In the news|June 23, 2014 10:21 EDT
Missouri Church Lures Men into the Church With AR-15 Rifle Give-Aways, Christians Outraged With Violent Marketing Strategy (VIDEO)
A church raffle in Joplin, Missouri, had an interesting choice of prizes on its list, including two AR-15 assault rifles. The Pastor, in an effort to "get more people to follow Jesus" said the church posted the weapons as prizes because "they can."
This past Father's Day, Ignite Church, gave away two assault weapons in an effort to get more men into God's house. One of the guns was a Smith and Wesson AR-15 and the other a Black Rain AR15.
"If we get people in the door, we get to preach the gospel," the lead pastor of Ignite church, Heath Mooneyham said to Joplin Globe, "If we can get more people to follow Jesus, I'll give away 1,000 guns. I don't care."
The Joplin Globe reported that the church has already made changes in an attempt to draw a younger male crowd to Sunday services. They've started later (10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.), began playing loud rock music, had a black and green theme, and introduced a tattooed pastor who sports a mohawk.
"We're not trying to put on a show for anybody," Mooneyham told the publication. "We're just dudes."
The giveaways were apart of an outreach by the church to make inroads with the male age 18 to 35 demographic. In a YouTube promotional video the pastor very vulgarly promoted the event while wearing a shirt that read "Drink Up" and pushed men to sign up to win the rifles.
During the clip when explaining why the church decided to do such a raffle, the pastor rationalized, "Because we can, and we're awesome like that."
On Father's Day, men were given an opportunity to put their names in a hat to win. Dan McCain, owner of a local guitar shop and part of the worship band, was one of the two AR-15 winners.
"I was very happy to win the rifle"¦I enjoy hunting and target shooting. I haven't had the opportunity to hunt in a while, but hope to change that this season," he said, "Firearm ownership does not equate to violence."
The church has been known to have sponsored shooting and hunting outings in past.
Many people in the Christian community disagree with Ignite's aggressive marketing methods to entice people. A fellow pastor in Joplin chimed in on the matter and told Joplin Globe that he does not agree with Ignite Church's methods.
"I think giving away weapons, with all the violence in this country, gives way to new violence," said Steve Urie, pastor at the Joplin Diversity Fellowship, "I don't think it's just nontraditional. I think it's careless and reckless."
Others on YouTube said, "such a disrespect to God," and "The AR-15 is a civilian version of a military weapon. It is NOT a hunting rifle. It is not a home defense weapon. It is designed to kill people. That is its purpose and why most mass shooting involve AR-15s."
Watch Pastor Mooneyham'S AR-15 promotional video to the church below:
