Do Guns Belong in Church?

The Rev. Ken Pagano, pastor of Louisville KY's New Bethel Church wants to celebrate Independence Day by inviting people to bring their firearms to church. (Thanks to my barber for calling my attention to this.)

An ABC News story demonstrates the national news media's obsession to turn a pro-2nd Amendment story into a platform for the anti-gun crowd. You can see the bias of the reporting by following the link at the end of the first paragraph:

A pastor in Kentucky is redefining the tradition of wearing your Sunday best to services by encouraging his congregation to strap on holsters and bring their weapons to church.

It leads to a story about the in-church shooting of serial baby murderer George Tiller. (The anti-gun lobby is using this, just as I predicted in "Why Shooting Abortionists Is a Bad Idea".)

Then the author devotes about half of the article to arguments from the anti-gun lobby about why the Rev. Pagano's idea is horrendous. The arguments are shrill and irrational.

For example,

Paul Helmke, the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said that encouraging people to bring guns to a church is a contradiction in terms.

"Christ tells us to put down the sword and this pastor seems to be encouraging them to take up the sword," said Helmke.

Oh, yes! I think I remember that passage. Here it is:

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. (Mat 10:34)

Oh, wait . . . that's not it. This one must be the one:

And He said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. Then said He unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. (Luk 22:35-36)

(This passage alone is a mandate for Christian Martialism.)

What, no anti-weapons quotes from Jesus? Bummer, Mr. Helmke. Maybe he was thinking of what the Apostle John said:

He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. (Rev 13:10)

Here the context shows that sword is a metaphor for violence. Kind of like when a man who has cut hundreds of living babies into pieces dies by violent hands?

The fact is that most Americans who carry guns are not violent people. They carry guns as protection against violent people. And Luke 22:36 tells us that's just what Jesus intended.

And what could be more appropriate in church than doing what Jesus commands?

Amen.