God and Gunz Again

Via Steve Benen, I came across this story this rainy Saturday morning:

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.

Pastor Ken Pagano of New Bethel Church in Louisville, Ky., says that he organized an "Open Carry Celebration" to promote responsible gun ownership.

"As a Christian pastor I believe that without a deep-seeded belief in God and firearms that this country would not be here," Pagano told ABCNews.com. "I'm not ashamed of that fact. I'm proud of it."

There's a lot to mock in this story, but my favorite part is the idea that it is due to "God and firearms" that the United States exists. Of course, in the Christian tradition, most of us believe that God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, who preached non-violence and suffered death by torture at the hands of the Romans. And yet ... there are large swaths of the "Christian" community who don't find any internal contradictions between believing that they are followers of that kind of God, and supporting violence, the use of weapons, the government's policies of torture, and the stockpiling of nuclear weapons.

One wonders if they have ever come across the passage in the Bible where Jesus instructs his followers that they are not to carry a sword, and if so, what it could possibly mean to them.

Comments

[Ed Darrell]

Most people would have a "deep seated belief." If one plants the seeds too deep, they don't germinate and grow.

Maybe that's the problem. We have too much deep-seeded Christianity today.

It certainly seems to be a problem at some churches in Kentucky.