This Pastor Pagano is giving our faith a very bad name. As I make perfectly
clear in my articles, what he is advocating is totally contrary to what we
are taught in the Scriptures. As Jesus Himself clearly stated:

". . . Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the
sword shall perish with the sword."
Matthew 26:52b, KJV

I find it very interesting that towards the end of the following article,
when this pastor is reminded that what he is doing is contrary to the
Scriptures, he merely says "Baloney", and can't even offer a Scriptural
rebuttal. Why? Because there is none!

Thank God that there are other pastors, like Paster Phillips who recognize
the folly of what Pastor Pagano is doing. Pastor Pagano is certainly acting
like a worldly pagan, and not like the true man of God that he is supposed
to be!

I really like Paster Phillips' rebuttal: "Jesus didn't say, 'Go ahead, make
my day.' "

Here is an article from the New York Times:


Pastor Urges His Flock to Bring Guns to Church

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE - NYT

June 25, 2009


LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Ken Pagano, the pastor of the New Bethel Church here, is
passionate about gun rights. He shoots regularly at the local firing range,
and his sermon two weeks ago was on "God, Guns, Gospel and
Geometry." And on
Saturday night, he is inviting his congregation of 150 and others to wear or
carry their firearms into the sanctuary to "celebrate our rights as
Americans!" as a promotional flier for the "open carry
celebration" puts it.

"God and guns were part of the foundation of this country," Mr. Pagano, 49,
said Wednesday in the small brick Assembly of God church, where a large
wooden cross hung over the altar and two American flags jutted from side
walls. "I don't see any contradiction in this. Not every Christian
denomination is pacifist."

The bring-your-gun-to-church day, which will include a $1 raffle of a
handgun, firearms safety lessons and a picnic, is another sign that the gun
culture in the United States is thriving despite, or perhaps because of,
President Obama's election in November.

Last year, the National Rifle Association ran a multimillion-dollar
advertising campaign against Mr. Obama, stoking fears that he would be the
most antigun president in history and that firearms would be confiscated.
One worry was that a Democratic president and Congress would reinstitute the
assault-weapons ban, which expired in 2004.

But there is little support for the ban. Mr. Obama and his party have
largely ignored gun-control issues, and the president even signed a measure
that will allow firearms in national parks.

Still, the fear remains that Mr. Obama, and his attorney general, Eric H.
Holder Jr., will crack down on guns sooner or later. That -- along with the
faltering economy, which gun sellers say has spurred purchases for
self-defense -- has fueled a record surge in gun sales.

"Every president wants to be re-elected, and gun bans are pretty much a
nonstarter for getting re-elected," said Win Underwood, owner of the
Bluegrass Indoor Range here. "What I suspect is going to happen is, Obama's
going to cool his jets until he can get re-elected, and then he'll start
building his legacy in these hot-button areas."

When Mr. Obama was elected in November, federal instant background checks,
the best indicator of gun sales, jumped 42 percent over the previous
November. Every month since then, the number of checks has been higher than
the year before, although the postelection surge may be tapering off, as all
surges eventually do. While the number of checks in April increased 30
percent from the year before, the number of checks in May (1,023,102) was
only 15 percent higher than in May 2008.

The National Rifle Association says its membership is up 30 percent since
November. And several states have recently passed laws allowing gun owners
to carry firearms in more places -- bars, restaurants, cars and parks.

"We have a very active agenda in all 50 states," said Chris W. Cox,
legislative director of the N.R.A., widely considered the country's most
powerful lobby. "We have right-to-carry laws in over 40 states; 20 years
ago, it was in just six."

Of the 40 states with right-to-carry laws, 20 allow guns in churches.

Public attitudes also seem to be turning more sympathetic to gun owners. In
April, the Pew Research Center found for the first time that almost as many
people said it was more important to protect the rights of gun owners (45
percent) than to control gun ownership (49 percent). Just a year ago, Pew
said, 58 percent said gun control was more important than the rights of gun
owners (37 percent).

Gun-control advocates say they feel increasingly ineffective, especially
after a recent spate of high-profile shootings, including last month's
murder, inside a church in Kansas, of a doctor who performed late-term
abortions.

"We've definitely been marginalized," said Pam Gersh, a public relations
consultant here who helped organize a rally in Louisville in 2000, to
coincide with the Million Mom March against guns in Washington.

"The Brady Campaign and other similar organizations who advocate sensible
gun responsibility laws don't have the money and the political power -- not
even close," she said. "This pastor is obviously crossing a line here and
saying 'I can even take my guns to church, and there is nothing you can do
about it.' "

Ms. Gersh said she was not aware that a group of local churches and peace
activists were staging a counterpicnic -- called "Bring your peaceful heart,
leave your gun at home" -- at the same time as Mr. Pagano's event.

But news media attention -- some from overseas -- has focused on Mr. Pagano,
who has been planning the event for a year, in celebration of the Fourth of
July. Cameras will not be allowed in the church, he said, to protect the
congregation's privacy.

The celebration will feature lessons in responsible gun ownership, Mr.
Pagano said. Sheriff's deputies will be at the doors to check that openly
carried firearms are unloaded, but they will not check for concealed
weapons.

"That's the whole point of concealed," Mr. Pagano said, adding that he was
not worried because such owners require training.

Mr. Pagano said the church's insurance company, which he would not identify,
had canceled the church's policy for the day on Saturday and told him that
it would cancel the policy for good at the end of the year. If he cannot
find insurance for Saturday, people will not be allowed in openly carrying
their guns.

Arkansas and Georgia recently rejected efforts to allow people to carry
concealed weapons in church. Watching the debate in Arkansas was John
Phillips, pastor of the Central Church of Christ in Little Rock. In 1986,
Mr. Phillips was preaching in a different church there when a gunman shot
him and a parishioner. Both survived, but Mr. Phillips, 51, still has a
bullet lodged in his spine.

In a telephone interview, he said he found the idea of "packing in the pew"
abhorrent.

"There is a movement afoot across the nation, with the gun lobby pushing the
envelope, trying to allow concealed weapons to be carried in places where
they used to be prohibited -- churches, schools, bars," Mr. Phillips said.

"I don't understand how any minister who is familiar with the teachings of
the Bible can do this," he added. "Jesus didn't say, 'Go ahead, make my
day.' "

Mr. Pagano takes such comments as a challenge to his faith and says they
make him more determined.

"When someone from within the church tells me that being a Christian and
having firearms are contradictions, that they're incompatible with the
Gospel -- baloney," he said. "As soon as you start saying that it's not
something that Christians do, well, guns are just the foil. The issue now is
the Gospel. So in a sense, it does become a crusade. Now the Gospel is at
stake."


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