The second item in our Bill of Rights is actually a very Catholic Second Amendment. This may surprise, since although the Catholic Church has a reputation for defending a number of aspects of Family Power, our bishops are not exactly known as big gun rights supporters.
We’ll focus on this topic at our Family Protection Clinic (aka estate planning seminar) lunch meeting on Tuesday, May 22, 2018. (Our weekly seminar revolves through a dozen or so focus topics, then opens up to general discussion.)
In addition to getting a valuable voucher for free handgun training at the world’s largest shooting school (details here) and satisfying the prereq for our free California concealed carry class (details here), this seminar will enable you to discuss the following issues with friends, family, and neighbors:
- Whether Catholic or not, Americans need to know that the Second Amendment was derived from Catholic teaching.
- To carry on a firearm legacy (an important estate planning goal), families should understand and explain the origins and basis for the Second Amendment as they attempt to transmit the militia ethic to succeeding generations.
- Philosophical support for self-defense existed in ancient world, from Old Testament to Cicero in the late Roman Republic.
- Catholic canon laws and catechism began to incorporate aspects of Roman civil law, including rules on self-defense in accordance with Cicero’s writings.
- Dark ages embraced notion of divine right of kings, but feudal respect for mutual contract led eventually to papal revolution against kings and separation of church from state.
- Tyrannicide came to be seen as potentially a moral duty.
- Many rulers were forced to agree to rights (e.g., King John under Magna Carta).
- By the mid-1200’s, Aristotle was rediscovered and expanded upon by the likes of Thomas Aquinas, who developed Catholic thought on self-defense, both personal and tyrannicide.
- Aquinas’ “double effect” analysis is crucial for morally justifying lethal force and an important consideration in any self-defense course.
- The Founders were mainly Protestant but obviously Protestant scholars borrowed from Catholic teaching, at least to the extent they agreed with it.
- In modern times, Protestant denominations barely resemble those at the founding, and many pastors are “pacifist aggressives” attacking gun rights as they spread the heresy of pacifism.
- Pacifism is NOT Christian, and Jesus encouraged his apostles to ignore sword control laws.
- To a large extent, the modern Catholic Church suffers from the same unholy advance of progressivism as it strays from its own catechism.
- Yet there is still an observable difference. For example, of the “Heller Five” majority of Supreme Court justices that upheld our Catholic Second Amendment for the first time as a fundamental individual right — each and every one was Catholic. The dissent was entirely Protestant or Jewish.
- One of the more popularly attractive arguments for more gun control is that handguns are often used to commit suicide in the US. Which of all Christian denominations has the strictest teaching against suicide?
- Which of all Christian denominations is most strongly associated with defending the fundamental right to life, of which self-defense is a necessary corollary?
- The Founders recognized we do not have merely a right to bear arms, but also a DUTY.
- If we have a duty to bear arms, then we also have a duty to train.
- What institution must we rely on to TRAIN? Only the Family can be trusted.
- Which of all Christian denominations is most protective of the traditional family, where rights and duties are learned?
- The Founders pledged Life, Fortune, and Honor to their cause. These are the pillars of Family Power and without them, there is nothing to pledge and no power.
- The militia ethic, which our Catholic Second Amendment attempts to guarantee, can only be transmitted by powerful families, and the only effective way to preserve Family Power beyond the grave is with a trust of some sort.
So come visit our Family Protection Clinic(s) and gain expertise on estate planning and self-defense!
