Pro-Gun Churches in Kentucky Give Away Guns

In an age of churches doing gun buybacks, it’s nice to find some that give them away:

In an effort its spokesman has described as “outreach to rednecks,” the Kentucky Baptist Convention is leading “Second Amendment Celebrations,” where churches around the state give away guns as door prizes to lure in non-believers in hopes of converting them to Christ.

As many as 1,000 people are expected at the next one, on Thursday at Lone Oak Baptist Church in Paducah, where they will be given a free steak dinner and the chance to win one of 25 handguns, long guns and shotguns.
…
Chitwood, a bow hunter who occasionally hunts with a gun, said, “I don’t think hunting is inconsistent with the Gospel in any way. A lot of guys in Kentucky hunt.”

He also minimized the potential that one of the guns could be used for harm. “You could buy a car and run somebody over with it,” he said.

Asked what Jesus would think of the gun giveaways, McAlister said, “I don’t know, but he was pretty handy with the whip when he ran the money changers out of the temple.”

….
He derided gun control. “It’s not the gun, it’s the man behind the gun,” he said, “and criminals don’t care about a bunch of rules.”He told hunting stories and jokes — including about how he had to refer to “harvesting” deer on the Outdoor Channel to be “politically correct” but now can say: “We don’t ‘harvest deer.’ We kill the suckers!”
…
For years some rural Kentucky churches have given away fishing rods, hunting gear and even a few rifles at wild game dinners, Chitwood said.

A Baptist church in Oakwood, Ga., last year gave away .22-caliber rifles at services to attract men who don’t think going to church is “manly,” its pastor said, according to news accounts.

But Chitwood said McAlister came up with the idea of focusing the events on the hot-button right to bear arms, and McAlister said it was his idea as well to give away firearms in larger quantities.

“We have found that the number of unchurched men who will show up will be in direct proportion to the number of guns you give away,” McAlaster said.

….

He said that when he spoke at a church in Traverse City, Mich., in February 2013 that gave away 80 guns, 382 non-believers made “professions of faith.”

Source: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20140228/FEATURES10/302280129/Kentucky-Baptists-use-gun-giveaways-lure-unchurched-Christ

Click the source link if you want to read the entire article, but I warn you, it’s a long one.