Interview: Machine Gun Toting Pastor on His Dangerous Mission

Monday, May. 4, 2009 Posted: 3:51:32PM HKT

Everyday he lives not knowing if he will see the next sunrise. He is not an outlaw or a man with a terminal disease. He is a machine gun toting pastor in the middle of nowhere in Africa on a dangerous mission to save the children of Sudan from the unconscionable horrors carried out by an insane local rebel group.

Sam Childers was once a heroin addict who would not even flinch putting a knife to someone’s neck. Now he uses his tough attitude and fearless fighting skills to defend helpless children being mutilated, raped, and forced to be child soldiers by the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Childers recently spoke to The Christian Post about his inspiring personal story and his new book Another Man’s War: The True Story of One Man’s Battle to Save Children in the Sudan.

CP: Were you shocked or frightened the first time you witnessed a savage mutilation by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)? What went through your mind? Did it cross your mind to return to safety in the U.S. and forget about the violence in Sudan?

Childers: No, none of that ever bothered me that way. I’ve been around fighting all my life so no, it never scared me like that.

CP: It’s understandable that most Christians feel uncomfortable supporting violence. How do you explain the work of your ministry in terms of the many machine guns, ammo and other weapons employed by the staff? How do you explain a pastor toting a machine gun that is enthusiastic about killing LRA soldiers?

Childers: Well, I don’t condone violence at all. So that is one thing. I don’t believe in violence but at the same time I don’t believe that children should be raped, murdered, or cut up. I would have to ask the American people that you take a person that cuts up a child, or kill a child, or rape a child, if you catch a person doing that do you think that person would just stop if you just say stop? Or do you think you are going to have to fight that person? You would definitely need to fight that person or else they are going to kill you.

I look at it as a self-defense and I look at it as I’m helping God’s children. I’m not a person out to murder. It’s not that I like hurting anybody. But at the same time these people need to be stopped.

As far as a pastor with a gun, what would you call David? What would you call all the prophets in the Bible that were soldiers? A lot of people want to say that’s in the Old Testament. Well, if we are not supposed to go by the Old Testament then why do we keep reading it? And what did Jesus mean when he told his disciples when he sent them out that he doesn’t want them to take an extra coat, an extra traveler’s bag, but now I’m telling you to take an extra pair of sandals, and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. What was that all about?

CP: Can you share how your faith has sustained you all these years in Africa? What is the biggest lesson about faith and God you have learned during your time saving children and fighting the LRA?

Childers: The biggest thing with my faith in Africa is it seems that everybody, Christians included, always worry about dying. I mean I go to hospitals and I know people that have been Christians for 10 years, 20 years, even for 30 years, but yet they are lying in the hospital bed on their death bed dying and scared to death to die.

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Michelle A Vu
Christian Post Reporter