A Baptist pastor/evangelist recently opened a gun store in Smithfield, N.C., along with lots of help from his wife and his son, who manages the store. 
They were stuck on a name for the the store, which features handguns along with full line of rifles and shotguns, until his wife dreamed that God told her to name it after the Second Amendment, which speaks of a constitutional right for citizens to bear arms — and that they should call it the “2nd Amen-ment Gun Shop.”
When I read the article in the News and Observer, I wanted to throw up. Seriously.
The same day, I heard a radio clip of presidential wanna-be Sarah Palin stumping for Texas governor Rick Parry, a Republican who’s running for reelection. To raucous cheers, Palin said “A lot of us in our states proudly cling to our guns and religion.”
I almost had to pull over.
What is wrong with our country — what is wrong with the American brand of Christianity — that leaves it open to such perversion? What are we thinking? The twisted notion of combining guns and religion in any way — much less citing them as top core values — calls for the most vehement objection, and yet huge masses of people cheer! Jesus must stand on his head at the thought of his teaching — which calls for humility and self-sacrifice — being morphed into a gospel of macho bang-o cowboy conservatism — yet millions of Americans have been led to believe that gun-slinging and Bible-toting are somehow akin.
That picture is so wrong that you could throw it in the dump and the garbage would throw it back.
It’s not Denmark that has the problem. Something is rotten in the state of Texas, and Alaska, and North Carolina and . . .
Professor of Old Testament at Campbell University Divinity School in Buies Creek, North Carolina, and the Contributing Editor and Curriculum Writer at Good Faith Media.
