Strangely, there is really only one passage in the Bible that is an actual instruction on how to react in a self defense situation, and, it happens to involve a wife.
Basically if somebody attacks you, you're losing the struggle, and your wife grabs the balls of the attacker... you're supposed to chop your wife's hand off.
I'm not making this crap up.
Deuteronomy 25:11-12.
Everybody go look it up and tell me how I'm twisting it so badly.
I've been a victim numerous times in my life .... but if it's at all possible, I want the perp to be the victim of justice.
I make good use of Closed-Circuit Television Survielance system in and around my home!
My wife and I will never, by the grace of God, be WILLING victims of crime. The times I was victimized came by people vandalizing my car, home, or stealing something when I was out and away from the home and car!
I have never been the victim of a home invasion but did fall victim to an armed robbery back in the 1970's.
The guy got five years for it.
At my age I'm too old to wrestle around with the young bucks.
The old adage, "Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you."
I
went to a machine shop a few years ago and had steel brackets made so that I can "bar" the door at night.
Utilized lag bolts and installed them in the studs of the door. Someone might tear the door down but I'll at least have time to get the 20. gauge.
There is no excuse for allowing either yourself or one's family to fall victim if there's anything you can do about it.
Doors don't scare me as much as windows.
At least you have to work at doors.
Windows, a brick or crow-bar in hand renders them useless, just smash and crawl through.
Had a home security guy come try to sell me an alarm, he kept going on about the door and magnetic window sensors that go off if you raise the window.
I said dude, if I were going to break in here, I'd smash this front porch window, step right in, and I wouldn't hear a peep out of your alarm.
He was kind of speechless, really didn't know what to say.
Pretty stupid.
Even if the windows has jagged edges and is higher up, just bring a thick blanket to throw over the sill and it just doesn't matter at all.
corndoggy, doors, windows..., what I am seeking is noise just prior to entry.
Enough time to grab my shooting iron.
Usually a clown will try the door first as most door frames are made of soft pine and bust right apart.
And this is why it's impossible to actually discuss this topic here. None of the pro-self defense folks are even willing to actually have a discussion. Instead they are simply too devoted to their own opinion that they must ridicule and strawman the opposing view. Completely pointless.
EDIT: I should have said "few" not "None" as a couple are actually engaging in conversation. I read what I quoted above and angrily posted what I said. Sorry. To those who are actually engaging in conversation, thank you.
Ridicule and straw man ? I'm trying to come up with a scenario where you will actually say it's OK to defend yourself, because the anti-crowd is awful short on yes or no answers.
So when you get called out for reading your own idea into the text you choose to ridicule and mock? Alright then...
Please point out a single part of that passage that says one word about self defense.
The best option is to get away. If that means I must take the attack on myself while my wife and daughter get away then so be it. Again I'm not sure how things like tazers or pepper spray or other non lethal items like that fit in, but regardless I would not kill them.
But again the command isn't just to not hate, but to actively show love for enemies. I don't believe that most who defend themselves hate their attacker, though some certainly do. Most simply want to preserve themselves/their family.
It isn't an issue of who do you love more. It's an issue of how do you love both. You can't simply "side" with one side against the other. We are commanded to love both. To side with one is to be directly disobeying Christ regarding the other.
What you and, others, are saying seems to boil down to saying, "I see what Jesus is saying, and it's nice and all, but it simply isn't practical enough for real life."
Well then don't. Best option is to get away. I also noticed you never really answered until after, and then you told me I wasn't paying attention, too. Nice to just slip that in like it had been there. Pretty sneaky. Perhaps you are the one not worth talking to…...
I'm glad for the people who would face the bad guys. I praise God for them.