God and Guns

Just a few days after Dr. George Tiller was gunned down while worshipping at church last Sunday, Ken Pagano, the pastor of New Bethel Church in Louisville, Kentucky, has invited his flock of 150 to celebrate the upcoming 4th of July holiday by having a "bring your handgun to church day". A flyer promoting the event says there will be patriotic music and even a gun raffle. Wow... cool!

Pagano, an ex-Marine and handgun instructor, says his point was not to mix worship with guns but to promote "responsible gun ownership" to his congregation who fear that President Obama is going to take away all their weapons. He plans on making reference to some scriptures from the Bible. Can't wait to hear what those are. Whatever happened to "love your enemies" and "turn the other cheek"?

At least one other person in the world besides me thinks this is just plain wrong. Arkansas pastor John Phillips, who was shot in 1986 while leading a service at his church and still has a bullet lodged in his spine, agrees that a church is just not the place to be packing your weapon. "A church is designated as a safe haven, it's a place of worship," said Phillips. "It is unconscionable to me to think that a church would be a place that you would even want to bring a weapon."

Pagano disagrees. "We're just going to celebrate the upcoming theme of the birth of our nation," said pastor Ken Pagano. "And we're not ashamed to say that there was a strong belief in God and firearms — without that this country wouldn't be here."

But the Indians still would.

New Bethel Church (Bethel, meaning a sacred area or sanctuary, from the Hebrew word for House of God) will host this event on June 27th. If you are planning on attending, you are encouraged to bring a canned food item and a friend. Proceeds will go to The National Association for Gun Rights, I mean charity.