Both Can be Holy...
With the recent shooting at Umpqua Community College, we are, again, looking at Active Shooter tactics and how to prevent them. Even though I taught Active Shooter for years, I am not writing about the tactics (but as a side bar, if your department is still teaching "hold and wait" or "diamond formation" it's time to get a new training division). This particular case struck me because of who the shooter was after: Christians. According to reports the maniac - I will not give him the satisfaction of printing his name - either told all the Christians to stand up, or one by one told people to stand up and state their religion. To the Christians he told, "You're going to meet God in a few seconds." or something similar. But I am not going to talk about the increase in persecution of Christians in the last few years either.
What is this blog about? A side discussion I heard on Relevant Radio yesterday, briefly discussed whether or not a Christian's responsibility, in the situation above, is to just be martyred or to fight. This topic is of great interest to me. When I was away from any kind of faith, the Knights Templar - or Poor Knights of Solomon's Temple - were one thing that kept me connected to religion. In brief, the Knights Templar were an order of religious knights, started around AD 1100, to protect the roads around Jerusalem from robbers and bandits. Hmm, wonder why, as a cop, they interested me. Their mission was seen as a holy one.
Granted the ideal is that no one needs to fight. That is not how the world was created to be. But, thanks to Adam and Evewe live in a world where sometimes the most loving, holy thing we can do is fight, physically. How 'bout them apples... (although if I'm honest, I'd have been making apple pies).
When I started to take faith seriously again, one of the things I looked at was how different religions view the use of deadly force to protect your self and others. What I discovered was two camps, basically, the Evangelical / Fundamentalist "Kill 'em all and let God sort them out" and the Buddhist / Quaker, "Never use any force, ever, for any reason what-so-ever." Don't try to deny it, you both know it's generally true.
Neither sat well with me. Life is far more complicated than a one-size-fits-all bumper sticker theology. (Good word of warning. If what you believe fits on a bumper sticker, you need to think about it some more.)
I even saw that with the Templar: first to the fight, last to leave the fight and fight to the last if need be, they were the most feared warriors on the battlefield. It is said that several Muslim commanders never wanted to know anything about the size of the Christian force except how many Templar they had.
In the Battle of Acre - the last battle in the Holy Land of the Crusades (the Crusades extended many hundreds of years more, but never again in the Holy Land) - the infirmed, women and children who could not flee on the boats prior to the battle, fled to the Templar's fortress. The Templar knew they couldn't win, so they sued for terms of surrender. The Muslims promised to allow everyone to leave provided they left their weapons and armor but as soon as the gates were opened, the Muslims attacked intent on slaughtering everyone. The Templar stood in the gap to the last man, buying time for people to escape.
Yet, in the after math of the never-should-have-been-fought Battle of Hattin, where Christian forces were routed, to say the least, due to exhaustion from lack of water and no rest, hundreds of Templar were captured. Saladin ordered the immediate execution of the Templar. It is reported by Muslim chroniclers that the Templar were pushing and shoving in line... TO BE THE NEXT EXECUTED!
I don't blame the previously mentioned religious groups for not understanding the fuller picture; Buddhism aside, in general the Protestant tradition hampers a fuller understanding of history and lessons learned from it. (Again, I'm not going to get into that here. If someone wants an explanation, ask.)
I found only one religion who, at least in official teaching, understood both sides of the issue: the same religion the Templar professed: Catholicism. Catholicism has always understood, in this fallen world, the necessity at times for Just War and Just Defense. Interestingly, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church - what the Catholic Church actually believes - paragraph 2265, sounds an awful lot like many of our state laws. Substitute "subject presenting threat of death or great bodily harm" for "unjust aggressor" and "stop the threat" for "unable to render harm" and you'd have something easily recognizable to most of our training divisions.
Note the fact that it is called a "grave duty". The word "grave" in Catholic teaching refers to how serious an action is to perform or not perform. What this is saying is that to NOT stop the threat of someone posing an immanent threat of death or great bodily harm COULD be a Mortal Sin, which, in Catholic teaching, is a sin that causes one to lose their salvation.That is how serious the Catholic Church teaches the necessity of the physical defense of life.
BUT the Catholic Church also teaches that "martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith..." (paragraph 2473) and an early Catholic is quoted numerous times throughout history as saying "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church."
So... what does this have to do with Oregon? While most people are calling the people who stood up, and identified themselves as Christians and were killed for it, "Heroes." I do as well by calling them "Martyrs". Yet, according to what we know to be true, as cops, written on our hearts, and recognized by the only religion to think about this for 2,000 years, a completely moral - and holy - option would have been this:
Man with Gun: "All Christians stand up." (Several people stand up). "Good, you're all going to meet your God in a few seconds." One of the Christians draws a Glock...
If only we could get the rest of society (including some in our own departments) to recognize this as well...
Martyrs of Hattin, Malta and Lepanto.... Pray for us!!
The Blue Crucifix
Granted the ideal is that no one needs to fight. That is not how the world was created to be. But, thanks to Adam and Evewe live in a world where sometimes the most loving, holy thing we can do is fight, physically. How 'bout them apples... (although if I'm honest, I'd have been making apple pies).
When I started to take faith seriously again, one of the things I looked at was how different religions view the use of deadly force to protect your self and others. What I discovered was two camps, basically, the Evangelical / Fundamentalist "Kill 'em all and let God sort them out" and the Buddhist / Quaker, "Never use any force, ever, for any reason what-so-ever." Don't try to deny it, you both know it's generally true.
Neither sat well with me. Life is far more complicated than a one-size-fits-all bumper sticker theology. (Good word of warning. If what you believe fits on a bumper sticker, you need to think about it some more.)
I even saw that with the Templar: first to the fight, last to leave the fight and fight to the last if need be, they were the most feared warriors on the battlefield. It is said that several Muslim commanders never wanted to know anything about the size of the Christian force except how many Templar they had.
In the Battle of Acre - the last battle in the Holy Land of the Crusades (the Crusades extended many hundreds of years more, but never again in the Holy Land) - the infirmed, women and children who could not flee on the boats prior to the battle, fled to the Templar's fortress. The Templar knew they couldn't win, so they sued for terms of surrender. The Muslims promised to allow everyone to leave provided they left their weapons and armor but as soon as the gates were opened, the Muslims attacked intent on slaughtering everyone. The Templar stood in the gap to the last man, buying time for people to escape.
Yet, in the after math of the never-should-have-been-fought Battle of Hattin, where Christian forces were routed, to say the least, due to exhaustion from lack of water and no rest, hundreds of Templar were captured. Saladin ordered the immediate execution of the Templar. It is reported by Muslim chroniclers that the Templar were pushing and shoving in line... TO BE THE NEXT EXECUTED!
I don't blame the previously mentioned religious groups for not understanding the fuller picture; Buddhism aside, in general the Protestant tradition hampers a fuller understanding of history and lessons learned from it. (Again, I'm not going to get into that here. If someone wants an explanation, ask.)
I found only one religion who, at least in official teaching, understood both sides of the issue: the same religion the Templar professed: Catholicism. Catholicism has always understood, in this fallen world, the necessity at times for Just War and Just Defense. Interestingly, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church - what the Catholic Church actually believes - paragraph 2265, sounds an awful lot like many of our state laws. Substitute "subject presenting threat of death or great bodily harm" for "unjust aggressor" and "stop the threat" for "unable to render harm" and you'd have something easily recognizable to most of our training divisions.
Note the fact that it is called a "grave duty". The word "grave" in Catholic teaching refers to how serious an action is to perform or not perform. What this is saying is that to NOT stop the threat of someone posing an immanent threat of death or great bodily harm COULD be a Mortal Sin, which, in Catholic teaching, is a sin that causes one to lose their salvation.That is how serious the Catholic Church teaches the necessity of the physical defense of life.
BUT the Catholic Church also teaches that "martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith..." (paragraph 2473) and an early Catholic is quoted numerous times throughout history as saying "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church."
So... what does this have to do with Oregon? While most people are calling the people who stood up, and identified themselves as Christians and were killed for it, "Heroes." I do as well by calling them "Martyrs". Yet, according to what we know to be true, as cops, written on our hearts, and recognized by the only religion to think about this for 2,000 years, a completely moral - and holy - option would have been this:
Man with Gun: "All Christians stand up." (Several people stand up). "Good, you're all going to meet your God in a few seconds." One of the Christians draws a Glock...
If only we could get the rest of society (including some in our own departments) to recognize this as well...
Martyrs of Hattin, Malta and Lepanto.... Pray for us!!
The Blue Crucifix
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