Bring-Your-Gun-to-Church-Day

The Assemblies of God pastor's plans for the event are undeterred by the recent killing of abortion doctor George Tiller in the lobby of his church in Wichita. Pagano says his agenda is to promote gun safety, and all weapons brought into New Bethel Church must be unloaded.

Pagano's plan may indicate the rise of a new phenomenon in American religion: the NRA Christian. But even putting aside the Sermon on the Mount and such biblical imagery as the beating of swords into plowshares, one must question whether an embrace of guns is the best way to claim a national identity and celebrate our patriotism -- in or out of church. After all, the First Amendment protects freedom of religion; the Thirteenth Amendment outlaws slavery; the Nineteenth Amendment extends voting rights to women. Aren't any of these worthy of a July 4th picnic?

What disturbs me most about Pagano's bring-your-gun-to-church-day, however, is not the thought of Independence Day revelers enjoying a Second Amendment theme party, but the advent of NRA Christian evangelism. The murder of George Tiller was particularly eerie because he was shot and killed in his church. Christian churches have long been considered places of peace, and sanctuaries from societal violence. When this presumption of sanctuary becomes violated -- from Archbishop Thomas Becket's murder in 1170 in Canterbury Cathedral to the 1980 slaying of Salvadorian Archbishop Oscar Romero -- there is a sense that our worship has been desecrated. Francis Ford Coppola's juxtapositions of a wedding and a christening with ruthless violence in the Godfather films were brilliantly powerful for just this reason.

The first time I saw a sign on the door of a business stating that guns were not permitted on the premises, I laughed at the absurdity of it: "Well, that will sure keep the shooters out of here!" But I'm not laughing anymore. No, a sign won't keep the shooters out, but it will convey a message about safety and the value of non-violence. There was a time when such a sign would not have needed to be posted on a church door. Not any more.