Is Giving Guns to Kids What it Takes to Find Faith?

The Windsor Hills Baptist Church of Oklahoma City gave away a gun at its annual youth conference, held last week. The youth conference included a shooting competition (Jesus loves a good target range, after all), and the winner received an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle donated to the church. I know it sounds bad, but don't worry: the church’s youth pastor, Bob Ross, explained that the main thrust of the conference wasn't about guns but rather "teens finding faith.” He said, “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. That’s not at all what we’re trying to do.” I’m thinking I might start a USY chapter that has an annual event where we play with knives, set fires, and practice punching crash test dummies in the gut. But in between the violence, we’ll give tzedakah, and sing David Melech Yisrael. Then it’s okay.