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Monks with guns?
In Burma, the Buddhist monks are the value of arms against a despotic government.
When they get down to Old Nuns with guns ... that's a prospect that would have had Stalin begging for mercy....
Reader Trap Tee emails with word that it's already happened, in Kosovo:
Kosovo's nuns take up arms
Independent, The (London), Aug 23, 1998 by Paul Wood
SISTER Anastasija, calm and serene during most of our conversation, became
animated on the subject of the weaponry held at the Orthodox convent of
Devic in central Kosovo. "God is looking at you," she cautioned, explaining
that a TV picture of one of "the nuns with the guns" had been used for
anti-Serbian propaganda.
The order of nine nuns have now acquired "six or seven" 9mm automatic
pistols - to be worn discreetly under the habit within the convent, or
placed close to hand in the fields. "They are just small pistols, not great
big rifles," Sister Anastasija said. "We're all women. We go through
the forest or to our land and all we have is one small pistol each. There's a
war here." (snip)
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19980823/ai_n14181165
· non-US
Comments
"Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." Luke 22:38 KJV
Posted by: RKV at September 19, 2008 02:10 PM
et qvi non habet vendat tvnicam svam et emat gladivm
-- luke 22:36, LV
Posted by: jon at September 19, 2008 02:40 PM
I'm a Buddhist. Buddhism is pretty A-OK with going to war to protect yourself and your family. I'm with the monks. You can hide a heck of a lot of heavy weapons under those robes.
Posted by: jlbraun at September 19, 2008 05:33 PM
Why not? Medieval Europe had many monasteries full of armed monks. "Turn the other cheek" was a religious abstraction seldom observed in the flesh.
Posted by: rio arriba at September 19, 2008 06:36 PM
Didn't Templars start out as an armed khlyst of monks?
Posted by: Jim D. at September 19, 2008 08:28 PM
Rio, my understanding of the Bible was that turning the other cheek was in response to a verbal insult. Jesus taught that people should not physically fight over an insult, but instead turn the other cheek.
On the other hand, "when a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed." Luke 11:21
Posted by: Chris at September 19, 2008 09:28 PM
Exodus 22:2 is actually (kinda) enshrined in the castle doctrine law in Texas. If someone breaks into your house at night, you can kill 'em. During the day, not so much.
Psalms 144:1 - "Blessed be the LORD my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight..."
1 Timothy 5:8 calls those who do not care for/defend themselves and their families "worse than an infidel".
I really haven't found anything in the Bible that says self defense is wrong. Harming others is always bad but not always wrong. Simply carrying a gun in preparation for a potential threat seems to be completely neutral.
Posted by: Gregory Morris at September 20, 2008 08:33 AM
The Serbians in Kosovo 1998 did not be afraid from despots but from Albanian insurgents who operated from Albania. No it seems, the Serbs in Kosovo have lost their fight to stay there. The mayority of the people in Kosovo is now albanian and under the eyes of the UN-(so called)Peacekepers the Kosovo Government build a systematic clima of terror agains the serbs.
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/19/serbia18875.htm
fmj/Austria
Posted by: fmj at October 17, 2008 01:05 AM