Our Church Is Safe... Right?

HDI recommends new self-assessment tool for faith-based communities

In 2015 white supremist Dylan Roof opened fire on members of one of the oldest black churches in the United States. After attending being warmly welcomed to Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Charleston, South Carolina, Roof returned the congregation’s hospitality with a cruel spray of bullets that killed nine and wounded three. Around the globe, pastors and laypeople who assumed that their churches were “safe” quietly wondered, “Could that happen here?”

Since the brutal Columbine high school shooting in 1999, that opened the world’s eyes to the threat of active shooters, there have been 18 fatal church shootings in the United States, including Emanuel, from Idaho to New York, and Wisconsin to Louisiana. Carl Chinn, a church security expert, grieves, “Most churches spend far more time and money training their choir than they do investing in the safety of their staff and guests.” Chinn admits that the odds are likely that a church won’t face a security threat, but when it does happen, he muses, “the odds won’t matter much.”

In recent years, in response to shootings in churches like Emanuel, a growing number of churches have established security teams. These teams consider the security of a church facility on weekdays, when they’re largely populated by staff members, and also Sundays when congregations gather together. Some churches have paid security staff and others are composed of volunteers from the congregations. Some of these teams include parishioners who carry concealed weapons to their Sunday morning duties, while several denominations have issued statements deeming guns inappropriate for houses of worship.

Without much precedent for developing processes and procedures for this modern crisis, how do congregations begin to consider the security of their property and people? Read More

I attended a church safety conference sponsored by the sheriff's department of a neighboring county and held in the wake of the Sutherland Springs church shooting. Parishioners carrying concealed weapons to their Sunday morning duties were warned that when the police arrived on the scene in response to the report of an active shooter, they should put their guns on the ground and move away from them. Otherwise, they might be mistaken for the shooter. At the church where I was then lay reader with pastoral charge of the congregation there was talk of one or more parishioners arming themselves. This plan was dropped when it was discovered that the church would lose its insurance coverage. Since that time there have been other church shootings including one in which a pastor was killed by his own gun which the shooter took away from him.