Wish I could share and join you.

Grace and peace to you,

Jay (a follower of Jesus in Atlanta)

@dustin Welcome! Being practical is useful, often, but I’d miss a lot of I were just practical.

It’s impossible to have a blanket statement of advice when dealing with people that give you a funny feeling. Another person like that guy could have received Tracy’s statements and it wouldn’t have ended up with the threat of serious violence. I don’t know if you can know how far to push something until you reach the point where there can be no more.

Wow. I missed this entirely. Just ran into this, which matches amazingly well what happened. In fact, it matches better than yo know. I didn’t mention it, but after it was over, I felt strongly that I had to go back and tell “the whole church” (such as it is, under the bridge). We did, and ended up staying until after 11. No sign of C—-.

It’s lucky for me there’s a Holy Spirit to whisper these instructions in the ear of someone like me, who doesn’t keep good track of bible studies. :) If we’d been acting on our own ideas, who knows what would have happened?

But that was before I got informed that I belong to another kingdom. I like this world better. :)

Angela, you did the right thing. It’s not what I would have done. Partially because I can identify with the psychopath- I’ve got a similar mental illness, luckily one that doesn’t tend towards violence very often, and when it does, I’m more likely to just hole up at home in a bout of claustrophilia and agoraphobia and self-defense than to go out hunting for somebody to hurt.

But because I know, both sides, I do carry a collapsible cane with me and am not afraid to use it if necessary (Theresa, it’s the one I inherited from Grandma Lyon, one of the two things I really wanted from her). I’ve had to, a few times on MAX in Portland, though usually just showing myself to be armed (taking out the cane, clicking it into place, and leaning on it) is enough to end the problem.

Pacificism cannot be total, until Man is Sinless. Violence will not end until mankind is no longer violent. And there are a few, like me, willing to also fight for justice still in this world.

But you shouldn’t go up against somebody like C—- unless you are both trained, AND prepared to surrender your life to Augustine’s Just War theory, as a minimum (St. Augustine of Hippo wrote that a war can only be considered just if it’s against an invader coming up to you, if you do not chase the invader to take revenge after scaring him off, and if you use weapons that are as likely to harm you as the invader, thus showing love for your enemy).

If you’re not- if you don’t have both the training for self-defense and the willingness to see it through properly and not take revenge- pacifistic escape is the best you can hope for. The rest, is up to God. There are no guarantees in this life, and simply running out and getting a gun can be a worse answer than doing nothing at all.

@trupedo_glastic Thanks for that reminder, about community and wisdom being connected.

@ken Your opinion is more than welcome… And yeah. I think you’re right. (And yet, as you know, I’m cautious about it being an excuse to take the easy way. Lots of people might find what you do to be a little extreme. Heh. :) … But yeah. Point taken.