Machine Gun Preacher: Review

Recently, I went to Dewsbury in Yorkshire to hear the real-life Machine Gun Preacher, Sam Childers, speak. The evening included the first UK showing of a new documentary about Childers, called “Machine Gun Preacher: Missionary or Mercenary?” followed by a question and answer session. If you’re not familiar with the story of how an illiterate drug-dealing womanising gun-toting street brawler  ended up protecting children in one of the most war-torn parts of Africa, then read Childers’ book, “Another Man’s War”; watch the film “Machine Gun Preacher,” or read a short synopsis of the film.

There’s a lot I want to tell you, so I’m going to break it into four sections: the venue; Childers’ current work; the documentary; and the Q&A.

God’s Garage in Dewsbury has to be one of the most unusual churches I've ever been to. First of all, five stewards were on duty to direct people in, and they all looked like a cross between Hell’s Angels and ZZ Top. Secondly, I've been to churches on industrial estates before, but never to one where they have made so little effort to convert the interior of the building from its previous use (admittedly the church is fairly new). The largest area of the warehouse they use is a car park which, I suppose, explains the church’s name, and the only part that has any Christian connotations is a room that holds about 50 people, with a bar and “God’s Squad” in red Gothic lettering stencilled on the wall. I sat down in a cream leather sofa and waited for the film to start, while the guys behind me discussed firearms (“I’d love to shoot a .50 calibre, but they say that if you’re too young, the recoil from a .50 can break your shoulder”); then one of the bikers from the front door stood up, introduced himself as the pastor, and invited us to hang around the “fully stocked” bar afterwards and have a beer or cider. Tea, coffee, and cappuccino weren't even mentioned (though I did notice hot drinks were available). And they took up the offering at the end in a crash helmet. Their motto seems to be “forget about the church, get your focus on Jesus.”

Sam Childers, who was named the Machine Gun Preacher by some of the Africans he works with, opened his first orphanage in a war-torn area of South Sudan in 2001. He currently runs six orphanages, four schools, and a thousand-acre farm that is used for work experience and for growing food. The various institutions serve 4000 meals per day. One of the hardest things he finds is that, because the kids in his orphanages get education, three meals a day, and are protected the predatory Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) by a wire fence and armed guards, many parents try to pass off their kids as orphans – effectively give their kids away – in order to get them a better life.  One thing that makes his work different from other East African orphanages is that others make the kids leave at 15; but apparently God told him that if he did that, he might as well not take them in at all, so he makes sure kids learn a trade before they leave, and may keep them up to the age of 26.

The documentary is well-made, with certain scenes that tell a story in just a few seconds, and background music that builds the emotions well. It focusses on Sam Childers the man: who is he, what is he like, why does he do what he does? His wife Lynn appears frequently, as do various childhood and more recent family (including his beloved Harley Davidson – Sam is a 1%er) and acquaintances – and, of course, Sam himself. It’s more of a TV documentary than a film; it doesn't set out to tell a dramatic story in three acts, but instead it uses vignettes to examine the question in the title: is he a mercenary or a missionary?

There is one section of the documentary that sums up Sam’s dedication to what he does. If you have read a lot of books about people who set up ministries or missions, there always seems to be a point where they are not merely short of money but they REALLY run into financial difficulties, which affect the ministry/mission, themselves and their whole family. Often, the book tells you that the Lord provided finances at the last minute, and the whole experience turned from a time of trial into an opportunity for faith and rejoicing. Well, Sam had the same problem a few years back, and (without giving away spoilers) it was a seriously difficult time for his wife, daughter and stepson, and there’s no suggestion that any of them came out of it rejoicing. Many people advised him to quit in Africa and come back home to provide for his family; but as he said in the question time later, “These people were the same people who advised me to go to Africa when God spoke to me about it 17 years ago. And God absolutely definitely did speak to me about it. And has God changed his mind, just because he hasn't said anything more about it for 17 years?” Sam returned to Africa in the midst of the crisis; but once he was there he took far more risks than he usually would. He hadn't lost faith in God; it was just that things were so bleak that he thought there was a strong possibility that God might provide for his family through claiming his own life insurance. (There is a miracle of healing in the documentary, but it gets comparatively little attention).

Is he a mercenary or a  missionary? The answer is: he himself will accept either title. But the best description of him is “freedom fighter”. He is there to bring freedom to the children – of any tribe -- and not for any other reason.

Question time at the end included the following (with some paraphrasing):

·        What’s your justification for taking guns when Jesus talked about turning the other cheek?

Sam’s reply to this mentioned in passing that the Bible has an Old Testament as well as a New Testament, but his main reason comes from Luke 22:36. The first time Jesus sent out his disciples, he told them to take no baggage, but in this verse, he sends them out again, and says “if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” Sam reasons that if Jesus said that, there would come a point where they were going to need those swords. Sam added that the Jesus he serves is non-violent and does not condone violence; Sam also does not condone violence, but nor does he condone the kind of tortures that are meted out to unprotected children in the area where he works.

·        Do outlaw bikers “get it”?

“Yes,” said Sam. “The top ten outlaw bikers”[I think he said “in this country”] “are very prejudiced.” [I presume he meant against other racial groups.] "But they see this documentary, and they want to volunteer to work out there, and they might take huge offerings.”

·        Does 100% of everything we give go to the kids?

Sam gave a detailed answer to this one.  He claimed that no ministry gives 100% of funds received to help those who are the targets of the mission; he claimed the average is actually 17% and can be as low as 8%. In his case, a 2011 audit (which he describes as very tough – for example, he always takes $10,000 in cash when he goes to Africa, and the audit wouldn't allow him to count that as money used for the mission) reported that his organisation was giving 38% of its income to the kids. Sam added that any designated donations go 100% to where they are designated, and that he gets his own salary from a number of companies that he owns.

·        Does Sam have any qualifications?

Actually, this wasn’t asked, but it got answered along the way. Sam’s only qualifications are in gun handling (although he’s pretty skilled at construction). He’s done enough courses to be a legal armed bodyguard in the USA, and he has a security company in the US through which he has done bodyguarding for a number of Hollywood stars.

·        What about future plans?

The question was actually “What do you plan to do in … oh, let’s stick to the next 10 years for now” (!) Sam replied that the Lord might return inside the next 10 years, but he’d answer for the next 2 years. He’d like to double the capacity of his African facilities (so 8000 meals/day, double the number of orphanage places, etc.). He also might go into US politics; people are encouraging him to run, but he won’t go for any post that would significantly limit the time he could spend in Africa. In the near term, he wants to raise money for a workshop and tractor on the farm; they currently have one tractor for 1,000 acres.

·        Do you ever have to say ‘No’ to African kids?

“All the time,” said Sam. “There’s one scene in the film that is based on a story in my book. I went to a village and there were a lot of orphans there. I couldn't take them all; I didn't have the money to look after them all, and I didn't have enough fuel for the truck to go back for the rest. The film shows me returning to the spot to find all the ones I had left behind were dead; that was Hollywood storytelling, but I did hear that a couple of days after I left, the village was attacked and many of the kids I had left behind were killed.”

·        Do you have any regrets?

“Not about the life I have now,” said Sam, “I have plenty of regrets from my old life.”