<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><br>I know it's a strange and sometimes terrifying world out there, but some people actually do like to hunt and/or go target shooting. Some people simply collect guns, like others do stamps or 70's era campaign buttons. Others like free stuff, no matter what it is.<br><br>Presumably they would draw in more people from Kentucky with guns as a giveaway rather than, say, Magic the Gathering cards or ThinkGeek gift cards.<br><br>I'm not even sure why this is news other than the "OMG! Guns!" factor, or the "Ha, Ha! Rednecks!" factor.<br><br>Paul<br><div><span><br></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica,
Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <hr size="1"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Tom Hansen <thansen@moscow.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Moscow Vision 2020 <vision2020@moscow.com> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, March 4, 2014 10:41 AM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Vision2020] Kentucky Baptists use gun giveaways to lure unchurched to Christ<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container"><br><div id="yiv9079110891"><div><div>You jus' ain't right with the Lord 'til you done squeezed the trigger and discharged a full-automatic, huh boyz?<br><br><div><span style="">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style=""><br></span></div><div><span style="">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a
rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style=""><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style=""> </span></div><div><div><span style="">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style=""><br></span></div><div><span style="">"There's room at the top they are telling you still.</span></div><div><span style="">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,</span></div><div><span style="">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><span style=""><br></span></div><div><span style="">- John Lennon</span></div><div><span style=""> </span></div></div><div><br>On Mar 4, 2014, at 10:02 AM, Tom Hansen <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:thansen@moscow.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:thansen@moscow.com">thansen@moscow.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote
type="cite"><div><div><span></span></div><div><div><span></span></div><div><div style=""><span></span></div><div><div style=""><span></span></div><div><div style=""><span></span></div><div><div style=""><span></span></div><div><div style=""><span></span></div><div><div style="">Courtesy of the Courier Journal (Louisville, Kentucky) at:</div><div style=""><br></div><div><span style=""><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20140228/FEATURES10/302280129/Kentucky-Baptists-use-gun-giveaways-lure-unchurched-men-Christ?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1">http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20140228/FEATURES10/302280129/Kentucky-Baptists-use-gun-giveaways-lure-unchurched-men-Christ?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1</a></span></div><div><span style=""> </span></div><div style="">-----------------------------------</div><div style=""><br></div><div style=""><h1
style="font-size:30px;padding-bottom:8px;margin:0px;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Kentucky Baptists use gun giveaways to lure unchurched to Christ</h1></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">In an effort its spokesman has described as “outreach to rednecks,” the Kentucky Baptist Convention is leading “Second Amendment Celebrations,” where churches around the state give away guns as door prizes to lure in nonbelievers in hopes of converting them to Christ.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">As many as 1,000 people are expected at the next one, on Thursday at Lone Oak Baptist Church in Paducah, where they will be given a free steak dinner and the chance to win one of 25 handguns, long guns and shotguns.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">The goal is to “point people to Christ,” the church
says in a flier. Chuck McAlister, an ex-pastor, master storyteller and former Outdoor Channel hunting show host who presides at the events as the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s team leader for evangelism, said 1,678 men made “professions of faith” at about 50 such events last year, most of them in Kentucky.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">In Louisville, he said, more than 500 people showed up on a snowy January day for a gun giveaway at Highview Baptist Church, and 61 made decisions to seek salvation.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">McAlister’s boss, Paul Chitwood, the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s executive director, said such results speak for themselves. “It’s been very effective,” he said in an interview.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">But other clergy question what guns
and gun rights have to do with with sharing the Gospel.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“How ironic to use guns to lure men in to hear a message about Jesus, who said, ‘Put away the sword,’ ” said the Rev. Joe Phelps, pastor of Louisville’s independent Highland Baptist Church.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“Giveaways for God” seem wrong, he said. “Can you picture Jesus giving away guns, or toasters or raffle tickets? ... He gave away bread once, but that was as a sign, not a sales pitch.”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">Nancy Jo Kemper, pastor of New Union Church in Versailles and the former director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, said: “Churches should not be encouraging people in their communities to arm themselves against their neighbors, but to love their
neighbors, as instructed by Jesus.”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“Second Amendment Celebrations” in church make a “travesty” of that message, she said, adding, “How terrible it would be if one of those guns given away at a church were to cause the death of an innocent victim.”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">McAlister, 60, who pastored churches in five states before taking on the role of traveling evangelist, concedes that neither guns nor gun rights are part of the Gospel. But he said he uses the love of guns and hunting in Kentucky as a “bridge to unchurched men so they will hear what we have to say.”</span></div><div style=""><span style="font-size:medium;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-size:medium;"><b>'Outreach to rednecks'</b></span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div
style=""><span style="">In an article titled “God, guns and good ol’ boys,” Roger Alford, the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s communication director, described McAlister’s work as “outreach to rednecks.”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">McAlister, an avid hunter who owns more than 30 firearms, describes it as “affinity evangelism,” in which preachers reach out to potential converts based on their common interest in a sport or hobby.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“The day of hanging a banner in front of your church and saying you’re having a revival and expecting the community to show up is over,” said McAlister, who hosted the religious-themed “Adventure Bound Outdoors” on the Outdoor Channel for 16 years.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“You have to know the
hook that will attract people, and hunting is huge in Kentucky,” he said. “So we get in there and burp and scratch and talk about the right to bear arms and that stuff.”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">He said he can understand that some people have a problem with giving away guns at churches, “given the misuse of guns and our moral decline.” But, he said, “we certainly don’t advocate violence. We are advocating guns for hunting and protection only.”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">Chitwood, a bow hunter who occasionally hunts with a gun, said, “I don’t think hunting is inconsistent with the Gospel in any way. A lot of guys in Kentucky hunt.”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">He also minimized the potential that one of the guns could be used for harm. “You could buy a
car and run somebody over with it,” he said.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">Asked what Jesus would think of the gun giveaways, McAlister said, “I don’t know, but he was pretty handy with the whip when he ran the money-changers out of the temple.”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">The guns are donated by local businesses and presented briefly to the winners in church, so they can be photographed with their prize. For legal and liability reasons, the firearms are taken back and must be reclaimed at a local gun shop, where the winner must pass a federal background check.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">The National Rifle Association declined to comment. So did the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, whose chief spokesman, James Smith, said only, “I don’t think we’re a good fit
for this story.”</span></div><div style=""><span style="font-size:medium;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-size:medium;"><b>Gun enthusiast for God</b></span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">The events seem like political rallies/prayer meetings, according to a video on YouTube of a men’s wildlife supper on Feb. 4, 2013, at Silverdale Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tenn.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">Wearing a camouflage shirt and frayed cap, McAlister ambled onto the stage, where he was surrounded by stuffed game and firearms.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“How many of y’all own guns?” he asked in his South Carolina accent. “Lemme see a show of hands.”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“That is awesome,” he
said, as the hands went up. “We’ve got an army right here!”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">McAlister sought to win the souls of the unchurched by appealing to their love of hunting and enmity toward gun control. For 30 minutes, he mentioned nothing about God or Jesus.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">Instead, he leaned on his rifle and talked about his love for the outdoors, about patriotism and about his “Daddy” and “Granddaddy,” who he said took him hunting as a child and taught him to “work hard, to be honest and to look a man in the eye when shaking his hand.”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">He derided gun control. “It’s not the gun, it’s the man behind the gun,” he said, “and criminals don’t care about a bunch of rules.”</span></div><div style=""><span
style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">He told hunting stories and jokes — including about how he had to refer to “harvesting” deer on the Outdoor Channel to be “politically correct” but now can say: “We don’t ‘harvest deer.’ We kill the suckers!”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">He spoke without notes, prowling the stage in a headset, taking the crowd back to the soybean fields where he hunted with his kin and learned important life lessons.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“I remember walking across a field one day when Granddaddy asked me why two bucks don’t go off to rut and two roosters don’t form a covey. He said, ‘Do you know why that is? It’s because animals have more sense than some people.’ ”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">The crowd
erupted in laughter, and he moved in to close the deal.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“There is only one path to know the God who made the great outdoors, and that is through his son, Jesus Christ,” he bellowed. “My friends, you listen to me and you listen carefully,” he said, lowering his voice and turning serious.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“I am here to tell you there is nothing more, nothing else and nothing better. Jesus is the only cure. Jesus is the only hope. That may not be politically correct, but I don’t give a rip about political correctness,” he said. “Because it’s true.”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">His hunt for souls produced a huge bounty — 103 men reportedly made “salvation decisions” accepting Christ as their savior.</span></div><div
style=""><span style="font-size:medium;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-size:medium;"><b>'Camo-casual' services</b></span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">At Paducah’s Lone Oak Baptist Church, which will host Thursday’s event, the Rev. Dan Summerlin said there has been some “push back” from people who are opposed to firearms.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“Any time you try something different there will be bashers,” he said. The church, whose motto is “Real People Serving the Real God,” will also offer a “camo-casual” service Sunday.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">Summerlin said he has received some calls and notes from people who lost loved ones at Heath High School, 12 miles to the west, when Michael Carneal opened fire on a group of praying students in
1997, killing three and injuring five others.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“My heart aches for those people,” Summerlin said.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">One of Carneal’s victims, Missy Jenkins Smith, who at age 15 was left paralyzed from the chest down down, said she was “shocked” when she found out about the event from a reporter.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">Smith, who has two children and works as a motivational speaker and counselor for at-risk students, said that while people have a right to bear arms, “I would have really thought they would have come up with other ways besides this.”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">For years some rural Kentucky churches have given away fishing rods, hunting gear and even a
few rifles at wild game dinners, Chitwood said.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">A Baptist church in Oakwood, Ga., last year gave away .22-caliber rifles at services to attract men who don’t think going to church is “manly,” its pastor said, according to news accounts.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">But Chitwood said McAlister came up with the idea of focusing the events on the hot-button right to bear arms, and McAlister said it was his idea as well to give away firearms in larger quantities.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“We have found that the number of unchurched men who will show up will be in direct proportion to the number of guns you give away,” McAlister said.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">He said that when he
spoke at a church in Traverse City, Mich., in February 2013 that gave away 80 guns, 382 nonbelievers made “professions of faith.”</span></div><div style=""><span style="font-size:medium;"><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="font-size:medium;"><b>Filled pews</b></span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">In Kentucky, crowds at gun giveaways have dwarfed regular Sunday church attendance, according to McAlister and local pastors.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">For example, at Buck Creek Baptist Church in Calhoun, where Sunday attendance averages about 350, more than 600 people showed up Feb. 1, and 86 accepted Jesus, said the Rev. Tom Webb, its pastor.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">McAlister said more than 800 people turned out last September for a gun giveaway at Christian County’s
Crofton Baptist Church, which has only 75 members, and 101 said they had found Christ. Several rifles and shotguns were given away, Roger Alford, the convention’s communications director, said in a story he wrote about the event.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">McAlister said the giveaways have wide appeal. “We get meat hunters who hunt just to put food on the table” along with “executives who think nothing of paying $10,000 to hunt bear in Alaska,” he said. “Guys all want to receive something for free.”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">But Kemper, the Versailles pastor, said offering the chance for a firearm “verges on bribery” and “makes a mockery of what evangelism, to my way of thinking, ought to be.”</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“If the program were just about
the joys of respecting nature and other creatures, killing animals for the sake only of food — not for sport — and how these activities might deepen relationships with all that is holy ... I would not be so alarmed,” she said. But she said the proliferation of deadly weapons has created an atmosphere of fear and distrust.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><br></span></div><div style=""><span style="">“The followers of Jesus are meant to build the kingdom of God on Earth,” she said, where “everyone can live in peace with their neighbors.”</span></div><div style=""><br></div><div style="">-----------------------------------<br><br><div><span style="">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style=""><br></span></div><div><span style="">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style=""><font
color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style=""> </span></div><div><div><span style="">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style=""><br></span></div><div><span style="">"There's room at the top they are telling you still.</span></div><div><span style="">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,</span></div><div><span style="">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><span style=""><br></span></div><div><span style="">- John Lennon</span></div><div><span style=""> </span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>=======================================================</span><br><span> List services made available by First Step Internet,</span><br><span> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.</span><br><span>
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