The death of a buddy led Childers to undergo a Christian conversion and he became a solid citizen for a few years.

After hearing a sermon from a missionary, he decided to travel to the Sudan, with a team of helpers, to re-build villages, schools and churches for victims who had suffered under the brutality of the Lord's Resistance Army, a ruthless militia. But as soon as Childers built them, the rebels burned them down.

He decided to lead his own "liberation army" under the nickname "Machine Gun Preacher". Director Marc Forster handled the film energetically but never questioned Childers's moral vision. Is an American preacher, with a Bible in one hand and machine-gun in the other, entitled to wage a private war? The private army led by Childers is not all that different from a criminal gang.