Skateboards & gift cards exchanged for guns at one Southern Baptist Church.

Southern Baptists love their American liberties. The Fourth of July in a Southern Baptist church sees a mixture of celebration and Thanksgiving to God for His blessing of liberty. People feel blessed to live in our nation. One liberty Southern Baptists love is the Second Amendment. Baptists love our guns. More than a few preachers hunt and many church members own guns to protect themselves and their families. However, not everyone is pro-gun these days and there are even Southern Baptist churches participating in liberal gun programs.

For example, one Southern Baptist Church in San Diego participate in an annual gun buyback program. The Encanto Southern Baptist Church hosted the Guns for Gifts Exchange event, Saturday, December 7. The event netted over 200 guns turned into police.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, “Participants turned in 261 firearms and walked away, no questions asked, with either a new skateboard or a gift card worth $100 or $200.”

The gift card value depended on the type of gun.

$100 for handguns.

$200 for “assault weapons,” a television station reported.

Guns turned in during the buyback are destroyed.

According to one report, San Diego Police said such events are useful because, “Guns turned in at buy-back events are often left unsecured in homes where they no longer serve a use to the owner, increasing the chance they’re stolen or used improperly by someone else in the home.”

The event is coordinated with the United African American Ministerial Action Council. The UAAMC describes the program as the result of guns becoming a public safety issue in the community. According to the website, “Since gun violence has become a public safety issue, UAAMAC has taken the initiative to get the guns off the streets of Southeast San Diego by hosting an annual event by which persons with weapons and ammunition can bring them to a location within the community and turn them in ‘No questions asked, no ID required, just get those guns in.’ This has been a collaboration between the County District Attorney San Diego Police Department, and the County Sheriff.”

So, is this a good idea for Southern Baptist churches?

Is it part of a growing social outreach that links the church to social and political causes in the community? What do you think of this?

And what of guns and Christians? What of gun control?

Do you agree with Russell Moore about the nature of the gun control debate? While praising his own love of the Second Amendment and gun rights, he wrote of gun control as “A debate about what’s prudent, and what’s not, in solving the common goal of ending criminally violent behavior. That’s why orange-vested National Rifle Association members and Birkenstock-wearing vegan gun-control advocates can exist, as the Body of Christ, in the same church without excommunicating one another.”

Another view on the issue was offered by Wayne Grudem in Politics – According to the Bible: A Comprehensive Resource for Understanding Modern Political Issues in Light of Scripture writes, “The right to self-defense should be seen as a fundamental human right, and governments should protect that right. This is especially important for women, for the elderly, and for any others who might be less able to defend themselves from an attack or who might appear to be more vulnerable to an attack, but it is a right that should be available to all citizens…A gun is the most effective means of defense in all kinds of threatening situations, especially against attackers who may be stronger or more numerous. Protection of the right to own a gun is especially important in areas of higher crime or more frequent violence.”

So, is there room in your church for those who wish to undermine a fundamental right of self-defense?