A Christian pastor aimed an AR-15 at the congregation to "run out the unbelief"

Philip Thornton's stunt at Legacy Faith Church turned the teachings of Christ into a twisted sermon on violence and power

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On September 28, Pastor Philip Thornton of Legacy Faith Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania told his congregation they needed to go all out when spreading the Gospel message.

To illustrate his point, he strapped an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle on his chest and proceeded to aim it directly in their faces.

[Jesus] cleared the room. He put ‘em all out. He went in like a soldier. Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence.

Now, don’t worry, the light’s bright, right? There’s nothing in the gun, hands off the trigger, right? Light’s bright. Laser’s there.

I can get you any one of you. He had to target the unbelief… He had to get rid of the unbelief that was filling the room. He had to clear the room.

You have to learn how to clear a room in faith.

At another point in the sermon, which is still online for some reason (though I’ve saved a copy in case it gets taken down), Thornton encouraged the congregation to “overwhelm your enemy with a violent action of faith.”

Please understand, that is a principle that needs to be employed when you use your faith. You have to overwhelm your enemy with a violent action of faith. You have got to come in loud and run out the unbelief. You have to get it to submit to you.

When that wasn’t enough, he brought along a scene partner—someone else with an assault-style rifle—and acted out his bizarre biblical fantasy:

When soldiers would go into a room, it wasn’t, again, just one person knocking on the door, saying, “Hello everybody, I came to meet everybody.”

No, they came in in force, one fluid movement, right? Step-to-step, interlocked wherever they went, understanding which direction. They understood how to pass instructions forwards and backwards just by hand movements. They didn’t have to talk about it, but when they entered a room, they continued to move in that… direction.

Please understand: This is where the body of Christ could learn some lessons. Because one fluid movement is what God is after.

Elsewhere in the sermon, the man behind the pastor opens what appears to be a National Guard backpack. It’s not clear if he’s a member of the National Guard, and we’re never told if his weapon is unloaded.

There’s also one moment where the pastor says that faith gives you the power to get anything you want. Including tithes.

Therefore, by faith, I recognize that whatever it is that I have need of, I can go get it. Right?

Just like I took up the offering. How many of you gave more today than you ever… I’m joking.

Right. Praise the Lord. Can’t help myself sometimes.

Hahahaha, it’s funny because he demanded money while aiming a weapon at them…

If the goal here was to teach church members they need to be unified and working together to spread the message of Christ, he could have had them do a human knot. Instead, he turned everything up to 11 and used a deadly weapon to illustrate how Christianity is… a religious of peace?

(Can you even imagine what the right-wing reaction would be if this occurred in a mosque?)

Besides the fact that everything Thornton did here was completely unnecessary, it was also downright dangerous. The first rule of Guns—or so I’ve heard—is not to point them at anyone unless you intend to shoot. You never use a real gun as a prop even if you’re certain there’s no ammo inside. (Just ask Alec Baldwin.)

Thornton is a perfect example of everything you’re not supposed to do when handling a weapon. His actions fly in the safe of gun safety. In fact, when a reporter for PennLive spoke to gun experts about this sermon, they were appalled by Thornton’s behavior:

The experts expressed disbelief at the video, which they said blatantly violates the first two rules of gun safety: Treat all guns as loaded, and always point the gun in a safe direction.

“Frankly, if I was there with my family, I would have ushered us all out the door as quickly as I could have, and I probably would have gone up to him in a tactful way and said, ‘You’ve got to stop this,” said Emanuel Kapelsohn, a nationally recognized firearms, tactics and use of force expert.

David Sarni, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and retired New York Police Department detective, called Thornton “the model example of people who mishandle weapons.”

“I understand the message he’s trying to do. But there are so many ways you could do that message without pointing a weapon at your members,” Sarni said.

That article also cites a video I made about this very sermon.

What Thornton did likely wasn’t criminal, the piece adds, but that doesn’t mean any of it is okay. And the church seems to know this sermon backfired. Reporter Juliette Rihl tried to contact them and, suddenly, they were nowhere to be found.

Representatives of the church did not immediately respond to requests for comment. No one was at the church Wednesday and Thornton did not answer the door at his home.

Nothing screams going in like a soldier and overwhelming your enemy like running away at the first sign of a question…

On Thursday, though, the church posted a statement responding to all the criticism. Instead of apologizing for anything, they just reiterated the message they were trying to spread… which was a pathetic message to begin with.

Thank you for reaching out and seeking clarity about the recent message on “Clearing the Room”.

At the beginning, Pastor Thornton makes it abundantly clear the rifle was a PROP and for illustration purposes only. The firearm was disabled (firing pin removed), cleared, and publicly shown to be ammo free.

The illustration was designed to show believers how unbelief is an enemy to faith. Two scriptural precedents were utilized showing where both Jesus and Peter had to “clear the room” of “unbelief” in order for the needed miracle to take place.

Further examples were given showing how military training teaches soldiers to work together as a team to complete their mission.

The teaching for “believers” was intended to encourage spiritual violence towards unbelief and the lack of faith, not towards people. Matthew 11:12 / 1 Corinthians 2:14

This message has garnered great attention, and for that we are grateful. We pray many more will watch the message in its entirety and contextually learn how to defeat unbelief in their life.

Legacy Faith Church

The rifle wasn’t a “prop.” It was real. (If it’s fake, you don’t have to talk about it being “disabled” or “ammo free.”) And the idea that the enemy of faith is unbelief is ridiculous. No one is doing more damage to the Gospel message than Christians who distort the Bible to advance their cruel political agenda. Thornton is trying to blame atheists for standing in the way of Jesus when he ought to be looking in a mirror.

In any case, I watched the “message in its entirety.” It’s a horrible message, even in context. Everyone who attends this church should be embarrassed for themselves and grateful this didn’t end in some kind of disaster.

I appreciate this response in particular:

As the grandchild of a deacon of 60 years who also served in WW2, I am deeply disturbed by the chosen “prop”.

I am also a Boy Scout mom who knows how to shoot, whose daughters learned how to shoot in middle school, whose 75yo mother was taught by her grandfather how to shoot… I also call this irresponsible gun ownership. Full stop.

People, including children, of all faiths are being slaughtered in places of worship all over the world and THIS is the message you as a pastor think God and Jesus intended for you to share?

I’m here to tell you it is not. This is deeply disturbing, irresponsible, and irreverent. It points to a sick congregation led by sick leadership. Yes I watched enough to know your point. All I read here is excuses and justifications for your bad decision making.

Non-violence is one of the basic tenets of Christ’s teachings. He never held a gun. Never preached holding a rock used to stone others to illustrate a point. Would never condone what you chose to perform & how you chose to act after the fact to justify your choices.

I encourage you to find or invite peace and love in your own heart before you attempt to continue to lead others in Jesus’ name. To walk his path, you gotta put down the gun.

You’re invited to follow him, only you can choose whether or not to walk the walk.

I don’t know if the bigger problem here is a problem with conservative Christianity or America’s gun culture. Either way, when those two things mix, it never ends well. This is just blasphemy wrapped in the Second Amendment, a desecration of the Gospel Thornton pretends to defend.

One of the hallmarks of modern Christianity is the obsession with pretending to be persecuted despite having all the power. There’s no better illustration of that than a pastor who breaks out a murder weapon to argue that people who peacefully reject his beliefs are the enemy.

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