For a Presbyterian or Reformed pastor to pack heat seems like bad form, given their conviction in the sovereignty of God. Likewise, I wouldn’t expect your typical Mennonite, Amish or Quaker pastor to be packing, since they believe in turning the other cheek and loving one’s enemies, and it is hard to love someone when you are busy shooting them. Common sense tells you that much.
Methodists, once conservative, now liberal, are of course confused about whether to pack heat. Anglican priests, being a collegial lot, and inclined toward due deference to authority, will want to consult whether their bishop is packing heat, and if so, what caliber of heat he has chosen to pack. (It is also said that some Anglicans prefer the heat of distinguished English pistol manufacturers, for obvious reasons.)
Baptist pastors have noticed that there is a little smudge of sin still left in the world, at least a little bitty bit of smudge, and as they tilt theologically toward free will your Baptist clergy might well decide to pack and independent Baptists with a congregational ecclesiology are liable to be packing a high level of heat. I have a hard time envisioning Catholic priests as a high-packing lot.
As for myself, I do not pack heat, but then again, I am not a pastor. Still, I must confess I found much to enjoy about the Rambo and Terminator film series and there was a whole lot of heat packed into those films. There is a little Rambo in each of us, I suspect, whether we pack or not.
Godspeed as you counsel the clergy!
-Friend of Mauck & Baker
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