Kentucky Churches Are Tempting 'Unchurched' Men with Free Guns

Image via Vimeo user Silverdale Baptist Church

If you're anywhere near Paducah, Kentucky, on March 6 and could use a free steak and gun, you really should make sure you're at Lone Oak First Baptist at 6 PM. A guy named Chuck McAlister is going to be putting on this whole time-share presentation thing about Jesus, but after that's over, there will be a raffle, and they'll give away 25 guns. It could be a long gun, a handgun, or a shotgun. They say they're expecting 1,000 people, so your odds are only about 2.5 percent, but you're guaranteed the steak at least.

Although women aren't specifically excluded from the event, the idea seems to be aimed at attracting men. It's part of a program the Kentucky Baptist Convention is calling “outreach to rednecks.” Roger Alford, a spokesman for the convention, told Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Andrew Wolfson that the program emphasizes “God, guns, and good ol’ boys.” Also, don't worry: Raffles aren't gambling, as long as they're at church.

Paul Chitwood, the executive director of the Kentucky Southern Baptist Convention, loves the program, saying, “I don’t think hunting is inconsistent with the Gospel in any way. A lot of guys in Kentucky hunt.” He's probably right about the hunting part, but of course, bullets put holes in humans too, and when asked about that, Chitwood told the Courier-Journal,“You could buy a car and run somebody over with it.”

Image via Lone Oak First Baptist Church website

Paducah, where the gun giveaway is happening, isn't famous for incidents of vehicular homicide, but it is known for gun violence, and I don't mean against white-tailed deer. The Heath High School shooting, in 1997, was a spree killing in neighboring West Paducah during which Nicole Hadley, 14, Jessica James, 17, and Kayce Steger, 15, were shot and killed and five others were wounded. The killer, Michael Carneal, used a—get this—long gun, a handgun, and a shotgun! But they weren't doing these church gun giveaways back then. It's just a horrifying coincidence.

In terms of knowing your audience and closing a deal, these giveaways seem to be working amazingly well. Chuck McAlister is a noted outdoorsman, host of Outdoor Channel's Adventure Bound Outdoors, andowns more than 30 guns. He claims his brand of "affinity evangelism" has created a “bridge to unchurched men so they will hear what we have to say,” saying that he knows "the hook that will attract people, and hunting is huge in Kentucky.” He recalls that at an event in Michigan 13 months ago, a place where hunting is also "huge," giving away 80 guns resulted in 282 conversions. That's a 3.5:1 ratio of souls to guns!

As an aside to the Kentucky Baptist Convention, I can't help wondering if this is really the best approach. I may be a liberal writer in a coastal city penning an article on converting Kentuckians to Christianity by giving them guns, but I know a thing or two about marketing, and this sounds a lot like a tactic the New York Times called "desperation marketing," in a 2009 column. They were referring to the monetary desperation of businesses on their last legs during the recession. The journalist and pastor John A. Dickerson's book The Great Evangelical Recession draws parallels between the state of Christianity and the state of the economy. Its inside flap reads:

I have a feeling "Praise the Lord, and Pass the Ammunition," isn't a long-term answer.

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