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It's in times of great stress that the masks that people try to present to the world tend to fray or even come completely off. This guy may be a good church leader when everything is running smoothly, but people are going to have to wonder what might happen in rough going?

Just waiting for the old he is not a true Christian excuse from some here.
Beware of churches with names that are at least 5 words long...

"First Commandment Church of the Living God"......
perhaps their first commandment is " if thou cutteth me off, i will shootheth thou"......
alice, Christians make wrong decisions and tragic mistakes every day - being saved provides no guarantee that you won't mess up occasionally. this minister must have been having a very bad day and made it totally worse by his actions. i've made many poor choices after being saved and i still occasionally do - but thankfully as i repent, God doesn't count it against me - that is the power of the shed blood of Jesus.

I somehow doubt you ever did or would have waved a gun and threatened to kill somebody you did not know over something so trivial. Especially while carrying on about YOU DO NOT KNOW WHOM YOU ARE MESSING WITH or however he phrased that little pleasantry.

as a sidenote, I wonder why as pastor of the first holy church of multi names he was carrying a gun in a hip holster... Rough congregation, maybe!
But back to you, Buz. AFAIK you are not a minister and head of a church who allegedly gets his marching orders from God and tells others from the pulpit with supposed godly authority how to live OR drive.

I'm not even saved (whatever that is) and I
make wrong decisions and poor choices -

As my wife can readily testify, traffic conditions sorely test me. I call my car my "sanctification machine," because I've learned more about self-control behind the wheel than just about anywhere else - except maybe ye olde Front Pew.

Because of the sheer numbers of Christians, there are bound to be all manner of excentric types. Perhaps this fellow should get together with the Soldiers, the motorcycle troupe. Sounds like they default to weaponry all too easily. Or, maybe, as Buz suggested he just had a rough day.

alice,
a Christian who lives the gospel is indeed a minister of the word and certainly should be getting their marching orders from God.
you were wondering why he carried his gun in a hip holster, probably because his state law requires the gun to be openly displayed.

Buz, my question was more like... why is this guy carrying a gun around with him at all.
Do the ushers steal from the collection baskets or does he get heckled during his sermons or what.

Ironies about, especially when we talking about Christianity. Many who frequent this site, including Ms. McLaughlin, routinely poo poo the idea that we should take the Bible literally, or even seriously when it comes to, for example, homosexuality, adultery, etc. Their position seems to be that times have changed and that something written thousands of years ago is outdated and should not govern our thinking, or some variant of that of this argument. However, the same people are quick to sieze upon incidents like this and then start quoting scripture to condemn the offender when it will give Christians a black eye. I guess expecting people to be intellectually honest is too much to ask. The Bible is not a smorgasboard; you can't pick and choose those things that you like, and reject those that make you feel uncomfortable.

There is also a difference that must be recognized between doing things that we know are wrong, and then seeking repentance, and doing things we know are wrong and then attempting to justify them or act like there is nothing wrong with what we are doing. I don't know which applies to the good reverend, but I hope it is the former. Remember, however, that we are judged by our fruit.

Non-Christians do not, apparently, understand this distinction, or the fact that Christians are not perfect. We sin, but we are supposed always to be improving by recognizing our shortcomings and trying to do better in the future. Instead, detractors take the position that if a Christian falls short, then he must be a hypocrite (a word that is used too often and improperly; one is a hypocrite only if one holds others to a different standard than he is will to hold himself to; sinning and then seeking repentance because we understand that we have sinned is not hypocracy. Sinning, and saying it is ok, then criticizing others for the same conduct is hypocracy).

Finally, and this is the most ironic point; detractors of the Christian faith always fault us for coming up short and saying things like "he didn't act very Christlike" or some variant of that. Implied in the comment, however, is that there is that the Christian faith requires us to act different (better) than other. This is true. But it seems to escape detractors that if Christians are supposed to act better that non-Christians, wouldn't the world be better off if we all ascribed to the tenants of Christianity?

“Their position seems to be that times have changed and that something written thousands of years ago is outdated and should not govern our thinking.”

This, of course, is the prevailing mindset of the postmodern low-think culture of the West. The intellectual assault on the biblical worldview has been hugely successful in our day, to the point of habitually portraying anyone who opts for biblical morality, ethics or social models as an intellectual throwback, at best – more likely as bigot, homophobe, patriarchist, fascist, et al.

The essential tenet of macro-evolution is that things are “progressing;” and that man is also moving toward greater and greater mental clarity about the way things are and should be (process theology); that the Bible is simply an outdated lower rung on the ladder of progress, with only peripheral value as an historical witness to man’s struggle to extricate himself from his psychological primitivism. It would seem that all issues today are considered from this humanist vantage point.

The observations by many on this blogsite are no different. Contrinutors who propound the biblical viewpoint on key social issues are rarely answered with cogent, well-thought-through responses. Rather they are more often targeted with ad hominem vitriol or vacuous illogic; which shows the ultimate failure of the humanist worldview to adequately define and explain the human dilemmas of evil, war, injustice, and social disintegration – even what the ideal human lifestyle should be.

In the end, ONLY the biblical view of man as sinner, or redeemed sinner, and the unfolding Kingdom, adequately makes sense of it all. All else is doomed to self-destruct, or collapse under the weight of its spiritual blindness and false assessment of reality. I am not in despair of the current chaos, but rather truly encouraged to see it falling apart, as God predicted it would in His infallible Word. Truly, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” Soli Deo Gloria!