Mr. Atwood is the author of America and Its Guns: A Theological Expose. In it, the long time ecumenical anti-gunner “documents how Americans have been deceived into believing that the tools of violence, whether they take the form of advanced military technology or a handgun in the bedside stand, will provide security.” Deceived eh? I’m not so sure. In the talk above, Atwood goes further . . .

“It is impossible to love God or to say that we love God and ignore what is maiming and killing our neighbors.” True dat. Too bad Atwood places the blame on guns and gun laws, rather than what’s in man’s heart. Like this . . .

We cannot love God no matter how much we are devout if we don’t care that a mentally ill person in Louisville can buy an assault weapon as easily as he can go to McDonald’s and buy a Big Mac. And it’s easier still for him to open a box an armor-piercing bullets which we call cop killers than it is for him to open a bag of potato chips.

The Kentuckian is a rabble-rouser who beats listeners over their heads with facts taken out of context, delivered with stentorian haranguing. In the video above, Atwood urges his audience to conflate theological support for slavery with its silence on “gun violence” and hutch-goers’ failure to support legislation closing the “gun show loophole.”

As for citing Biblical exhortations on self-defense or raising gun ownership’s practical benefits for preserving innocent life, ha! Atwood closes by evoking the Golden Rule. Thinking about it . . .

If I were about to take innocent life, I would want my neighbor to do everything in his or her power to stop me. Because that’s what I would do to them. If I or they had a gun and a ballistic solution was the best not-to-say-only solution, so be it. Does that count?

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45 COMMENTS

  3. Well, to me, it is true that old saying “no G-d, no peace” “know G-d, know peace”.

    But after the fundamentals are in place, the other old saying I practice is “peace through superior fire power” or the other oldy but goody, “if you want peace, prepare for war”.

      • Could be wrong, but I think some Jewish people still hold a deep reverence for the name of god (even just writing the word in reference) that they’ll leave the hyphen in place of the vowel.

        Or he’s a member of the PC police, but I’m leaning towards the former.

        • It’s reverence. I read a lot of columns on jewishworldreview and they do the same thing there for that specific reason, even editing other parties’ columns where the word was spelled out in the original.

          I’m OK with the practice, even though I don’t personally adhere to it. I like it that the Jews are OK with my not adhering to their practice and don’t seek to decapitate me for it.

        • I actually am not Jewish r_c, but I like the reminder that I can never know the true nature of G-d. That it will always remain a mystery to be continually explored, developed, a question that will never truly have the final answer.

  4. I think this bible thumper needs to speak to other bible thumpers who have AR15 rifle raffles in their churches. They would explain to him passages in the bible he has selectively chosen to ignore regarding armed self defense.

  6. I do love God and my lord and savior Christ Jesus. However, this preacher is wrong in many ways. 1: You can not go out and just buy AP ammo like a bag of chips. 2: Even Jesus the Christ said we have the right to defend our selves. The commandment is “Tho shall not comment murder.” Murder is to kill someone who i not attacking you or those you are defending. Also to bring slavery into this discussion is completely uncalled for. It has nothing to do with the firearm debate other then to show that the same party (democrats) who was for slavery is the same party trying to keep guns out of the hands of blacks and “lower class” citizens. Again he needs to know his facts.

  7. He looks like Mark Kelly’s uncle. You know, the one who abused his nephew for ten years but then paid his college tuition. That uncle.

  8. To my understanding, I have been given a unique life and lifespan by God Almighty. It seems to me to be callous, disrespectful and deeply ungrateful to wantonly throw it away by not being willing to defend myself. Equally, what of my personal possessions? How were they acquired other than by the expense of my time, or Life, in exchange for money. There is always more money, the amount of time/Life is unknown to all of us, yet it is the best deal we have. That said we still must acquire what we will with our Lives, the money is only symbolic at best, therefore again to casually give up what we have stored up for our and our family’s benefit is wrong and an affront to God. Defend your s life and the lives of those you love and your hearth and home as well, and the Devil take this rabble rousing attention whore.

  9. Failure on biblical scale.

    Fail to stop illegals at the border.

    Fail to stop the murder of unborn.

    Fail to stop the selling of baby body parts.

    Fail to allow eligible students to carry arms.

    Fail to negotiate arms treaty with a known belligerent.

    Fail in Assuming signs will stop mad men.

    Failure to tell the truth about gun statistics.

    Fail at a pulpit to have any resemblance to reality.

  10. Biblically speaking, in the macro sense, he is perhaps correct. Biblically, there will be no true “security” on this earth through arms or anything else until the Millenial Reign. But somehow I don’t think that’s the point he is trying to make, and I’m not going to hurt my brain listening to some idiot attempting to use the Bible to support a totally un-Biblical worldview.

  11. Meh. Just his opinion. Nothing more. This Christian has guns and unapologetically will defend his loved ones lives to the death. With zero guilt…

  14. There is a tiny inkling of truth to Mr. Atwood’s message: sometimes we will be unable to save our life even if we have a firearm. Saying it another way, a firearm is not a magic talisman as we like to say on this site every once in a while.

    This doesn’t mean that we should not have firearms. Rather, it means we should consider additional measure to protect ourselves. As we also say on this site every once in a while, the only gunfight we are guaranteed to not lose is the gunfight that never happens. Thus, any strategy which prevents gunfights is a good strategy.

    And how do you prevent such acts of violence wholesale? You have to change the hearts and minds of men and women for the better … and I cannot think of a more effective change agent than coming to faith in God Almighty.

    So, if you are interested in a theological angle on firearms and personal security, consider reaching out to change hearts and minds in addition to regular range practice. A person who leaves behind a life of violence for faith in God is a person that we no longer have to worry about being a threat which requires a ballistic resolution.

  15. And how about the false religion of The State? Also sometimes referred to as liberalism, progressivism, communism, Marxism, fascism, and a bunch of other -isms I’m too lazy to type in right now.

  16. Yet if he were about to be taken hostage he’d call the police.
    If his country was invaded he’d call the army.
    Come on!
    What do they have in common?
    Different degrees of training in arms and crime scene investigation. For the police that means get it over before we get there. A little tongue in cheek because I respect our boys in camo and blue. There are jerks in all ranks.
    Please Reverend. If some naredowells try to do your daughter, what’s the plan?

  18. This yahoo closes with the “Golden Rule”.
    I would like to enlighten him on the “Lead-Copper Rule”.

    Not this one…The “Lead and Copper Rule”, or LCR, is a United States federal regulation which limits the concentration of lead and copper allowed in public drinking water at the consumer’s tap, as well limiting the permissible amount of pipe corrosion occurring due to the water itself.

    But this one…If you are stupid enough to force entry into my home, you will find out that lead and copper rule!

  19. Assuming my memory isn’t faulty, Bible Studies was a long time ago, wasn’t the first thing people did was get kicked out of paradise? The second… Cain whacks Abel. Most of what you really need to know about humanity right there.

  20. It’s a part of the sovereign gift of free will. Politically speaking, ours is a world governed by the aggressive use of force. This applies at all levels of society. It is incumbent upon the one facing it to take responsibility for defending his or her own self rather than cede it to another. It is immoral to disarm a people and make slaves of them to either outside aggressors or their own government.

    We can always take biblical selections to fit our arguments, but the totality of it speaks to individual responsibility. So I’ll keep my guns.

  21. I like how this guy tells me how it’s impossible for me to love God because of my political leanings. Apparently being pro-2A makes me a bad Christian.

  22. From Kentucky to the “Holy” See, false prophets abound. History and the present are as replete with such charlatans as no doubt the future will be.

  23. Louisville Ky is where the NRA national convention is next year. No double standards put the DC politicians on Obamacare and SS.Thanks for your support and vote.Pass the word. mrpresident2016.com

    • Good. It is also the headquarters of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA). I hope the NRA convention coincides the the General Assembly meeting. I recently wrote a long letter to them expressing my anger with the PCUSA over their support of CSGV, pointing out their advocacy of “swatting” gun owners. This turd of a minister is on the CSGV board. I’m still a member of PCUSA mainly because of strong connections with family and friends but lately I spend most of my Sundays at the range.

      • Oh I see the GA is meeting in Portland, OR next year. They’ll just love this guy especially after this Umpqua shooting.

  24. Too bad Atwood places the blame on guns and gun laws, rather than what’s in man’s heart.

    Could not agree more to this statement. I am so thankful to be part of a church family and have a pastor that gets this. Just yesterday, in his sermon message, our pastor (suburban Chicago church) said the following about the shooting in Oregon:

    Now, what grieves me most of all I think in all of this is our awareness that if he had targeted Muslims or minorities, we would not cease to hear about it in the news. But because he’s targeting Christians, everyone turns down the volume, ‘we gotta talk about something else.’ And people come out and [say], ‘Well, this is an issue of gun control.’ Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Now, I don’t care about gun control and I don’t talk about political things at church. I talk about spiritual things at church and if you’re for guns or against guns, honestly don’t even tell me. I don’t care. You can have your own opinion about that. We don’t have to be on the same page about that. But when someone says that gun control is a solution to murderous lunatics…ummm, we live in Chicago. Okay? 397 homicides this year, at a record pace, with the strongest gun control in the country. So are we stupid or something? Are we stupid? That we let people tell us that more laws are going to somehow solve a problem that is sourced in the enemy of our souls, who is currently, this moment, rallying every force within his control to target his hatred…on God’s people who are following Jesus…? I’m not going to be silent on this, and I’m not naive about it, and I’m not numb to it…

    It's not about guns, or knives, or ropes, or bricks, or bats, or rat poison, or plastic bags, or whatever the instrument used to kill someone is. It's about what's going on in the heart of the person who chooses to use that instrument to target an individual, or group of individuals, based solely on some arbitrary and criteria, and choose to methodically end the life/lives of the person/people who meet that arbitrary criteria. It's what's going on in that person's heart and their soul that is the problem. Period.

    The fact that some insist upon the use of misdirection – "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" – to place blame where it simply does not belong, is troubling, saddening, and downright disturbing. Blame shifting is immature and irresponsible.

    – I only stole cable television because the cable company screwed up. It's their fault. If they wouldn't have forgotten to turn off my subscription…

    – It was the banker's fault for miscounting the cash they gave me, so I took it.

    – They left their car unlocked, so I took the iPod/iPhone/money/whatever in there. It's their fault. They should have locked their doors.

    And so on. The problem is with the person who chooses to perpetrate and act of wrong, not with the instrument with which they choose to perpetrate it.

  25. I’ve actually had a conversation with a good friend about the biblical implications about pulling the trigger. It’s hard. Mostly I don’t want to send someone to see Jesus who isn’t going to have a good time meeting him.

    But I feel it’s not just my god given right, but my duty to defend my family and myself. So this guy can preach whatever he wants. I ain’t buying it.

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