Teen Gun give-a-way at Church Cancelled
Here's the text:
OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Oklahoma church canceled a controversial gun giveaway for teenagers at a weekend youth conference.
Windsor Hills Baptist had planned to give away a semiautomatic assault rifle until one of the event's organizers was unable to attend.
The church’s youth pastor, Bob Ross, said it’s a way of trying to encourage young people to attend the event. The church expected hundreds of teenagers from as far away as Canada.
“We have 21 hours of preaching and teaching throughout the week,” Ross said.
A video on the church Web site shows the shooting competition from last year’s conference. A gun giveaway was part of the event last year. This year, organizers included it in their marketing.
“I don’t want people thinking ‘My goodness, we’re putting a weapon in the hand of somebody that doesn’t respect it who are then going to go out and kill,'” said Ross. “That’s not at all what we’re trying to do.”
Ross said the conference isn’t all about guns, but rather about teens finding faith.
“You make a lot of new friends down here,” said Vikki Goncharenko, who attended the conference. “You get to meet new people. There's a bunch of things that are going on. It's just, you have a wonderful time.”
Friday evening, Ross said the gun giveaway had been canceled. Pastor emeritus Jim Vineyard, who ran the event, injured his foot and wouldn’t be able to attend. The gun giveaway was also removed from the church Web site.
Ross said the church would give the gun away next year instead. He said the church spent $800 buying the gun for the promotion.
Cancelled? Come on! How could someone get upset with this? I mean don't semi-automatic assault rifles and Jesus go hand in hand?
Link
posted by mark at
6:33 PM
4 Comments:
I have considerably less problem with the gun than I have with the "event evangelism."
are you familiar with this church at all? i am and it is not too surprising. i think the same guy who couldnt attend was on tv a couple years back refuting some strange allegations. interesting place. they have a bible college as well. it is not too shocking coming from that church and its affiliates.
Hey Mark-
You know me and where I stand on shooting sports/hunting. I don't know anything about this event or church, but I don't see what's so wrong about having a shooting event/gun giveaway. I've been to a number of church-sponsored "wild game" or outdoor sporting events that have raffled off or given away guns as door prizes.
To throw out the "gun toting Jesus" idea (to say nothing of the photo you made) incites an image that I don't necessarily believe is what this church is going for. This kind of thing is more common and WAY less controversial than you think.
By the way, the term "semi-automatic assault rifle" is one of the most blown out of proportion and inciteful terms of all time. My winchester 30.06 hunting rifle fits that bill.
DClark
They said Jim couldn't attend because he hurt his foot. Is that because he shot it with this gun?
Is this the same church that taped money under the seats and gave away a couple thousand dollars a few years ago? Or was that a different one? I know it was a Baptist church in that area.
And too bad for those Canadian kids coming down to win that gun. Since their country actually has decent laws about weapons they wouldn't be able to take it home even if they did win it.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home