From the Panel Column: Bringing Guns to Church Fosters Danger, Not Safety

Below is an excerpt from "On Faith," an Internet feature sponsored by The Washington Post and Newsweek. Each week, more than 50 figures from the world of faith engage in a conversation about an aspect of religion. This week's question: Some New York area rabbis are planning to bring weapons to High Holy Day services this month to guard against terrorist threats. In June, a Kentucky pastor invited his congregation members to bring their firearms to church to celebrate the Second Amendment. Do weapons belong in worship? Should clergy be armed? Do the Ten Commandments trump the Second Amendment?

This country is currently in the grip of a powerful anti-rationalism that, while it is the work of a minority, is nevertheless seeping like poison into the body politic. That some anti-rational members of the clergy are spreading this same sickness, this paranoia, this exaltation of weapons, is hardly surprising. I have nothing more to say about it, except that all of us in the media -- from blogs like On Faith to cable news -- ought to give serious thought to our own role in publicizing these lunatics. About the only justification I can think of for writing about them is that the articles may alert the FBI to the clerical threats in our midst -- men who use titles like "Reverend" and "Rabbi" to make the world less, not more, safe.

-- Susan Jacoby, author and reporter

The issue is about your ultimate values and what guides your life. Where you put your ultimate trust is what you ultimately worship. If bring your guns to worship, you show where your ultimate trust is. You worship the weapon you have created far more than you worship the one who created you. When you bring your gun to worship, you show that your trust is in yourself and not in God. You are really showing you worship yourself. Trust in God is about all of your life's values and whether your relationship with God is primary or whether your primary relationship is with your own ego.

-- Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, professor at Chicago Theological Seminary

If the priest or minister or rabbi or imam is toting around his Uzi, should not the congregation do the same? Do we want houses of worship that double as houses of rapid fire response? Surely there are more rational proposals to possible threats than fostering the rabbis with rifles association? There is a price to be paid for everything. We could be perfectly secure on the roads if everyone drove 10 mph. Does the openness, sense of acceptance and promise of peace enable some wicked people entrée? Perhaps so. But the day that terrorism produces an armed American clergy, a sort of swaggering pistol-pulpit, won't even be the day terrorists win. It will be the day we admit not believing in the power of our message to begin with.

-- Rabbi David Wolpe, Sinai Temple in Los Angeles

It's both empowering and healing for people who are threatened to take some control over a situation that threatens them. But a bunch of guys playing soldier are more likely to get an innocent person killed than anything else. Not to mention the incredible psycho-pathology that their comments reveal.

-- Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, president of National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership

To read the complete essays and more "On Faith" commentary, hosted by Jon Meacham and Sally Quinn, go to http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith.