Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition – Bible Camp
Mock Military Execution for Fun and Happiness
Making the rounds on social media today is a clip from a children’s Vacation Bible School in Kentucky. The is clip is shocking and unsettling to watch, so please be aware of this before clicking the link. I will give a bit of a play-by-play as well.
Children are sitting in what appears to be pews, while men in military gear and armed with air rifles shoot at a man laying at the front of the room. The children are chanting “Take Him Out! Blow Him Up!” as the bullets fly. The church pastor, Dewayne Walker, is leading this chant on the mic. The kids mostly appear to be laughing and happy, while others are covering their ears to block out the sound of the mock execution. What the children do not appear to be is frightened. They military executioners carry the body out, as the minister counts into the microphone, and then one final gunshot can be heard, as the children scream.
There are adults sitting in the pews as well engaging in the spectacle of what seems to be a death by firing squad. Watching this is very unsettling on numerous levels. The thought that the church would think this is a good idea is odd, but the most concerning aspect is the lack of impact on the children. Outside of this taking place during a Bible camp, the images of children laughing and chanting while guns are fired “killing a human being” speaks to the ease of the gun culture in America. As this video has gone viral condemnation, concern, and many questions have been raised.
The church leading this Bible camps is Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky. Its pastor, responded to the comments online to the video, with a video of his own. His first words are he is “befuddled” by the groundswell of reaction to the video clip. He claims that misinformation surrounds the clip that is spreading and is representative of “this generation.” He claims that the vacation Bible school has been running for thirty-two years and this is a “skit” they use to teach the children about good and evil. The skit is the climax to a week long battle against evil, as the devil interrupts and causes mischief throughout the week. In this “climax” Commandos for Christ come in and kill the devil with their “gospel gun.” I guess the gospel comes with ammo, camo, and vengence in the year of our lord 2026.
This is part of his strategy to make “church a fun and happy place” according to Walker. Personally, this would be the antithesis for fun and happy. He refers to this as a form of real-life spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is used conservative Christians to interpret cultural and political conflicts. In the United States this interpretation is positioned with an understanding there exists a supernatural evil, that manifests in three distinct forms: Satan, demons, and hell. Satan’s role is to lure Christians from God, or to frustrate those who are on the path of righteousness. To accomplish this, he uses the labour of demons. The Christians who believe in this supernatural evil tend to have a perception of dangers in the world, where the framework of spiritual warfare interprets the world as the battle of good vs evil in the cosmic realm, but is also fought in our real world. Basically, what occurs in our world is seen through the lenses of the supernatural cosmic battles. Pastor Dewayne Walker is creating a visual of this supernatural cosmic battle played out with a military execution of Satan, with an audience of children. What is Walker is not doing is apologizing for the mock military execution in front of children.
In his response Walker stated:
“I thank God that we can give the kids a week of fun and joy and realness about really what’s the real world now, You may think we went over the top. You may think it was a little bit extreme, and maybe you’re right, but don’t you believe that the devil is really using extreme measures in this generation.”
Walker at the end of his video says he will not be commenting further on this topic, outside of the church Bible Study this week. I suspect this will be an audience less concerned and much more supportive than he had encountered today. He also apologizes if he has offended anyone, but does not seem to take a moment to think about what his skit may represent. While he states that misinformation is spreading about what he organized, and he “validates” it with the concept of spiritual warfare, he is unable to take accountability. While the rest of the world condemns America’s culture of the gun, this pastor is making the gun the way to the stop sin and the Devil. Won’t someone please think of the children?