Guns Come to Church

A few minutes before New Bethel Church’s highly publicized “open-carry service” began Saturday evening, Lynne Smith walked into the sanctuary with her husband and two friends and took a seat in the front row.

Reporting for TIME Magazine, Cary G. Stemle said that when asked what weapon she had with her, Smith had to stop and think about which gun she’d brought but finally said it was a Beretta .25 automatic. Her husband, Michael Houston, wore a Browning .380 in a holster. Their friends, Ted and Barbara Grant, were also carrying weapons.

Barbara, wearing a NYPD baseball cap, had a Ruger .38 revolver, while Ted, who wore a ball cap with the National Rifle Association logo on the side and “Silver Bullet Brigade” on the front, had a Taurus .40 caliber automatic.

TIME said that the unusual gathering was entirely legal and acceptable to the leaders of New Bethel, an Assemblies of God church in Louisville, Kentucky, that invited people to bring their unloaded guns to this first-ever event. Neither of the two couples in the front row are New Bethel members.

A statement on the church’s web site about the event said that gun ownership is not part of the gospel message, which is Jesus Christ, His life, death, burial and resurrection.

The statement continued, “Gun ownership falls under the scope of Christian liberty. One may either choose to own or not own a firearm. But as soon as someone yells ‘foul,’ or that this event or activity is not something that one may do as a Christian, the matter now becomes inextricably linked with the gospel.”

The web site continued, “We recognize that some will disagree with us about this event, and we respect their right to do so. Yet, in the words of one of the greatest theologians ever to come from the Christian faith, ‘To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.’ (St. Thomas Aquinas).

A disclaimer on the web page referring to the event said, “All visitors to New Bethel Church Property enter at their own risk. New Bethel Church will not be held responsible for injuries to you or damage to your personal property.”

Smith told TIME she read about the service in the Louisville Courier-Journal and came “to see what was going on.”

All four are longtime NRA members, she said, and all are deeply worried that the federal government will mount an effort to take away the right to bear arms they believe is enshrined in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

TIME said that generalized concern was expressed in various ways by various people at the service, which became an international media sensation when it hit Louisville’s mainstream press early this month. Pastor Ken Pagano, a former Marine and a volunteer chaplain with the Louisville Metro Police Department, suggested the idea more than a year ago when the church board was brainstorming ways to expand its outreach.

Just after five o’clock, Pastor Ken Pagano stepped to the microphone, welcomed the crowd of about 175 and summarized the ground rules.

“All arms are to be holstered,” TIME reported he said. “It’s a cold-range carry as a show of support for the Second Amendment and First Amendment.”

TIME said Pagano focused on a number of issues he has dealt with before while being interviewed by journalists from Australia to Ireland.

They are that pacifism is optional for Christians; society faces more risks from texting and Twittering drivers on the highway than from guns; and “we’re not doing anything illegal, immoral or unconstitutional, so why apologize?”

TIME said he promised to keep the event (it was not a worship service) to about an hour, though it lasted 90 minutes.

The relaxed program was built largely around music and talking points interspersed with a series of videos downloaded from YouTube.

TIME said the audience sang a verse each of “America, the Beautiful,” “My Country ’tis of Thee,” and “God Bless America.”

They then watched a watched a video clip from the late comedian Red Skelton in which he invokes one of his former teachers who broke down the Pledge of Allegiance word by word. Pagano then asked the crowd to stand and led them in reciting the Pledge.

TIME said two videos featured the magicians Penn and Teller, who support gun rights. In one, they stuff a folded American flag inside a rolled-up copy of the Bill of Rights before seemingly setting it (and only it) on fire; the magicians then challenge the audience to embrace the ambiguity of the illusion and to understand that, regardless, the Bill of Rights remains.

Later, on another video, they parsed the language of the Second Amendment and quibble with those who quibble over punctuation around the word “people” and their right to bear arms.

TIME reported that Pagano related how the church’s insurance carrier refused to cover the event and his efforts to find a one-day rider. Only one agent in the country was willing to underwrite the event, he said – for $2,600. That, he said, illustrates how insurance companies have too much control over regular people. Those remarks, and others from Pagano, drew spontaneous bursts of “that’s right” and “amen.” The church eventually found coverage for $700.

After more videos there was a raffle with prizes of a free NRA membership, gun range time and a pistol.

There was also another video, this time of Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless the USA,” and an invitation to hang out for hot dogs, chips and bottled water.
Afterward, Kevin Terrell, who was among a group of attendees dressed in camouflage, told TIME that his militia group, the Ohio Valley Freedom Fighters, is closely watching various gun legislation in Congress.

He said that former President George Bush’s expansion of presidential power is a problem because he believes the current president has used it to his advantage.

“I used to think I was a right-wing Republican until Bush,” he said. “Now that absolute power has been passed to a left-winger.”

The church didn’t know what to expect from the first-time event, said member Charles Hinckley, a former pastor who carried a Smith & Wesson .380, but it went off smoothly.

TIME said that video cameras were prohibited on church grounds, forcing news crews to do stand-ups beyond the entrance to the church’s long parking lot, and still photos were restricted to one pool photographer.

TIME reported that Pagano, who said church members have a responsibility to stress safe gun usage, would like to make the open-carry service an annual event annual leading to the Fourth of July. And he said he had no problem with an alternative rally, “Bring Your Peaceful Heart … Leave Your Gun at Home,” that coincided with the gun service.

Terry Taylor, who heads Interfaith Paths to Peace, which organized the counter-rally, said there was no need to protest at the New Bethel event. “That’s not how we do things,” TIME reported he said. “We wanted to hold our own event and give something to people that we think is better.”

For more information go to New Bethel Church.

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Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico’s largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master’s degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is “The Face of Homelessness.” Additional details are available at http://www.HomelessBook.com. Reynalds’ latest book is “We All Need a Little Help.” It was released on October 3 2008. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.