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Friday, March 29, 2024

Black churches weighing security in wake of attacks across the country

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Pastors at Black churches in Indianapolis see the news. They read the stories and hear the words from parishioners who were inside the walls of their church when someone stepped into their house of worship and inflicted violence. Sometimes itā€™s with bullets, like when a gunman murdered nine African-Americans in 2015 at an African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina. Sometimes itā€™s arson, like when a fire gutted Godā€™s Power Church in Macon, Georgia, six days after the Charleston massacre. Attacks like these have left pastors weighing a balance between being a welcoming place for a community and keeping everyone safe.

There are the more traditional security measures ā€” cameras, doors that automatically lock, etc. ā€” and then thereā€™s the next step up for churches that feel violence and threats of violence against them are imminent: guards.

ā€œYou donā€™t want to build a wall because this is a place for everyone, but at the same time, you donā€™t want to compromise the safety of your parishioners,ā€ Powerhouse Church of Deliverance Pastor Keith McQueen said.

Powerhouse, on the cityā€™s east side, has at least two contracted armed guards on the property during worship, McQueen said, along with a team of volunteer parishioners inside the church who look out for McQueen and his family. He even has an escape plan in case he needs to get out of the church quickly.

If these measures seem drastic, and McQueen even chuckled a bit as he talked about them, he believes theyā€™ve become necessary. People have broken into Powerhouse a couple times, McQueen said, and the church has been robbed while everyone was busy during a worship service. In one incident, bricks were thrown through two windows.Ā 

The sight of guards at churches is becoming more common. David Leon, CEO and president of SGGS, a security company in Indianapolis, said he has guards contracted at three churches: Witherspoon Presbyterian, Immanuel Presbyterian and Light of the World. Leon said heā€™s also getting interest from other churches in the community that want to be proactive about safety.

ā€œWith all this madness going on, we keep an eye on people coming off the street,ā€ Leon said. ā€œWe make sure these houses are covered and no one gets hurt.ā€

But not every church of Powerhouseā€™s size ā€” with an average Sunday attendance of about 200 people ā€” has room in the budget to contract guards. In those cases, pastors look to the parishioners to step up.

Christ Missionary Baptist Church, with a Sunday attendance of about 150 people, has a trained safety team made up of seven church members, Pastor John Girton said. The team is activated when there is any event at the church, ranging from a funeral service to worship. When there isnā€™t anything happening at the church throughout the day, the doors stay locked.

ā€œWeā€™re doing little things that you know you need to do,ā€ Girton said. ā€œYou hate to do it, but you do.ā€

Girton said it was the Charleston massacre that made it apparent his church needed more security. Since then, Christ Missionary, on the cityā€™s northwest side, has obviously sacrificed some of the welcoming and openness that churches want to be known for, but this is becoming part of the terrain churches have to navigate.

ā€œThe bottom line is we have to spend time communicating to people who walk into our church that you canā€™t do it without some kind of questioning,ā€ Girton said.

The targeting of Black churches by racist violence is not new. In 1963, in the thick of the Civil Rights Movement, members of the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls and injuring at least 14 other people. The bombing prompted Martin Luther King Jr. to say the U.S. Army should take over Birmingham. That the same kind of violence continues today troubles leaders in the Black church.Ā 

Ā ā€œIt brings to the forefront the reality that we havenā€™t come as far as we thought we had,ā€ Antioch Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Clyde Posley said, adding that he believes President Donald Trump is responsible for the most recent attacks.

Antioch, with an average Sunday attendance of about 200 people, has two armed guards on the property for events such as worship. The church also has a group of men who are licensed to carry a gun. At least five of them are at the church and have been trained to engage in self-defense tactics, all the way up to actually using the gun.

Violence on the scale of that seen in Charleston hasnā€™t made its way to Black churches in Indianapolis, but the threat of it happening seems to grow with every other incident from around the country.

ā€œTimes are changing,ā€ McQueen said, ā€œand Iā€™m praying pastors in Indianapolis will get it.ā€

Ā 

Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.

Black Churches weighing security

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