The astonishing machine-gun preacher

Brad Watson
Senior lecturer in international poverty and development studies
School of Humanities and Creative Arts
Avondale College of Higher Education

The autobiography of Sam Childers is magnificent and ugly. In Another Man’s War, Childers describes himself as a motorcycle gang member with an insatiable desire for drugs, sex and violence. With bluntness and honesty, he describes falling in love with his wife, the impact of her faith and the beginning of a remarkable journey in which he becomes a church leader and crusader for Sudanese children—with the astonishing nickname of the machine-gun preacher.

The magnificent bit for Christian readers is the powerful reminder that no matter how far we stray from God, He is longing to redeem, transform and enable us.

The ugly bit is the moral complexity of how Childers decides to help. Placing his own life at risk in a conflict zone, he travels to Sudan to build an orphanage and rescue children in an area terrorised by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. He buys AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. He relishes battle and the death of his enemy and boasts of the lives he takes—many of who are child soldiers.

Another ugly bit is Childers’ disregard and detestation of the humanitarian principle of neutrality. In conflict, humanitarian workers deliberately remain unarmed. For them, pulling a trigger is a last resort; a tragedy to be avoided at all costs.

But perhaps the ugliest part is Childers ignores the many brave, proud and selfless people of Sudan. He perpetuates the myth of a pathetic, morally bankrupt Africa that must be rescued by a gun-toting philanthropist. In Sam’s story, only Sam stands tall.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad Childers was able to escape a life of drug-fuelled violence and sordid behaviour. I’m grateful for his reminder we are all loved by God. I’m just led to question his belligerent, vigilante approach.

Is he Christ-like and peace loving, or does he parachute into Sudan like a battle-hardened warrior straight out of the Old Testament?