Quick Note: Weapons and UU Churches
A North Carolina UU Church has made the news over a minor controversy concerning a member’s hunting knife.
“A member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Franklin is prohibited from bringing his hunting knife to church after another member saw him with the blade at a Sunday service and got worried. The knife carrier, Charles Rowe, said there is no reason to be alarmed by his utensil. He simply wants to wear his knife to church because, “It’s part of me and part of who I am.” But even in Appalachia, where mountain men once thrived, Dr. Bill David, the complainant, said knives still shouldn’t be allowed in church … The debate has resulted in the church adopting a no weapons policy and sparked a vigorous discussion over an individual’s rights.”
Rowe is a Pagan and has been wearing the knife on his belt for the four years he’s been attending the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Franklin, but recent uneasiness about weapons in the wake of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church shootings have raised sensitivities about possible weapons in the church. It should be interesting to see how the implementation (or renewal) of weapon bans in UU churches affect UU Pagans. Is an unsharpened athame a weapon? How that question is answered could cause tensions within churches that house thriving CUUPs or UU Pagan groups.
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