How Should the Church Handle Threats?

I haven't posted as frequently as I've been working on a few long-form posts. One that has absorbed most of my time is an analysis of threats to the church and what churches can -- and should do in response.

A Church

There has been a significant shift in public perception of Christianity, Christian ministry, and churches. Various scandals have tarnished the reputation of an institution once hailed as the bulwark of American civilization.

To an ever-increasing portion of the North American and European populace, church is a club some less-than-enlightened people belong to, with a questionable or even sordid past (few make any distinctions between the crusades, child abuse, religious wars, ethnic cleansing...)

Is this a "hate crime"?

While they may concede some benefits, they just don't get it, and wonder why some people would constrain the rights of others, or insist on certain behaviors, or expect more than tacit assent to deeply troubling assertions ("There's only one way to God?")

Add to this mix an ever-virulent strain of aggressive anti-theism: the New Atheists, satanists, Flying Spaghetti Monster snarks, and technological superiors advocating The Singularity.

Floating inside this Sargasso Sea of muddled thought are a few real whack jobs looking for a cause:

• Man threatens Richmond Church
• Man Threatens Georgia Church
• Man Disrupts, Threatens to Bomb Church in Daytona Beach
• Man Threatens Fort Collins Churches: "Will be Destroyed"
• Man Kills one at Atlanta Mega-Church

Consider this from Christianity Today:

Amid national debate over gun control reform, new data from church violence researcher Carl Chinn shows that 75 deaths from attacks at faith-based organizations occurred in 2012–a 36 percent increase over the previous year.

Chinn's tally of 135 "deadly force incidents" (DFIs) in 2012 brings the total number of DFIs to 638 since Chinn first began recording them in 1999. Guns were used in 389 (58%) of incidents. According to Chinn's website, the data "includes abductions, attacks, suspicious deaths, suicides and deadly force intervention/protection." Attacks prompted by domestic violence spillover, personal conflict, and robbery account for over half of all reported DFIs.

Oh really?
Did you hear the one about Mohammed, a donkey, and a goat?

Stir in the worldwide call to violent militant Islam, and it doesn't take an intelligence analyst to recognize the problem.


We may think we live in quiet places where bad stuff happens "somewhere else" but there is no such place.

Just ask the residents of King Salmon, AK, Harrisburg, PA, Little Rock, AR, Garland, TX, San Bernadino, CA, Boston, MA, Wichita, KS,  and Toledo, OH.

Uh, Okay. So....?

Such Thoughtful People...

Church members expect churches to be safe places -- an oasis of peace in an otherwise unpredictable and often violent world.

That's a bit of a false hope, as every church has internal tensions and issues due to interpersonal conflicts, resentments, or even doctrinal clashes.

Christian leaders need to acknowledge there are threats to the church that are not merely doctrinal or practical.

Wise leadership cares for the flock by continually assessing potential threats and adequately responding.

Since adequate response must be prepared beforehand, it is essential we talk about this stuff before it happens. Defensive postures are always reactive, and the initiative is held by the attacker.

We need to reduce the time between Assess and Act, and that can only be done through practiced motions that have been been prepared beforehand.

An Army of Benighted Souls... God help us!

The essay is long -- but will be worth it. Please check back!

___________________________________________________

Note on Jim Jones: By the early 1970s, Jones began deriding traditional Christianity as "fly away religion", rejecting the Bible as being a tool to oppress women and non-whites, and denouncing a "Sky God" who was no God at all. In one sermon, Jones said that, "You're gonna help yourself, or you'll get no help! There's only one hope of glory; that's within you! Nobody's gonna come out of the sky! There's no heaven up there! We'll have to make heaven down here!"