Pastors split on gun ownership in Church
Published:Tuesday | February 8, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Nadisha Hunter, Gleaner Writer
Jamaican pastors have outlined differing views on the appropriateness of religious figures carrying licensed firearms.
Some told The Gleaner yesterday that they believe the carrying of a firearm should be a pastor's personal choice, while others said that carrying such a deadly weapon, though legal, contravenes biblical teachings.
The pastors were speaking just a day after a report, first published in The Sunday Gleaner, that the Reverend Al Miller has been charged in connection with the disappearance of his licensed firearm.
Miller, head of the Fellowship Tabernacle church in St Andrew, stated in The Sunday Gleaner article that the weapon was stolen from his vehicle.
Miller said he has been a licensed firearm holder since the early 1990s.
Alluding to Catholic principles regarding respect for life, Monsignor Kenneth Richards, vicar general of the Catholic Church, said it was not advisable.
Richards said that while it was important for persons to take precautionary measures to protect themselves and family, a person working for God should not carry a weapon that could cause harm and destruction to others.
Against Jesus' teachings
Charles Francis, head of the Faith in God Church, stood firmly against church leaders carrying weapons.
He said it was not part of Jesus' teachings and so his church did not endorse it.
"The scripture teaches that faith in God gives you all the protection that you need, and Christ also teaches that you should not bear arms against each other," he argued.
However, Karl Johnson, general secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union, said there was no policy in his denomination against the act, so it would be acceptable depending on the circumstances of the individual.
"We treat each case on its merit and so we might find persons who may say they are having it to protect their family and those persons would carry the weapon with them because, for them, it is not so much themselves they are carrying it for but in protection of others," Johnson disclosed.
Pastor Glen Samuels, ministerial secretary of the Jamaica Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, argued that there was no rule in his denomination that governs people who choose to carry licensed firearms.
"We have never advocated that. However, if there are persons who feel that they have to carry one, we might even try to persuade them against it, but there are no sanctions against them if they choose to do that," he added.
Fitzroy Thomas, president of the Evangelic Mission, also said there was no policy regarding firearm ownership in his denomination.