For tomorrow's service at his church in Kentucky, a pastor has invited his congregation to bring along their Bibles, a tin of canned food, a friend - and their guns.

Ken Pagano, who packs a pistol of his own, wants his parishioners to openly wear their firearms at the New Bethel Church in Louisville to mark the 4 July Independence anniversary and celebrate the part guns played in the making of the nation.

The unusual service has brought a mixed reaction, welcomed by many gun owners but widely derided elsewhere with fellow pastors and victims of gun crime questioning whether it is appropriate to carry weapons in a church.

In a phone interview today, Pagano said: "I do not see any contradiction. I do not see any incongruity as a Christian. It is not unbiblical. It is not illegal. And it is not unconstitutional."

Pagano, a 49-year-old former marine, acknowledged that bringing guns to church was uncommon in modern culture but said in New England in colonial times there were racks at the back of the church for rifles for militia men. America's founding fathers had a genuine belief in arms, he said: "I stand in that tradition and I am proud of it."

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www.guardian.co.uk/world/20...urch-guns