This story is about a church that was planning to give away an AR-15 assault rifle at a church event. It was actually a giveaway planned for the purpose of drawing people to a church youth event. The church is Windsor Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. The story if below.
I don't think I need to comment much here. Any sane, rational person would have the same reaction I did when I read the story. This is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen a church do. For goodness sake, what does giving away an assault rifle have to do with the life of Christ or our lives as disciples of Jesus?
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKla. - After one of its organizers suffered an injury, a church was forced to cancel a gun giveaway at a weekend youth event.
The Windsor Hills Baptist Church planned the giveaway as a way to draw new participants to the church's annual youth conference.
The gun in question: an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle.
Windsor Hills cancelled the giveaway Friday evening after announcing that Pastor Emeritus Jim Vineyard, who was running the event, had suffered a foot injury and would be unable to attend.
A video posted on the church's Web site contains a shooting competition from the 2007 conference, which also included a gun giveaway.
Church leaders defended the decision to hold the event.
"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 Bob Ross, the youth pastor at Windsor Hills. "That's not at all what we're trying to do."
Past attendees also defended the conference, stating the focus is on helping teens find faith, and not on firearms.
"You make a lot of new friends down here. You get to meet new people," said Vikki Goncharenko, who attended the conference. "There's a bunch of things going on."
Ross said the gun, which had already been purchased for the event, will be given away at next year's conference.
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http://www.9news.com/news/watercooler/article.aspx?storyid=95647&catid=337
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