(Guestpost from Drew)
Sometimes you encounter an event which seems amazing at first, but then you read the fine print and simply sigh. Consider, for example, the New Bethel Church in Louisville, KY. Pastor Ken Pagano has decided to have a Gun Day at church. The Gun Day will include patriotic music and gun safety information. After all, recent shootings at churches have illustrated the need for responsible, defensive gun ownership.
I thought to myself, Sweet, maybe I should convert to the Assemblies of God and be a part of this.
But then I saw the fine print:
The guns must be unloaded and private security will check visitors at the door, Pagano said.
I mean, come on. What is this, an air plane? Let’s get real. Churches need to have armed congregants, to protect against the servants of Satan (cf. Luke 22:36). Maybe if the heroic partial-birth abortion provider George Tiller had attended a less ”progressive” church, an armed member might have protected him from his assassin. Oh wait — only a liberal, hippie church would ever admit Tiller. I suppose he was doomed by fate.
But then look at this next hair-puller:
New Bethel Church is welcoming “responsible handgun owners” to wear their firearms inside the church June 27, a Saturday.
Umm, you picked the wrong day, Pastor! We are not Jews. We don’t have church on Saturdays.
Okay, now I will cease my griping and provide some constructive criticism for Pastor Pagano. At least he has made a noble effort. I guess I should therefore commend him. But if he really wants to do the right thing, this is the way the story should have read:
On June 28, a Sunday, members of the New Bethel Church is Louisville will welcome responsible gun owners. Pastor Pagano optimistically expects 20% of his congregants to wear their sidearms in support of the effort. In past sermons, Pagano has already warned his congregation that God will be severely angry with them if they continue to reject firearms and instead embrace a stupid, passive attitude. On June 28, the New Bethel flock will come together with weapons at their side, packed full of ammunition. There will be no need for professional security guards. They will worship God, doing their best to repent of their gnostic liberal attitudes, and they will praise God for not yet allowing the government to steal their primary source of physical protection.
Now THAT would be my kind of church. But…at least we can see baby steps.
I’m a gun owner, and I’m very pro-gun. And if I got off my butt and got my concealed carry permit, I just might start keeping my gun in my purse all the time, whether I was in church or not. (Some wacko comes in and opens fire, I shoot him, and the police arrest me for having a gun on church property… ? Hardly my first concern at that point. But I digress.)
I think I get where this pastor’s coming from, but I have to say, I am against ALL Independence Day (the name of the holiday is NOT “Fourth of July” /pet peeve) celebrations in church. If a pastor is going to spend any church time on history, let it be church history – teach people how the books were selected to be part of the Canon or cover some material from Fox’s Book of Martyrs. And if he’s going to spend time on politics – well, must be nice for him that every member is so perfectly on track with their sanctification process. That’s certainly not true in my church, and I’d be mad as hell if my pastor wasted time on politics.
Although church can become obnoxious if it turns political in an unbalanced way, I nonetheless consider the Bible a highly political document. It’s pretty hard to read 1 Samuel 8 without getting a political message. The same goes for pretty much the entire law of Moses. Jesus discusses subjects like taxes and divorce, and doesn’t exactly give a ringing endorsement of either. We see John the Baptist getting arrested for sedition, and two of Jesus’s disciples carrying weapons in violation of imperial sword-control laws. So I think churches have an important role to play in politics. Without churches during the time of the Revolution, this nation might never have been born.