Valley Station (Louisville, KY) church to hold gun service

A Valley Station Road church is sponsoring an "Open Carry Church Service" in late June, encouraging people to wear unloaded guns in their holsters, enter a raffle to win a free handgun, hear patriotic music and listen to talks by operators of gun stores and firing ranges.

Pastor Ken Pagano of New Bethel Church said the first-time event is "basically trying to think a little bit outside the box" to promote "responsible gun ownership and Second Amendment rights."

The event, slated for Saturday afternoon, June 27, is being promoted with online posters, including one using a red font resembling splattered blood with the words: "Open Carry Church Service."

Pagano said the poster wasn't intended to glorify bloodshed and the lettering was just "a font that somebody developed." He said he didn't want the event to be confused with regular Sunday worship at the Assemblies of God congregation.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090604/NEWS01/906040362&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

WWJD? Really.

"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."

I'm not exactly a Bible scholar, (last time I was in a Church I got married and that was such an expensive mistake to fix I'm not taking any more chances) but I believe that verse from the Gospel according to Luke pretty much answers your question.

I mean, what's the point of open carrying unloaded guns?

when someone runs out of ammo, they just throw their gun.

We have a Democratic Governor and two very good Democratic Congressmen (one of which represents the Louisville area).

I think our nuts are getting feisty in fear of someday loosing their complete control on this state (maybe sooner rather than later, thank you Jim Bunning!).

This just shows what I have believed for a long time, that many (not all) Churches are nothing more than Republican Party subsidiaries. Now, with the defeat of the Republicans nationally, I think some of them are starting to tread on the line close to becoming representatives of the militia movement. This behavior would have been unthinkable when I was a kid in the 70s even in the rural town I grew up in, and this is in our largest city. The corporate/political right is in full ownership of many religious bodies. And luckily, the farther they go, the worse they look.

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Even those who are organizing this 'event' must see the irony and contradictions. Surely they must intend this as a cynical exercise in rubbing noses in their stench, otherwise, we must consider that Valley Station actually takes an event like this seriously.

In the Massachusetts Bay Colony (now the Commonwealth of Massachusetts), Puritan menfolk were expected to bring their guns to the meeting house during services. When service ended, the men would leave first, armed, so that in the event that pirates, bandits, or hostile Indians had arrived, the first inhabitants they would encounter would be the most heavily armed members of the community.

The tradition of the men leaving the church/meeting house first persisted well after the threats from pirates/bandits/Indians had receded, and people didn't bother bringing their guns either.

Interesting historical trivia though.

at random and "pro-lifers" entering churches for purposes of assasination. How much have we really evolved?

is one nut with bullets in the chamber and a grudge against his neighbor.....

Also what is a walmart gun?

It isn't just church. Neighbors can just walk over to the neighbors house and shoot him.

OH, WAIT A MINUTE, IT DOESN'T HAPPEN. Millions of people with millions of guns, and you think because they walk around with them at church people are going to shoot other people. That doesn't make any sense at all. Think before you start typing.

And in other news 100,000 people were killed today because of the awful availability of gasoline and cars and knives.Just kidding. That didn't really happen either. Be afraid.

If you outlaw bullets in church then only outlaws in church will have bullets. What was Pastor Pagano possibly thinking? Sorry, but I have little tolerance for those who worship guns.

After all...crucifixes don't keep people! PEOPLE kill people!

normal people the fuck alone.

While the enemy of my enemy is sometimes my friend, the last thing I want to do is associate the right to keep and bear arms with superstition.

This article gave me the opportunity to email a good friend in Louisville with a claim that our religious nuts here in Lexington are in fact superior nuts to those in Louisville because their GAWD has yet to call them to pack weapons in church.

I could of course be eating my words by Sunday if this catches on throughout the state. :eyes:

I mean, apart from the fact that I'm an atheist, and don't see a whole lot of point in any religious activity, and certainly not organized ones.

Rather, what I'm getting at is that the New Bethel Church is affiliated with the Assemblies of God, a Millenarianist Pentecostal/Evangelical sect, who are exactly the kind of people who least need to worry about getting shot up by some right-wing whacko (unlike, say, Unitarian Universalists or Evangelical Lutherans, to name to completely random examples), and thus really don't need to carry to church.

The fear of "Obama taking all guns" has been running rampant in the South since the election. I am sure that silliness helped to inspire this. Along with the "militia" ideology stirred up by the likes of Glen Beck and the teabaggers. I get the feeling they are saying that the Godly are armed and can protect their "rights" from the evil Libruls.

The Republican's are backed into a political corner and their base is going militia on them. That will attract more voters, sure!

Evangelists tried a stunt like the, well, it would not go over well. I see all sorts of fail in this type of "worship" service.

The part that really jumps out to me is allowing vendors to make sales pitches from the pulpit. Oh boy, can you say "clearing of the Temple"? Yeah, I thought you could.

The 2nd Amendment is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. Why is it being taught at all? Sure you can lift that verse out of Luke if you like but take it in context. Jesus was warning his Disciples that they were no longer going to be under his direct protection and that the world was going to become very dangerous for believers. No where did he ever, under any circumstance, preach that the Kingdom of God would be brought about at the point of a sword.

Patriotic Music? How about music that gives glory and honor to God instead? That would be a novel approach for many churches these days, actually worshiping God.

and began to whip the vendors from the church

somebody would shoot him?

I see no reason why they wouldn't try again.

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

See also Luke 12:51

Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

Of course, the various gospels do reflect the political goals of the Christian cult at the time that each was written, including who was identified as the enemy and which strategy should be adopted.

Anyone can lift a verse here or there and make it anything they want. There are even those who add and subtract from scripture to make it easier.

The verse you cite in Matthew is a great example. The church has created divisions in families since day one. It still does. It's not a Christian's job to create division, but rather to accept it when it does occur.

We are to submit to lawful authority while not compromising our faith. God will judge us all when and how he sees fit and dispense whatever justice he deems appropriate. Jesus's strongest condemnations were reserved for religious leaders who used religion for their own personal gain. There are some churches that don't really understand that point.

I've got nothing at all against guns, but this whole exercise is both fucking stupid and sleazy. If these professed Christians knew shit about their religion, this wouldn't be tolerated.

What good is it to carry an UNloaded gun in church?

If it's not loaded, how are you going to shout 'Praise Jaysus!' and fire the gun in the air as you worship?

I remember a local church in the town I grew up in putting a new rifle into one of their fundraising raffles, and there were organized skeet shooting events.

Kinda silly, but then I feel the same way about most organized religion.

That line got me. Subtle, but interesting.

Barney Fife carries one bullet in his pocket. Some people are just plain nuts with or w/o a gun.

I bet there'll be a big box of cable / trigger locks available (considering the pastor is a police chaplain).

Not that I hve any object to carrying concealed in church, but this whole thing is weird. Gun safety classes in church are okay... churches are social institutions after all. But it smells kinda like a gun show with a cross onthe roof.