I Will Not Roll Over; Self-Defense Edition

Like John Richardson, I only caught a brief glimpse of Rev. Rob Schenk's appearance on CBS's Sunday Morning, where he apparently has characterized defending one's self as un-Christian.

Willingly baring one's neck to a criminal is preferable, so it would seem, to Rev. Schenk, than fighting back.

To my knowledge, lying down and letting evildoers trample one's life into the dust has never really worked. I say that as a member of an ethic community and faith that has had a lot of experience in that regard. Letting evildoers have their way only makes it easy for those who would do you harm. Saying, in essence, that because we're all sinners, you shouldn't defend yourself against an attack by another sinner is like saying that putting up lightning rods is going against the will of the Almighty.

I would assume that, if the cops responded to a crime where Rev. Schenk or his family were being attacked, that he'd have no complaint if the cops had to use deadly force to end the matter. Or, if a foreign power invaded, he'd be fine with the military defending our soil. Which, to my mind, makes him a bit of a hypocrite, in that it's OK for other people to kill to defend his family and home, because what... it's their choice to do that? He's not telling them to kill? They don't go to his church?

That's splitting the hair mighty fine.

Predictably, Schenk is trying to walk back on this, saying that yes, the Bible doesn't ban self-defense. Which he then muddles by saying that his faith commands people to "love their enemies" and so on and so forth. So the Bible approves of self-defense, but one has to do it with love and respect?

How does that work? Tell the bad guy that you feel sincerely badly about having to air him out with half-a-magazine of 9mm bullets?

Or are you supposed to do what Schenk has in mind: Pray that somebody else will save you and nevermind if somebody else has to do the blood-spilling to save your pious ass.