An Alabama church has shocked the nation by converting an unused patch of land on the church grounds into a gun range for parishioners. It appears that the members of Rocky Mount United Methodist Church, in Jemison, unanimously voted to mix religion and guns, “in the name of Jesus Christ.”

“We have had this large hole in the back of our property at the church for quite some time, and we thought it would be neat to start a gun range,” said Pastor Phil Guin. “The hole was primarily filled with kudzu, and had been used at one time to get fill dirt for the new facility that was built on the end of our church building.”

“We started working on the gun range about a year ago with some of the members of our church helping to clean out the hole,” the pastor added. “Not only did we think it would be a good outlet for members of our church to be able to learn more about gun safety, but it would be a good outreach for the community.” According to pastor Guin, a lot of the church’s female members owned or carried firearms but didn’t know how to use them.

Originally, the range was used as a safe space for professionals and the police to teach firearm skills. But according to news reports, the safety training soon morphed into the ‘Rocky Mount Hunt and Gun Club’ which now caters to gun enthusiasts in the congregation and helps bring more people to the church. “This is an opportunity for us to reach out in the name of Jesus Christ in a setting that is completely unique,” Guin said. “Even odd by some people’s standards. But who’s to say that church can’t happen right here.”

In fact, Guin insists that the whole purpose of the range is to “provide recreational and gun safety in a warm, loving, Christian environment.” He said: “We wanted to come up with some different ideas to help our church grow, and we thought this would be a unique ministry to offer to the community.”

“Right now, we are just really happy with how everything turned out,” Guin added. “We found a use for the small ‘Grand Canyon’ behind our church, and turned it into something that is pretty cool.”

Yeah, because churches are all about guns and being cool…

via Clanton Adviser