Baptist church is set to have an “assault rifle giveaway” during youth conference!
Read this, and then leave your opinion… 🙂
UPDATE:
OH MY GOSH!
My childhood pastor came from that Oklahoma church. I’ve actually met the old pastor–Jim Vineyard. Jim was my childhood pastor’s mentor… He did revivals at my church.
Yeah. Just wait for churched. You might be shocked…
Viagra is for the treatment of inability to get or keep an erection and similar states when erection is of low quality. When you buy remedies like cialis from canada you should know about cialis online canada. It may have a lot of brands, but only one ATC Code. Erectile dysfunction, defined as the persistent impossibility to maintain a satisfactory erection, affects an estimated 15 to 30 millions men in the America alone. Sexual heartiness is an substantial part of a man’s life, no question his age etc.
I am even more aghast at this than I was at looking at Joel and his stiff wife’s pose. I worship at a Mennonite church where the gospel of peace is taken very seriously. I am sad that I get blank looks when I tell people that I worship at a Mennonite church where service, community and peace are integral to their interpretation of the gospel, yet the prosperity gospel, and no, no doubt this event leave (false, I believe) impressions of what Faith in Christ is all about.
So when we lived in Oklahoma, we lived several blocks from that church. Oh, Oklahoma… As Chandler from Friends so eloquently put it “Oklahoma is a crazy place. You know, they call it the Sooner state. Frankly I’d sooner be in any other state.”
I would like to comment, but I can’t decide if I am furious, flabbergasted or intensely saddened.
Insane. Seriously. Even taking faith out of this for a second… where the hell is common sense????
Uhhhhhhhhhh… whose to say some psycho kids come to the conference, endure the 21 hours of preaching, get the gun, and go on a rampage?
I loved this line from the church’s website:
“If Congress, back when our country was fighting for its independence could give engraved muskets to the fifteen or so eleven year old boys… led into battle against the British, then we can give away a firearm still today…”
Are we FIGHTING for our Independence on our soil right now? Um, no. Case closed.
wow…I posted this on my blog as well. I actually looked around the church’s site, and they posted emails they have received regarding the event. Equally is scary. Here the url:
http://www.whbcyouthconference.org/?c=emails
Have you heard of The Sword of the Lord? It is right down the road from you in M’boro…and where I grew up with my Dad working there.
They teach along the same lines, at least they did when I was growing up.
I now go to what the south calls a ‘charasmatic’ church and according to my Mom I have turned my back on God! Yep, I gotta read your book!!!
Thanks for sharing.
MP
@MP! Oh yes, The “Sword” makes a short appearance in “churched.” 🙂
WOW, I am all for people having the right to own a gun, my husband is an avid hunter. He would be the first one to encourage young people to learn to hunt and take classes to learn how to handle a firearm, but he would NEVER support randomly giving a gun away at a youth conference. I have to wonder, “are they are going to shoot a Barbie-doll”, (sorry just an inside joke) Matt`s mom
Hey Matthew I am not really sure how I found your blog, but I did and yeah I think its pretty sweet.
I have been kinda reading up on all of your latest posts (Congrats on the new kid) and I should say that your understanding on Christianity is intriguing to say the least. I’m not sure I understand exactly what you believe so I was hoping if you might be able to help me grasp it all I guess. I must say that I am kinda interested in your book called Churched, and was wondering if thats out yet?
-k
Hey Sileo… “churched” isn’t out yet. It releases October 7 on Random House/WaterBrook Press… 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Check this out -they’ve cancelled it – b’c it was not an AK15 or whatever – but a shotgun. Which if you’re in Oklahoma is used for shooting game – ie: pheasants or turkeys. And alot of boys that age enjoy that activity – I know my bros did – we were in Alaska.
anyway here’s the link: http://www.whbcyouthconference.org/?c=events
Oh and the PRESS usually gets it wrong – ie: our family was eating dinner at 10:30 p.m. NOT – but it was reported EVERYTIME they reported about a certain crime. 🙁
MP, I was just down at the Sword offices back in March, and yes, they do still teach along the same lines. In fact, they’ve moved even farther to the right then they were when your dad worked there.
Have any of your watched 30-Days? It’s a TV series on FX by Morgan Spurlock, the guy who brought us the awesome documentary “Super Size Me”. He recently had an episode called: Gun Nation.
[“A woman whose strong gun control stance developed after her life was impacted by an act of gun violence will experience the opposing point of view when she spends 30 days with a father and his teen son whose lives revolve around gun culture.”]
In my opinion it was a balanced look at two extreme sides of the issue. I personally didn’t grow up in a gun-culture and while it may be a culturally relevant thing to do to give away a gun at a youth event… I’m just not sure church is the right place to do that. Then again, maybe a giveaway like this brings in a segment of their community that is unreached for Christ. I don’t know the area so I can’t say. As outlandish as it may seem to many of us, despite the controversy, hopefully relationships will be built between teens and they will be draw closer to Christ during the event.