Special Features:
Does Your Preacher Own a Gun?
God and guns we might think don’t swing together in church or anywhere else. After
all there’s a rule about killing. It turns out that many preachers of the South love their
guns just like everyone else.
A survey of ministers in a town called Natchitoches, Louisiana reveals that many of them
have a gun as part of a collection, for hunting (even though most of them say they
haven’t hunted in years) and for protection. Like others in the town they believe
strongly in the second amendment to the Constitution and the right to bear arms.
We won’t get into “thou shalt not kill” because there might be too much discussion just
on the meaning of that, as if it were not a direct statement. Suffice to say that ministers
believe that if there is violence in the home or they are somewhere they need to insure
that they or a loved one isn’t harmed, they want to have a gun available.
One pastor supports guns for teenagers and believes they should have them for church,
just in case. Bob Ross, pastor of the Windsor Baptist Church had put together a
program to literally give guns away. It was cancelled, , however, when people objected
and thought it might be just too controversial.
Last year a gunman entered a Unitarian-Universalist Church in Tennessee and started
firing. When it was over Jim D. Adkisson, 58, a truck driver who was out of work at
the time, had killed two people and wounded six others while a children’s musical was
taking place at the church Sunday morning in February of 2008. The writer who
reported this incident in a column said that this incident wasn’t the first time and the
guns used in this and other similar incidents were all legally acquired. He believes that
since the Supreme Court’s ruling about the right to bear arms and what it means has
increased that practice to the extent that more deaths will occur, especially when there
are too few restrictions in place for gun ownership.
Those lack of restrictions on guns are certainly true in Louisiana. There are hardly any.
But some people believe that gun control comes from racist roots, in that during the
days of slavery whites were afraid slaves would revolt so they prohibited them from
carrying any type of weapon. Cramer, who wrote this piece that is cited a number of
times on the Internet, declares, “we should regard gun control aimed at law-abiding
people as a "suspect idea," and require that the courts use the same demanding
standards when reviewing the constitutionality of a gun control law, that they would
use with respect to a law that discriminated based on race.”
In the past few days Arkansas legislators are moving to allow churchgoers to pack guns
with their Bibles to church. Jonathan Turley, law professor and television commentator
for legal issues, reports one church pastor being against this because 23 years ago
there was a shooting at the church. A Little Rock minister, John Phillips, remembers
the incident that happened to him during those moments 23 years ago when he was
shot in the back. He opposes people having guns in church for that reason.
Turley said if the law in Arkansas passes pastors might be able to “lock and load for
Jesus.” He goes on to write, “This could pose a difficult choice for gun owners of what
weapon is best suited for a particular sermon. A Glock might be suitable for a New
Testament sermon, but the Old Testament is strictly non-automatic weapons only.
Easter might call for something cute like a derringer while Christmas deserves a MAC-
10.”
The right to own a gun seems to be held sacred among the ministers in a small Southern
town.
Right now they don’t pack them to church, but if Arkansas leads the way they can.
What might be the consequences of that is a question legislators will have to answer in
reviewing laws that allow the practice of taking guns to church.
God and guns we might think don’t swing together in church or anywhere else. After
all there’s a rule about killing. It turns out that many preachers of the South love their
guns just like everyone else.
A survey of ministers in a town called Natchitoches, Louisiana reveals that many of them
have a gun as part of a collection, for hunting (even though most of them say they
haven’t hunted in years) and for protection. Like others in the town they believe
strongly in the second amendment to the Constitution and the right to bear arms.
We won’t get into “thou shalt not kill” because there might be too much discussion just
on the meaning of that, as if it were not a direct statement. Suffice to say that ministers
believe that if there is violence in the home or they are somewhere they need to insure
that they or a loved one isn’t harmed, they want to have a gun available.
One pastor supports guns for teenagers and believes they should have them for church,
just in case. Bob Ross, pastor of the Windsor Baptist Church had put together a
program to literally give guns away. It was cancelled, , however, when people objected
and thought it might be just too controversial.
Last year a gunman entered a Unitarian-Universalist Church in Tennessee and started
firing. When it was over Jim D. Adkisson, 58, a truck driver who was out of work at
the time, had killed two people and wounded six others while a children’s musical was
taking place at the church Sunday morning in February of 2008. The writer who
reported this incident in a column said that this incident wasn’t the first time and the
guns used in this and other similar incidents were all legally acquired. He believes that
since the Supreme Court’s ruling about the right to bear arms and what it means has
increased that practice to the extent that more deaths will occur, especially when there
are too few restrictions in place for gun ownership.
Those lack of restrictions on guns are certainly true in Louisiana. There are hardly any.
But some people believe that gun control comes from racist roots, in that during the
days of slavery whites were afraid slaves would revolt so they prohibited them from
carrying any type of weapon. Cramer, who wrote this piece that is cited a number of
times on the Internet, declares, “we should regard gun control aimed at law-abiding
people as a "suspect idea," and require that the courts use the same demanding
standards when reviewing the constitutionality of a gun control law, that they would
use with respect to a law that discriminated based on race.”
In the past few days Arkansas legislators are moving to allow churchgoers to pack guns
with their Bibles to church. Jonathan Turley, law professor and television commentator
for legal issues, reports one church pastor being against this because 23 years ago
there was a shooting at the church. A Little Rock minister, John Phillips, remembers
the incident that happened to him during those moments 23 years ago when he was
shot in the back. He opposes people having guns in church for that reason.
Turley said if the law in Arkansas passes pastors might be able to “lock and load for
Jesus.” He goes on to write, “This could pose a difficult choice for gun owners of what
weapon is best suited for a particular sermon. A Glock might be suitable for a New
Testament sermon, but the Old Testament is strictly non-automatic weapons only.
Easter might call for something cute like a derringer while Christmas deserves a MAC-
10.”
The right to own a gun seems to be held sacred among the ministers in a small Southern
town.
Right now they don’t pack them to church, but if Arkansas leads the way they can.
What might be the consequences of that is a question legislators will have to answer in
reviewing laws that allow the practice of taking guns to church.
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