Churches Buy Billboard to Declare Guns an Idol, Igniting Fierce Controversy

A new billboard in North Carolina has drivers and the media taking a second look.

The North Carolina Council of Churches placed the billboard that depicts a pile of guns and ammunition with the words, “You shall not make for yourself an idol.” The sign reminds drivers of these commandment words and notes that the council represents 18 denominations 6,200 congregations.

The American Pastors Network (APN) addressed the billboard on the “Stand in the Gap Today” radio program last week, when host and APN President Sam Rohrer and North Carolina Pastors Network (NCPN) President Dave Kistler talked with the Rev. Mark Creech of the Raleigh-based Christian Action League about the billboard and the conversation—and controversy—surrounding it.

In fact, the News Observer said it this way in its coverage on the interstate billboard: “The 2nd Commandment outweighs the 2nd Amendment, thousands of NC churches say.”

Rohrer said the billboard does not accurately display the relationship between the Second Commandment and the Second Amendment.

“The increasingly improper usage of Scripture by many religious groups should be a matter of great concern to the church and all Christians,” said Rohrer. “The American Pastors Network, which is devoted to the authority of Scripture, believes it is a duty for all Bible-believing pastors and Christian leaders to identify incidences when where people attempt to undermine one biblically based principle, like the right and duty to defend oneself and the lives of innocent people under their care as reflected in the Second Amendment, by improperly citing a different passage in an attempt to undercut another. There are no contradictions in Scripture, and it is dangerous to attempt to make God look like He did!”

Listen to the entire program addressing this topic here.

According to the Council, “While amendments and policies related to gun control dominate the airwaves, the North Carolina Council of Churches is pointing to a different directive to guide the conversation about guns and safety in our country—the Second Commandment. Right after God commands God’s people not to follow other gods, God commands the people not to have any idols. Idols can assume a lot of guises in our world that we don’t immediately understand as idolatry. For many of us, guns have become the symbol of safety, the idol we turn to because we ‘believe in them’ to keep us safe.” However, the Council says, there are statistics about gun deaths outside of mass shootings that do not make news.

Gun control was one of the first topics for the new “Stand in the Gap” television show, which debuted yesterday on WBPH-TV60, a television station located in the Philadelphia market that reaches a potential of 7 million viewers in the greater Philadelphia region by cable, DirecTV, Dish Network, off air antenna as well as online. Both the “Stand in the Gap” radio and television programs consider news and cultural issues from a biblical and constitutional perspective, offering listeners views they won’t find in the mainstream media. Future shows will air at 3 p.m. ET Sundays.

The daily, one-hour “Stand in the Gap Today” radio has focused on issues such as Islam infiltration, freedom of religion, gun control, school violence, pop culture, politics, the economy, pro-life matters and much more. The show airs on 425 stations nationwide and can be heard live online from noon to 1 p.m. EST at American Pastors Network.com; click on the orange “Listen Live” button on the right-hand side of the webpage or find a station here.