this seems to be spreading in popularity. I guess he is trying to fill up his church. To justify weapons and Christians, he could quote Christ telling his disciples to go get some swords [at the point you know when things were getting sticky]. When they get a couple or so, they ask Him if they need more, and He says "no, that is enough" . So we might find the pastor skipping that last part [g]

I found myself looking for that in the bible, here 'tis:

Luke 22:38 (New International Version)

The disciples said, "See, Lord, here are two swords."
"That is enough," he replied.

He is obviously a scholar!
The Torah and self-defense
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posted Friday, 22 July 2005

Last night, I attended a meeting of Jewish Republicans. And they were both nice people. [rimshot] Seriously, it's a sizable and growing group. There were about 50 people there, and I was told that turnout is lower than normal in the summer months.

I was drawn by the appearance of David Kopel. If you're a regular reader of The Volokh Conspiracy, or NRO's The Corner, or keep up at all with 2nd Amendment issues, you're probably familiar with his work.

I've heard Kopel speak a number of times over the years and have had a few chances to talk with him, and he's always a treat to listen to -- extremely knowledgeable, articulate, and with a nice, dry sense of humor. On this occasion, he discussed the laws in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and Talmud related to self-defense. His presentation was based on his Penn State Law Review article, "The Torah and Self-Defense" (link is to PDF), from which I quote below.

This is fascinating stuff, even for a non-believer like me. As Kopel notes in a footnote of the article, the Torah is one of the foundations of Western thought. I was interested in his explanation of the distinction between the laws God gave to Noah after the flood (the first legal code in the Bible, sometimes called "Jewish natural law"), which are supposed to apply to all humanity, and later laws that are supposed to apply only to the Hebrews (such as the dietary prohibitions). Kopel argued that the concept of human rights was born in this first set of laws (footnotes omitted):

God forbade murder, and required the death penalty in cases of murder: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” The rule helps explain why human life is sacred: because man is made in God’s image. The concept of imago Dei would become a foundation for the development of human rights. Made in God’s image, all humans necessarily have an inherent dignity.

Kopel went on to discuss relevant lessons from the stories of Abraham and Moses, Torah laws regarding home defense and the right and duty to come to the aid of others who are attacked, Talmudic commentary, and the absurdity of mistranslating the Sixth Commandment as a prohibition against all killing. Regarding the latter, Kopel notes:

No one actually interprets "Thou shalt not kill" completely literally. The commandment, after all, does not say "Thou shalt not kill humans," but simply says "Thou shalt not kill." ...
...
Theoretically, one could live entirely by eating wild berries and other fruit, thereby not killing anything through food consumption. But even then, one might sometimes kill insects, rats, or other pests in the home. Anyone who takes antibiotics, or uses antibiotic soap, is deliberately killing millions of bacteria.
...
... The word in the original Hebrew text is r’tzach, which would be translated as “murder.” The Jewish Publication Society commentary on Exodus explains that the Hebrew verb stem “applies only to illegal killing and, unlike other verbs for the taking of life, is never used in the administration of justice or for killing in war.”

I can't see where this is a bad idea but there is a potential downside. Law abiding trained people with guns has never been a problem for me, but law abiding untrained people I don't know all that well with guns is another story. We have an event up here every year and it's as much fun as you'll ever have with friends and firearms. You can only go to this event by approval from the group. Two years ago a guy showed up, with approval from the group, and was a total disaster with his deer rifle. At one point he had the rifle pointed at another shooter with a round in the chamber. I took the rifle carefully from his hands and extracted the live round and told him he could no longer shoot with us that day. I explained why and to his credit he fully understood my concerns. He was simply untrained and it could have been a disaster. He was a terrific learner and now is a regular at the annual "pumkin smash". Proper and safe gun handling is not a right of birth. It has to be learned.