Hundreds of couples took their AR-15 rifles into a Pennsylvania Unification Church to have their weapons celebrated alongside their marriage blessings.
The women, dressed in white, and their partners, who were wearing dark suits, were asked to bring their weapons unloaded into the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary for the ceremony, which celebrated the 'rods of iron', the Independent reports.
Members of the congregation also wore crowns made of bullets and church officials were dressed in hot pink and white - a stark contrast against their guns.
Reverend Hyung Jin 'Sean' Moon, who leads the church since the death of his dad, Reverend Sun Myung Moon, who founded the church, blessed around 250 couples during the service, which looked about as bizarre as you'd imagine.
The blessing had been planned prior to the attack in Florida which saw a man enter a school and shoot and kill 17 people, including 14 children, with an AR-15, a spokesperson said.
Pupils from a nearby elementary school were moved for the day, so they wouldn't be close to the ceremony and its gun-toting congregation, according to a Wallenpaupack School District website.
Rev Moon said in a statement that the teachers at the Florida high school should have been armed. An idea which President Donald Trump has also mentioned.
He said: "Each of us is called to use the power of the 'rod of iron' not to arm or oppress as has been done in satanic kingdoms of this world, but to protect God's children.
"If the football coach who rushed into the building to defend students from the shooter with his own body had been allowed to carry a firearm, many lives, including his own, could have been saved."
Not all local residents were thrilled with the idea of the ceremony, with protestors gathered outside holding signs bearing phrases such as 'Worship God Not Guns'.
One protestor told a church member the ceremony was 'scaring people in the community', Sky News reports.
Rev Moon insisted that the ceremony wasn't being held as a 'blessing for weapons', but a chance for married worshippers to be blessed.
Advert
Source: Sky News; The Independent
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: US News, Donald Trump