Mother Teresa Award to Real Life ‘Machine Gun Preacher’

http://www.indiawest.com/news/14547-mother-teresa-award-to-real-life-machine-gun-preacher.html

Mother Teresa Award to Real Life ‘Machine Gun Preacher’

Activist Sam Childers (l), seen with Gerard Butler, the actor who played him in “Machine Gun Preacher,” will travel to Mumbai Oct. 27 to accept a humanitarian award from the Harmony Foundation.
SAN LEANDRO, Calif., United States
The Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice will be presented to Sam Childers, the so-called “Machine Gun Preacher” whose life was made into a Hollywood film starring Gerard Butler.

Childers will travel to Mumbai to receive the award Oct. 27, according to a press release.

“Machine Gun Preacher” (2011) is an action-filled biopic about Childers, a former gang biker turned preacher and defender of African orphans. The movie, released in 2011 by Relativity Media, was based on Childers’ book “Another Man’s War.”

A letter from Dr. Abraham Mathai, president of the Harmony Foundation, reads: “The award is to be bestowed for Mr. Childers’ devotion, commitment and dedication to lead armed rescue missions directly into the territory of the atrocious Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda, which has resulted in the rescue of over 1,000 abducted children.

“These efforts have propelled Sam Childers to be an outstanding icon worldwide for the cause of children affected by internal conflicts.”

I've heard of the Machine Gun Preacher before GB started on the movie, but I figured he was a nutcase who went out evangelizing people at gunpoint and killing people who didn't listen to him, like the conquistadors of old, converting by fear. GB making the movie taught me what Sam Childers actually did. I probably would never know he was a good guy, not a murderous nutcase, if it weren't for GB and the movie. I'm sure the same goes for a lot of people around the world.

All successful preachers are showmen and salesmen. Gotta get people's attention and hold it, and convince them you're right.