Skip to main content

Half of US Churches Now Enlist Armed Security

Half of US Churches Now Enlist Armed Security

In the aftermath of several high-profile church shootings, most Protestant pastors say their congregations have taken some precautions to protect those in attendance.

Since 2000, 19 fatal shootings have taken place at Christian churches, while gunmen have also taken lives at other religious sites like Jewish synagogues, a Sikh temple and an Amish school.
Around 4 in 5 Protestant pastors (80%) say their church has some type of security measure in place when they gather for worship, according to a survey from Nashville-based LifeWayResearch.
“Churches are some of the most common gatherings in any community, and that makes them targets,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “Most churches understand this and have responded in some way.”
(Editor’s note: Last week, President Donald Trump signed new legislation authorizing $375 million in federal grants to help houses of worship and other nonprofits improve their capacities to defend against violence.)

Security specifics

The most common form of preparation is making an intentional plan. Almost 2 in 3 pastors (62%) say their church has an intentional plan for an active shooter situation.
The more people who show up to worship services each week, the more likely the church is to have made plans for a potential gunman.
Pastors of churches with 250 or more in attendance (77%) and those with 100 to 249 (74%) are more likely to have an intentional plan than those with 50 to 99 in attendance (58%) or those with less than 50 in their worship service each week (45%).
More than a quarter of churches (28%) have radio communication among security personnel.
African American pastors (47%) and pastors of other ethnicities (46%) are almost twice as likely as white pastors (25%) to take this step.
The question of guns in church is very much a live debate among pastors, as close to half of pastors (45%) say part of their security measures include having armed church members.
Combining this with the percentages who say they have uniformed police officers or armed security personnel on site, 51% intentionally have firearms at their worship services as part of their security measures.
Evangelical pastors (54%) are more likely than mainline pastors (34%) to say they have armed church members.
Half of pastors in the South (51%) and West (46%) say this is the case compared to a third of those in the Northeast (33%).
Pentecostal (71%), Baptist (65%) and Church of Christ pastors (53%) are also more likely than Methodist (32%), Lutheran (27%) and Presbyterian or Reformed pastors (27%) to say they have armed church members as part of their security measures.
Other churches place their emphasis on keeping all guns away from the worship service.
More than a quarter (27%) have a no-firearms policy for the building where they meet and 3 percent have metal detectors at entrances to screen for weapons.
African American pastors are the most likely to implement these strategies, with 50 percent saying they have a no-firearms policy and 8 percent deploying metal detectors.
Almost 1 in 5 pastors (18%) say their church has taken none of the precautions asked about in the survey, while 2 percent aren’t sure.

“While methods vary, most churches start with the resources they have to prepare for what they hope will never happen,” said McConnell. “With planning, a church can be prepared without being distracted or paralyzed by the threat. Pastors are trying to balance two responsibilities—protect those on the inside, while being as welcoming as possible to those on the outside.”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

China Forces School Teachers to Renounce Christian Faith or Risk Being Fired

Chinese schools are requiring Christian teachers within the nation’s school system to renounce their faith or risk being fired, according to a new report by a religious liberty watchdog.  Bitter Winter, which monitors religious freedom in the country, said the pressure on Christian teachers intensified after Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2018 said one goal of education was to raise the next generation of socialists. The  speech  was reported by state-run media.  “The state’s control over ideology is becoming stricter and stricter, particularly in the field of education,” a Catholic kindergarten teacher told  Bitter Winter . “If teachers hold religious beliefs … this becomes a political problem for the government.” The teacher told Bitter Winter she has received criticism for her faith in staff meetings. Additionally, the school principal warned her that a “spiritual civilization award” worth several million yuan that was given to the county ...

American Pastor Returns Home after Being Falsely Imprisoned for 7 Months in India

An American pastor is now back home with his family after being imprisoned in India for over seven months on false charges. Bryan Nerren, a pastor from Shelbyville, Tennessee, traveled overseas last October to attend conferences in India and Nepal for 2 weeks.  Nerren, who is at the helm of an international non-profit ministry called Asian Children’s Education Fellowship, has been training Sunday school teachers in India and Nepal for the last 17 years. According to  The American Center for Law & Justice  (ACLJ), a Christian advocacy non-profit law group which has been representing Nerren, noted that the pastor was detained and arrested upon his arrival at the airport in Bagdogra, India for allegedly “evading a duty on funds.” Nerren was carrying a sum of money that he intended to use to cover the expenses of his trip and the conference, but according to the ACLJ, the sum was not enough to make transporting it a crime. The law group reports that Nerren had ...

Bible Museum Must Send One More Artifact Back to Iraq

A nother ancient document is causing controversy for the Museum of the Bible after a federal government prosecutor filed a  claim  that a six-by-five-inch clay tablet was stolen from Iraq. The US Attorney’s Office of Eastern New York says that Hobby Lobby legally purchased the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet for $1.6 million to loan to the museum, but the papers documenting the artifact’s purchase history were false. “In this case, a major auction house failed to meet its obligations by minimizing its concerns that the provenance of an important Iraqi artifact was fabricated, and withheld from the buyer information that undermined the provenance’s reliability," said US Attorney Richard Donoghue, who filed a foreiture claim on the Gilgamesh tablet on Monday. In an official statement to  Christianity Today , the Museum of the Bible announced it has cooperated with the investigation and is cooperating with authorities to return the tablet to Iraq. The museum also said Hobby Lo...