A video went viral last week showing children at a vacation Bible school in Lexington watching men in military uniforms stage a shooting inside a church sanctuary. As gun-fire sound effects played, a man writhed on the chancel steps while the pastor led adults and children in a chant: “Take him out! Blow him up!”
I am an ordained Lutheran minister. I live in this city. And what I saw shook me to my core.
The skit occurred at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church’s 32nd annual VBS, themed “S’More About Jesus,” in June. Pastor Dewayne Walker later explained in a video statement that the scene depicted “killing the devil” — part of what he called “Commandos for Christ,” wielding what he termed “the gospel gun.” He expressed no regret. “If I could kill the devil every day and raise him up and kill him again, I’d do it,” he said…