Churches See Need For Security After Attacks

Dec 11, 2007 3:27 PM

           

When a black-clad gunman walked into New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colo., and started shooting, he was met with the church's first line of defense: a congregant with a concealed weapons permit and a law enforcement background. The woman, an armed volunteer, shot the gunman taking him down, though it was later reported he was killed by his own bullet. New Life's pastor credited her with saving 100 lives, The Associated Press reports.

Churches want to present an open and welcoming image, but in an era of mass-casualty shootings and terrorism threats, the violence at New Life highlights a new emphasis on security. AP reports that some of the nation's estimated 1,200 megachurches -- places where more than 2,000 worshippers gather each week -- have been quietly beefing up security in recent years, even using armed guards to protect the faithful.

Meanwhile, many more, often smaller congregations typically don't have detailed security plans either because they don't have the money or don't want to risk turning people away.

At Potter's House, a Dallas megachurch led by pastor T.D. Jakes, a private security company employs a team of armed, unarmed, uniformed and plainclothes guards that keeps watch over crowds in the thousands. Under a new Texas law, all nonprofits must use licensed security guards, and the church hired Classic Security in response, says Sean Smith, who formerly headed the church's security detail and now works for the company.

For the past three years, Potter's House has hosted a church security conference, drawing more than 400 people earlier this year to sessions on surveillance, background checks and other issues. Although precautions can be costly, money spent on security can end up being far less than liability and lawsuit risks if no action is taken, the church says.

"You see (security) anywhere but churches," Smith told AP. "You see it in malls, at banks, at concerts. Somehow, at churches we feel immune to violence. But it's been proven not to be the case."

Even without a security department, churches can train volunteers to keep watch for suspicious behavior, like a visitor dressed in a long coat in summer or not making eye contact with anyone, Smith says.

The security plan at New Life Church may seem extraordinary. The church's volunteer security force is stocked with people with military or law enforcement experience, they carry radios and weapons, and there are evacuation plan calls for hustling worshippers into "secure zones" in the case of emergencies.

Even before the founding pastor, the now-disgraced Ted Haggard, became a player on the national political stage, the church endured death threats against him. There were bomb scares and vandalism, including animal blood being splashed on the walls, said Patton Dodd of Colorado Springs, a former New Life Church staff member and editor with the Web site Beliefnet.

"Even back then we had people undercover in the congregation who were armed," Dodd said. "It was a big church at the time, it was Christian, and some people really hate that stuff.

"Not only do we have military and ex-military all over, we have this sort of frontier mentality. People around here are serious about protecting their own."

American Jews have long emphasized the need for safeguarding their community organizations, schools and synagogues. Many groups formed security committees.

"There have been security concerns generally for many years, but they have certainly been heightened since 9-11," Nathan Diament, public policy director for the Orthodox Union, which represents Orthodox synagogues in North America told AP.

The Homeland Security Department created a grant program of nearly $50 million to improve security for religious and secular nonprofits considered at risk of terrorist attack.

Several Jewish groups have received individual grants, according to the Orthodox Union.

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