Guns In Church?!
Leaders from the Catholic and Episcopal churches have condemned a law passed earlier this year that allows licensed gun owners in Georgia to arm themselves in schools, restaurants, government buildings and churches.
Despite the new law, which Governor Nathan Deal signed on April 24, Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta said he intends to keep congregants from bringing firearms into the church.
"Churches and other places of worship are intended to be sanctuaries, holy sites where people come to pray and to worship God," Gregory wrote in the May 1 issue of the Georgia Bulletin, a newspaper of the Atlanta archdiocese.
"Before this legislation takes effect in July, I will officially restrict the presence of weapons in our Catholic institutions, except for those carried by the people that civic authorities have designated and trained to protect and guard us, and those who are duly authorized law and military officials," he continued.