The Guns of April

Today is the 150th anniversary of the shelling of Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor–the first guns of the Civil War.

How appropriate then that we should wake up this morning to find a newspaper report telling us that under Virginia law it is legal for people to carry guns in houses of worship–for their self-protection.

I am trying to remember the last time I felt sufficiently in danger for my life, or the lives of others, in church, that a firearm seemed necessary. I sometimes go to synagogue with Jonathan, and I am having a hard time remembering a time when I felt that threatened there either. But it must happen. Why else would this be legal?

I have only been to a Muslim service once–in California, not Virginia–and surely with everyone on their knees, and often their hands and heads on the floor, I felt no danger.  Maybe it is the Buddhists who need this? Or practitioners of Hinduism?

At any rate, I am relieved to know that the next time a preacher gets too wound up for God someone can calm her or him down by brandishing their weapon of choice.

I am sure you feel safer, too.