up here, the reference to guns is all the more jarring up here, at least to me. Obviously not to every Canadian. Don't take this post too seriously - both of them can dish it out and handle it as well. I quite like them and I've actually quoted approvingly from Steve Camp's blog last week. Who knows, I might even get Pyro-spotted.