15Dec05

Church Security

I just completed a training program for a large, Christian church in FL. W e trained the entire staff of ushers, which are being formed into unit that has a secondary (security) function. Some are cops and carry anyway, and a few others have local CCW permits and carry occasionally, but, for the most part, inconsistently. All carry now, and all have successfully completed t he first phase of their training.

"Church security" seems a contradiction terms, but churches everywhere, particularly Christian churches, have been compelled to seriously address t his issue. It is indigenous to our times!

The idea is to have a mini-police-force on property at all church functions , a force consisting of armed church members who are trained and can be calle d upon, at a moment's notice, to deal with a disturbance or a security emergency.

On a philosophical level, my students struggled with this notion, and it required a good deal of intense discussion for them to come to terms with th eir new responsibilities. In the end, all recognized that this was necessary a nd that they, each one, needed to step forward and participate.

I see this as a trend. Christian and Jewish churches will increasingly fin d themselves under attack, both ideologically and physically, by Marxist politicians and violent Islamic evangelists alike. Most will respond with naive denial, but some, like this one, will take reasonable, albeit reluctant, st eps to confront this challenge. They deserve a lot of credit for confronting the threat honestly.

/John