The Christian Journal - January 2008
20 pages
Publié par
The Christian Journal
Copyright :
Court Rules for Gun Rights
‘Lost’ChristiansGreatestCrisisinAmericanChurch,saysAuthor
By Katherine T.
Phan, Christian Post Reporter
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Court Rules for Gun Rights
‘Lost’ChristiansGreatestCrisisinAmericanChurch,saysAuthor
By Katherine T.
Phan, Christian Post Reporter
Theme Page
Editorials, Letters
Feature Columns
Opinions &Thoughts
Events Calendar
Directory
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A Butterfly
On My
Shoulder
Richard Bauman
Page 6 Page 15
Things
That Make
Me Feel
Wealthy
HOW
DO
WE
MEASURE
PROSPERITY?
Page 3
Associated Press - 6/26/2008
The Supreme Court says Americans
have a right to own guns for self-defense
and hunting, the justices’ first major
pronouncement on gun rights in U.
S.
history.
The court’s 5-4 ruling strikes down
the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban
on handguns as incompatible with gun
rights under the Second Amendment.
The
capital’s gun law was among the nation’s
strictest.
(See video report)
The decision goes further than even the
Bush administration wanted, but probably
leaves most firearms laws intact.
The court
had not conclusively interpreted the Second
Amendment since its ratification in 1791.
The amendment reads: “A well regulated
militia, being necessary to the security of
a free state, the right of the people to keep
and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
”
The basic issue for the justices was
whether the amendment protects an
individual’s right to own guns no matter
what, or whether that right is somehow tied
to service in a state militia.
Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for four
colleagues, said the Constitution does
not permit “the absolute prohibition of
handguns held and used for self-defense in
the home.
”
In dissent,
Justice John Paul
Stevens wrote
that the majority
“would have us
believe that over
200 years ago,
the Framers made
a choice to limit
the tools available
to elected
officials wishing to regulate civilian uses
of weapons.
” He said such evidence “is
nowhere to be found.
”
Joining Scalia were Chief Justice John
Roberts and Justices SamuelAlito,Anthony
Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.
The other
dissenters were Justices Stephen Breyer,
Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter.
Dick Anthony Heller, 66, an armed
security guard, sued the District of
Columbia after it rejected his application to
keep a handgun at his home for protection in
the same Capitol Hill neighborhood as the
court.
The U.
S.
Court of Appeals
for the District of
Columbia ruled
in Heller’s favor
and struck down
Wa s h i n g t o n ’s
handgun ban,
saying the
C o n s t i t u t i o n
g u a r a n t e e s
Americans the
right to own guns and that a total prohibition
on handguns is not compatible with that
right.
The issue caused a split within the Bush
administration.
Vice President Dick Cheney
supported the appeals court ruling, but
others in the administration feared it could
lead to the undoing of other gun regulations,
including a federal law restricting sales of
machine guns.
Other laws keep felons from
buying guns and provide for an instant
background check.
Scalia said nothing in Thursday’s
ruling should “cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of
firearms by felons or the mentally ill, or
laws forbidding the carrying of firearms
in sensitive places such as schools and
government buildings.
”
The law adopted by Washington’s city
council in 1976 bars residents from owning
handguns unless they had one before the
law took effect.
Shotguns and rifles may
be kept in homes, if they are registered,
kept unloaded and either disassembled or
equipped with trigger locks.
Opponentsofthelawhavesaiditprevents
residents from defending themselves.
The
Washington government says no one would
be prosecuted for a gun law violation in
cases of self-defense.
TheSecondAmendment
“A well regulated militia being
necessary to the security of a free
State, the right of the People to keep
and bear arms shall not be infringed.
”
PORTLAND, Ore.
- The inability of the
church to discuss a topic that has become
taboo among many Christians is one of the
root causes why millions of Americans are
leaving the church and never to return, says
one author.
There are “Christians who have
experientially lost their faith” but have no
one to turn to since church culture shuns
the topic, David Sanford said in May.
It’s not that these Christians lost their
salvation, but that they have lost their
faith in the Bible, the church and Christian
beliefs, said the author, who was addressing
attendants at the annual convention of the
Evangelical Press Association in Portland,
Ore.
Over 31 million Americans are part of
this exodus from the church, Sanford said,
citing a Barna Group study.
“Any business that is losing 31 million
customers is going out of business,” he told
a room of Christian journalists and editors.
“[It] is the greatest crisis among Christians
today in the U.
S.
, Canada and some parts of
Europe…We must break the silence in our
publications.
”
In his upcoming book, If God Disappears:
9 Faith Wreckers and What to Do About
Them, Sanford details nine reasons he
uncovered through listening to stories
of those who exited the church on why
Christians abandon faith.
Most of the time, Christians leave
because of a “wounded” experience.
They either deliberately walk away due to
questions and doubts that go unanswered
or they feel that God has walked away or
“disappeared,” observed Sanford.
The author noted that he too
“experientially” lost his faith a few years
back when he encountered a series of
unfortunate news, including his daughter
being diagnosed with endometriosis – a
condition that affects the womb.
“I felt God was pounding and pounding
and pounding on me,” he said.
Although Sanford at the time was
serving in multiple Christian positions
– vice president of Publishing and Internet
Ministries for the Luis Palau Evangelistic
Association and a member of Evangelical
Press Association – he said his faith was
discouraged to a point where he couldn’t
even say a prayer before a meal.
But looking back at his situation, Sanford
said he realized that God used the crisis in
his faith as a “hinge” to re-work his wrong
theology and allowed his faith to be more
vibrant than before.
He has since applied his experience to his
ministry where he comes alongside those
who have experientially lost their faith and
walks beside them in their journey.
Speaking from experience, he believes
Christians who return back to the faith can
become a phenomenal force to revitalize
churches.
“When you come back, you come back
for good.
You come back with a passion”
and reach out to others who have left the
church, he said.
In an effort to raise awareness on why
many leave the Christian faith, Sanford
called on the Christian media to help put
this understated issue before churches.
“Otherwise at EPA in three or four more
years, it’s going to be 37 million.
”
David Sanford
Want a voice in the
Christian Community?
What do YOU feel is the
greatest crisis facing the
church in America today.
?
Send your response (500
words or less) to
info@theChristianJournal.
org
Patti Iverson
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