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“This is a place of peace. Weapons are allowed inside only after they have been hammered into plowshares.” – sign on church door in Madison, Wisconsin. Photo by blogger Ann Althouse.

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67 COMMENTS

  1. Ahh, Christianity.

    Hey, what do you think this church’s position is on gays, adulterers, polytheists, people who work or go shopping on a Sunday, or any one of a dozen other things that the Christian Bible talks about?

    Do they have a cutesy sign for that stuff?

    Or do they just quote the Bible when it’s convenient and aesthetically appealing?

      • True enough, but there’s nothing wrong with pointing out the hypocrisy of one of the most bloodthirsty organizations in history (second only to government in terms of murder, rape and robbery committed in the name of “the cause”) decrying the possession of weapons on their properties.

        • ‘Tis my right to point out and laugh at other people’s falsehoods and hypocrisy, to say nothing of subtly mocking their failure to properly use the apostrophe.

        • I think you give too much credit to Christianity when you refer to it as an “organization”. Will Rogers once said, “I’m not a member of any organized political party, I’m a Democrat.” Considering the initial divide of Catholic and Protestant and the sub-ramifications of all of those over the last 400 years, Rogers could have as easily said, “I’m not a member of an organized religion, I’m a Christian.”

    • Sounds like the kind of sign that would be posted at a church door at the far-left end of the Christian spectrum to me, far-out Episcopalian, liberal Lutheran or even Unitarian.

      They probably don’t care about all that other stuff either, jkp.

    • Christianity is a philosophy for living. It is not a religion. I’m a Christian but not Catholic or Protestant.

      BTW, Madison Wisconsin is a cesspool of Liberalism. This type of stuff is to be expected…

    • Or “Doing This Place Will be a Piece of Cake!”

      Whatever happened to that muscular Christianity which filled Sunday sermons with lessons on the holiness of Manifest Destiny? What happened to “Sell your cloak and purchase a sword!” Or for that matter, what ever happened to “Thou shalt not steal, mug, rape, burglarized, or car jack!”

  2. ‘Those who beat their guns into plowshares will soon be plowing for those who don’t.’

    Often attributed to Thomas Jefferson but there is no evidence that he said it. Still very true.

    • Speaking of old RKBA related quotes, I wish the “rifle behind every blade of grass” quote would stop getting passed around – no one within Hirohito’s military structure is actually known to have said that or anything like it.

      • I thought it was Tojo, and he said “there will be a rifle behind every tree.” So they only invaded the Aleutians with, oops, a Kodiak bear behind every tree.

  3. Interesting that this store owner would post this Scripture from Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 5:3 but fail to note that this will only happen when the Lord returns. Until then, and up until that day we should rather follow this admonition from Joel 3:10 in response to those who would abuse people
    “Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears.
    Let the weakling say, “I am strong!””
    Nothing equalizes a weakling like a well made weapon.

      • Speaking as a religious nutcase, being misguided on your view of self-defense is not a reason to say “deserve to be massacred”.

        Nobody “deserves” to be massacred. It may be the ultimate end of a bad idea, but “deserve” – not so much.

        • I didn’t say all religious people are nutcases. I simply said that ones who are nutty enough to volunteer to be victims are getting exactly what they asked for when someone finally takes them up on their offer.

      • People who don’t arm themselves DESERVE to be killed? That’s one of the most disgusting moral positions I’ve ever heard. You and Hitler would have gotten along great.

        • As I remember, it was religious nutcases, the church martyrs, who advanced the cause of the early church, and even kings, St. Edmund, for example, faced violent death un-armed to fulfill what they perceived as their callings. A rather harsh assessment, you have.

        • Nice try, MikeB Jr. I said that people who voluntarily make themselves victims deserve it. There is a huge difference between choosing to not own / carry a weapon and banning anyone in an area from owning / carrying a weapon.

  4. This is from the bible too…”and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked”. Nehemiah 4:18
    I guess they skipped it.

  5. Luke 22:36 — “if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one”. Jesus’ instructions to his apostles.

    • He also said to truly follow him one should sell all that is owned and then give the money to the poor. Quoting scripture to prove a point is rather pointless since there is almost always a contradictory quotation waiting to be used.

      • It’s only contradictory when someone has no understanding of context. I won’t go into a dissertation on scripture, but suffice it to say that the teachings of Christ support the use of force in self-defense. Those who claim otherwise are misinformed.

        • In the following two verses of Luke, it seems to me that Jesus is speaking of fulfilling prophecy, not of self defense, but then I might not have the same level of theological training as you.

  6. Ah, witty warning signs. At the very least they’ll give murderers a good chuckle before they open the door to kill everyone inside.

    Got news for ya, sport. Declaring your building a place of peace with a cute sign does not make it so for those unwilling to listen. Me leaving my door unlocked and taping a sign on it that says “this home is secured” does not make it so.

  7. I don’t know of a church anywhere near here which prohibits guns. I wonder if somebody did a search they would find very few that have a problem with guns.

  8. The church can do anything it wants to do about guns in its building. Likewise, the parishioners are free to make their own choices. From my point of view, I can do without any establishment — religious, business or governmental — that doesn’t care whether I live or die.

  9. I wonder what made them post that sign? Who open carrys to church, north of the Mason Dixon line?

    Or are they just trying to be cute?

  10. What group besides the jews has historically has seen more oppression and persecution than than Christians? When they are burning your “hate speech” books, locking up your leaders for “hate speech”(ala Europe) and discriminating against your right to freedom of religion a plow sure as hell ain’t gonna help you.

    • Just about anything that was violently wiped out by the expansion of Christianity and Islam. Those religions weren’t spread by themselves as much as they were spread by the sword. Being an atheist was pretty damn dangerous in the past, and is still fairly taboo in “the land of the free”

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