Gun sale at the church
-
- June
- 10
No joke: A Kentucky church has invited people to bring their guns on June 27.
They’ll be celebrating the 4th of July and the Second Amendment, the pastor says.
Pastor Ken Pagano of New Bethel Church in Louisville (that’s him) told Peter Smith of the Louisville Courier-Journal that he was “trying to think a little bit outside the box” to promote responsible gun ownership.
He’s done it, I’d say.
The event—billed as an “Open Carry Celebration”—is being promoted with online posters, including one using a red font resembling splattered blood, according to the Courier-Journal. I can’t find this one on the church’s website, though.
New Bethel is a member of the Assemblies of God, the nation’s largest Pentecostal denomination.
The Rev. Marian McClure Taylor, incoming executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, had this to say: “Pastor Pagano assured me that the event is designed to help people who own handguns to be very responsible, and that the proceeds will all go for charitable causes in the community. Those two commitments are consistent with the high value the Assemblies of God churches place on human life.”
Pagano is a Marine vet who serves as a chaplain for the Louisville police. Church members have regular outings at a firing range.
The event will include a $1 raffle drawing for a handgun.
Reading about this made my think of a song by the Beat Farmers, a little known country/blues outfit from the San Diego area. It was called “Gun Sale at the Church” and included these lines (sung by the late, great Buddy Blue, a Syracuse native):
*****
Well let’s pack up the kids
and take a break, get away
leave the hustle and bustle
of living from day to day
and I know that the crime
in the city is getting worse
So I’m going on down to
the gun sale at the church . . .
Well we’ll ask the lord to
forgive us for all our sins
and we’ll look at the latest in
gold plated firing pins.
*****
What the heck. Here they are:
Photo: Aaron Borton, Special to The Courier-Journal
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 9:00 am by Gary Stern.
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The world of religion, we don't have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won't interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist's license to observe.
