A Wet Cat and a Gun

I have a wet cat and a gun. Don’t make me use them…

I Can Has Cheezburger

 

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.

And The POT(US) Calls The Kettle Black

President Obama said the US had “failed to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world”.

I was shocked to find out that Anti-Americanism is running rampant. Perhaps I should change my source of news to Pravada, TASS, or the DailyKOS like Obama. Or perhaps he is reading one of the papers in Arabic that the Wahhabi’s publish.

What happened for those who missed it is that the liberal press demonized a sitting President and the rest of the world joined in because they were quaking in their boots over radical fanatics and the fear that they too maybe attacked or have their precious oil cut off. Twice Russia has used petro-power to make former satellite States toe the Party line and cut off gas to Europe so they couldn’t complain. Then the American voters elected an empty suit puppet.

Obama apologizing to the World for America. I guess things like WW1, WW2, being the backbone of NATO while financially waiving all war debts of Europe, the charity of America and every good thing we do and have done mean little to a man who doesn’t know how many States there are. Admittedly he did mention that to just blame America for the world’s ills was foolish.

“But in Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual, but can also be insidious. Instead of recognising the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what is bad.

A “Constitutional Scholar” who has no idea what that precious document says but wants to rewrite it. He wants to model a new constitution on European Socialism and he says it must contain “redistribution of wealth”.

Obama…the man who thinks he can hide his heritage, his college records, his birth certificate and his ties to Communists, radical Islam, Black Liberation, and every other left wing organization. The man that fails to understand the meaning of deterrent. The man who wants to disarm not only the people of the United States but the Armed Forces. The man who thinks that the law doesn’t apply to him. The man who has proven that the American voters are stupid.

Throughout the election campaign Obama projected nothing but arrogance while thinking Americans clung to their “Religion and their guns”. Even the Pope noticed BHO’s arrogance and the Vatican voiced their objections.

This is a man who loads his Cabinet up with tax cheats and scofflaws; a man who lies about anything and everything. He is now trying to throw Israel under the bus. He is a spineless leader who is advocating that this Country be subjugated to the New World Order. This is a man who wants to make nice, nice with nations that support and fund terrorism. This is a man who thinks that just because he was elected POTUS the entire world must not question him about anything. They should just follow him. This is a man who is keeping enemy lists. This is a man who doesn’t want banks paying back TARP monies because then he wouldn’t have control.

ALL
^POWER TO THE PEOPLE POTUS!

I don’t blame the First Lady of France for not wanting to kiss him, that face of his has been kissing derrieres for so long and no telling where it had been lately.

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Ghost Ranger, Tex’s first novel, is now available on Lulu and Amazon.

 

 

 

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