HOSPITABLE, diminutive and currently reliant on a wheelchair, Brenda Stevenson, pastor of the New Outreach Christian Centre in Charlotte, North Carolina, makes an improbable gunslinger. So averse was she to weapons when her children were young that she wouldn’t let them play with water pistols. But “there is a time and a season for all things.” Mrs Stevenson recently informed worshippers that “two new members are joining the church”: Smith & Wesson.
Her anxiety is understandable. Known for feeding the homeless, her centre attracts some unsavoury types. Its previous building burned down 20 years ago, the first of many chapels destroyed in a spate of suspected arsons in the state in the 1990s. A nearby Baptist church stands partially charred and collapsed, one of several black churches torched in the South since a racist massacre at a black church in Charleston in June (Mrs Stevenson’s congregation is mixed). That finally prompted her to take the training course required to carry a concealed weapon. She plans to keep her gun in a Bible-shaped case, Wild West-style, when she preaches; it is hard to imagine her using it, and she hopes she...Continue reading
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