Word: pagano
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...event, which is not a worship service, has been planned for several months, Pagano tells TIME, but drew little attention until the Louisville Courier-Journal ran a story in early June. Since then, Pagano, 49, a New Jersey native who's been in Kentucky for nearly 30 years and pastor of New Bethel for 10, has been swamped with interview requests. He's granted most of them, although he declined a request from ABC's Nightline to set up during the event because he fears the cameras would be invasive. (See pictures of "Gun Culture, U.S.A...
...Pagano, a former Marine, is a volunteer chaplain for the Louisville Metro Police Department (where he does not carry a weapon). Taking a break from a shift at the indoor gun range where he works one day a week, Pagano tells TIME that he's an avid sport shooter and a proponent of responsible gun ownership. Despite criticism for commingling guns and religion, he stands by his view that Christians are called on to be prepared to defend themselves and their families. "Pacifism is optional for Christians," says Pagano. "It's not a requirement...
...teen near New Bethel Church - but says they actually strengthen his argument that people who own guns should learn how to use them. Yet he also acknowledges the open-carry controversy has grown uglier than he expected and hinted at personal threats from across the religious-political spectrum. Pagano says the church's insurance carrier, after giving an initial go-ahead, has now told him it cannot insure the event. Pagano expects to find coverage before the end of the week and says the event won't be open-carry without it. Without insurance, he explains, "We'd just...
Some locals opposed to Pagano have planned an alternative rally, "Bring Your Peaceful Heart ... Leave Your Gun at Home," which is scheduled to coincide with the New Bethel event. Terry Taylor, executive director of Interfaith Paths to Peace, which organized the rally, told TIME he is particularly troubled by the open-carry service because it gives the wrong impression of Louisville, which he believes is the "spiritual center of the United States" because of its mass of interfaith work, connection to the late monk Thomas Merton and the presence of the Southern Baptist and Presbyterian seminaries and the Presbyterian Church...
...Phelps, pastor of Louisville's Highland Baptist Church, tells TIME he can relate to Pagano's pastoral need to address his members' fears, "but there is nothing in the New Testament - [which] Christians give priority to - to encourage responding to fear with self-defense. To the contrary, the central message of Jesus is that fear should compel us to trust God's mercy in the midst of the fearful situation. In a face-off between the teachings of Jesus and the Constitution, Jesus better win in church...