Let Us Prey

Britain’s Avon Silversmiths is launching a new vestment accessory at the annual National Christian Resources Exhibition: a crucifix with a built-in robbery alarm. “It looks like an ordinary crucifix, but one tug will set it off — and it’s loud,” a company spokesman says. The 169-pound (US$283) cross is the company’s response to reports that one in three British clergy have been attacked on the job. But pastors in Kentucky have a better idea: they have succeeded in their quest to amend the state’s concealed weapons law, which specifically excluded churches from the allowable locations citizens could carry weapons. Ministers and priests were upset by the exclusion and lobbied for the right to carry guns to fend off robbers after collection plates. An amendment to the law has passed to eliminate the loophole. (Reuters, 2) ...The Lord helps those who help themselves; southern preachers shoot those who help themselves.