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What Caliber Would Jesus Pack?

Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Ala., has more than 4,000 members, a radio station, a seminary, and elementary and high schools with 1,900 students. It wants something else: its own private police force. If approved by the state, it would be the first church in the nation with its own police department. Not a squad of security guards, but a police force, modeled after police departments maintained by many state universities. “Briarwood is larger than most of the colleges that have police,” says Eric Johnston, one of the church’s attorneys. The officers would answer to church officials, not elected office-holders, and it’s unclear how such officers would be held accountable because such a police force is “unprecedented,” the Birmingham News says. “There are no public officials,” Johnston admits. “But there are elected officers in the church, trustees who answer to the congregation.” But don’t worry about the church covering up problems, such as the recent drug scandal at its high school. “If they did have a police department,” Johnston says, “they would have an obligation to enforce the law.” (RC/Birmingham News, AP) ...State, or Canon?