After rereading some of the material that informed my earlier post, I really don’t feel like everything that needed to be said made it in.
First of all, critics of the event have been quick to point out that Jesus would probably not be down with bringing weapons to a place of worship. Sure, his entreaties to turn the other cheek don’t quite jibe with the spirit of this event, but what is often forgotten is that Jesus is also supposed to have said, in Matthew 10:
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.