| Matthew 5:9 |
| "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." |
| 11/23/09 Church Security - terrorism in our midst? |
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When it comes to national and international events and trends you fall into one of two categories: you either follow them intensely or you have only a vague idea of what is going on. Following world events is difficult because there is such a tangled web of politics, religion, economics, and conflict. It is hard to keep all the players and their motives straight. However, we need to follow things that happen abroad because sooner or later we will experience them here in the United States: this has been proven for hundreds of years. If you look at the history of the rest of the world, especially Europe because our "roots" are so connected and similar, things have happened there we never thought we would see them come here, but they have. You may be asking yourself, "What does this have to do with church security" and my answer is everything. Judeo/Christian people and houses of worship have been targeted throughout history, but more than ever we are seeing stepped up attacks through coordinated efforts throughout the rest of the world. And that brings us to America and what we, as Christians, need to understand. After the Fort Hood shooting several weeks ago, pundits debated for weeks (and are still doing so) whether this was a "terrorist act". Questions like "Does the shooter have to have direct orders from a terrorist group to be a terrorist" or "Is simply being inspired by the hate make you a terrorist" or "Does yelling certain phrases while killing people determine the shooter is a terrorist?" When I am confused about what people are talking about I generally go to the dictionary to make sure I am understanding the words being thrown around, so I went to Merriam-Webster's on-line dictionary and looked up the word "terrorism" and here is what they state: Main Entry: ter·ror·ism Pronunciation: \ˈter-ər-ˌi-zəm\ Function: noun Date: 1795 : the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion Of course after reading this vague description you have to go to the root word TERROR and this is how it is defined: Main Entry: ter·ror Pronunciation: \ˈter-ər, ˈte-rər\ Function: noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French terrour, from Latin terror, from terrēre to frighten; akin to Greek trein to be afraid, flee, tremein to tremble — more at tremble Date: 14th century 1 : a state of intense fear 2 a : one that inspires fear : scourge b : a frightening aspect <the terrors of invasion> c : a cause of anxiety : worry d : an appalling person or thing; especially : brat 3 : reign of terror 4 : violent or destructive acts (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands <insurrection and revolutionary terror> So basically the key words that should jump out of the two definitions are "systematic" and "destructive acts" and you have the definition of the terrorist, which is: those people who have a plan to instill intense fear, or violent, destructive acts, whatever their philosophical, religious, or other reasons may be. We know Islamic extremists have a "plan" to do "destructive acts" to their targets, which just happens to be anyone who does not share their extreme Muslim beliefs. This includes the vast majority of the Muslim population in the world who do not share these extremists' beliefs. It is that "You are either with us or against us" mentality - no gray area here, they even target their own. So anyone, and I mean anyone, who "buys in" to "the plan" and carries out a "destructive act" is a terrorist. Some may say that this is purely semantics, but I caution you that if we do not have a firm grip as to who the terrorists really are, we will never be ready for them as they come into our neighborhood or our churches. I fear that reports involving terrorists are becoming so common in the U.S. that like many other things we hear over and over again in the media we become "numb" and then we don't act. Consider a sampling of recent headlines:
Right after the Fort Hood shooting the Wall Street Journal editors wrote an article entitled "After the Fort Hood Massacre" in the November 10, 2009 issue, which stated: "The Fort Hood massacre makes clear, again, that Islamic terror is unavoidably a domestic U.S. problem as well. There is a strain in American thinking that deludes itself in believing that somehow this force will occupy itself mainly with blowing up marketplaces in faraway Pakistan or Afghanistan. On Thursday, their problem was our problem." The problem is at our doorsteps and if the Christian church can't protect itself against common criminals, how will they ever protect themselves against terrorists? The ten young terrorists in Mumbai, India in November 2008 planned to commit mass murder and destruction of that city's famous landmarks. These were just ten young men with basically rifles and grenades but once they started, they killed 170 people and wounded more than 300 in a very short period of time leaving the city in chaos for almost a week. As an former Israeli IDF Commander once told me while in I was in Israel "You have seen what Israel has had to do to protect itself; the question is not 'if' this will happen in the U.S., it is 'when' and how will Americans be ready?" The church remains a soft target that is culturally rich and very important to the American people, what better place to instill "fear" at the very core of our society? If we feel that it is not a target being considered for future terrorist attacks, we are doing what the Wall Street Journal so accurately described: deluding ourselves that this is some other country's problem. The planning and security measures need to start now; there is no tomorrow. Once an incident occurs against a Christian church, ministry or school on American soil, your congregation will want to know what you are doing to protect them immediately. What will your answer be? In Christ, Jeff Hawkins Executive Director |
