By ZACHARY OLSAVICKY
Opinion Editor
When running for president back in 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama made a controversial statement about disillusionment among working-class voters, saying that they “cling to guns or religion,” among other things, when hardships enter their lives. Other candidates criticized the statement, and Obama quickly issued a semi-apology to offended parties. Insulted, these people moved swiftly to prove the president right by clinging to their guns and religion, falsely accusing him of curtailing the second amendment well before the tragedies in Aurora and Sandy Hook and enforcing Sharia Law on the court system. “We’ll keep our guns and religion—you keep the change,” say many an anti-Obama bumper sticker.
Now, in a gold-star entry to the files of the Department of Life Imitating Art, a Baptist church in Troy has decided to cling to guns and religion, giving away an AR-15 assault rifle following a service in March. The service is designed to honor hunters and gun owners who, according to John W. Koletas, pastor of the Grace Baptist Church, “have been so viciously attacked by the antichristian socialist media and antichristian socialist politicians the last few years.”
The service is centered on the question, “Does the Bible defend my right to keep and bear arms?,” which was one of the most pressing questions facing Jesus and his fellow Founding Fathers at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
“Our country was built with the King James Bible and the gun,” said Koletas in a statement on the church’s website. It’s odd—I remember visiting Colonial Williamsburg as a child, but I don’t remember seeing any buildings crafted out of muskets.
Regardless of his architectural palate, Koletas seems bent on tying his church to older days. In addition to his invocation of colonial-era life, the church describes itself on its website as “an ol’ fashioned church preaching the ol’ time religion.” It’s a sentiment reinforced through their doctrine on music, which forbids “the worldly beat of rock ‘n roll, disco, rap, metal, soft rock, hard rock, religious contemporary music, and any music that promotes the Egyptian-style beat and rhythm of modern contemporary secular and religious music.”
Now, perhaps I’m wrong here, as I have been immersed with heathen music, like The Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder, since childhood. But I’ve never understood the value of doing old-fashioned things simply because they’re old-fashioned. I wonder if Koletas would stop using a refrigerator to store foods, since those didn’t come into use until the 1930s. Or if he would see an old-fashioned doctor to treat an illness. Better yet, if the pastor is so interested in old-fashioned living, why is he giving away an AR-15 and not an old-fashioned gun?
Of course, this fixation on old-fashioned items underscores the problem: this church is looking backwards in a world that looks forward. Religions that are successful in contemporary society adhere to the core ethical values of their doctrines, not lifestyle directives or literal interpretations. It’s why Pope Francis has garnered so much praise: his opinions are a breath of fresh air compared to his predecessors. The importance of modernity is shown even in the raffle itself: nobody would come if an “ol’ time” rifle was auctioned—people are looking for the latest and greatest in technology.
At a certain point, it feels like approaching this church with any regard for logic becomes a chore. The illogic extends well beyond this service and embeds itself in much of the church’s ideology. Amusing items includes doctrinal belief in a “literal Hell,” which I imagine as a library filled with only Tom Clancy novels. But not all of the church’s beliefs are as amusing—a tab on the church’s web page, labeled “Heathens,” includes screeds against Dr. Martin Luther King (inaccurately labeled “Michael King”) and Nelson Mandela. Complaining about music is one thing, but to put down the accomplishments of two social justice champions is frightening, to say the least.
Though this may seem like a problem that only affects this one church, Koletas’ actions have ramifications for religion at a larger level. When religiously apathetic people read about incidents like these, it makes them frown upon religion at all levels. There’s not much that can be done about this—Grace Baptist Church is independent—but it couldn’t hurt to remind folks that this group isn’t talking about religion. Their aims, ironically enough, are secular in nature—it’s a pattern we’ve seen in places like Arizona, where religious freedom became a cover for homophobia.
People are finding new moral understandings in religion, whether they come from contemporary sources or ancient religious texts, and it’s breathing new life into these institutions. Folks like Pastor Koletas and his followers at the Grace Baptist Church can keep their guns and religion—we’ll keep the change.
