In Guns We Trust

The Unholy Trinity of White Evangelicals, Politics, and Firearms

By: William J. Kole

Narrated by: Jonathan Strait

In this unsettling investigation into white evangelicals' fusion of the gospel and guns, veteran journalist William J. Kole exposes how some Christians are standing in the way of reasonable restrictions on firearms—and how it makes us all less safe.

On the evening that the bass player on his worship team casually showed him his handgun, the author's world shifted. In that moment, Kole—who was the AP's New England bureau chief when a gunman massacred twenty-six people at Sandy Hook Elementary—knew he had to figure out what was going on.

Why were white evangelicals more likely than other Americans to own a weapon? What made them treat the Second Amendment as if it were God-breathed? And how did his own faith, rooted in Jesus's call to turn the other cheek, get hijacked?

In In Guns We Trust, Kole looks at the unholy alliance between white evangelicals, guns, and politics. Writing in the tradition of Tim Alberta and Kristin Kobes du Mez, he takes us into sanctuaries where worshippers raise hands and pack heat; to a rural church that does outreach through target practice with assault rifles; and into the lucrative gun-making industry, in which evangelicals play an outsized role. He introduces us to global Christians who can't imagine owning firearms and dissidents in the US who are working for change—including activists beating guns into garden tools, and nuns who bought company stock so they could sue a gun manufacturer.

With meticulous research, humanizing interviews, and immersive narrative, Kole pulls back the curtain on the locked-and-loaded Christianity that got us here. Ignoring gun-toting believers, Kole argues, means the violence will continue. But when intentional conversation and faithful resistance bear fruit, peace may yet prevail.

©2025 William J. Kole (P)2025 Dreamscape Media

Oh my GD, why did the followers of Christ Consciousness select murder at will as the culture of the Prince of Peace

The Nation of the United States is on it path to disaster as killing become the way. The Author is remarkable taking the Christian vision of the ways to live with guns as false holiness. We clearly are all doomed. Take cover!!