| Galatians 6:10 |
| "... doing good for all believers... " |
| 03/22/10 - Church Security: listen, but verify, verify, verify |
 |
 |
 |
|
One of the first things we teach at the Christian Security Network (CSN) is that whoever is giving you information, you should listen and then verify, because very often information is just wrong. A couple weeks ago we warned you about organizations that were a bit "over-the-top" in wanting to train Ushers to be Ninjas, and one in particular that was teaching a "Tactical Uzi sub-machine gun" course as part of its overall church security program. Over the last year we have seen several e-mails go out to Christian churches and ministries from "experts" that either intentionally or unintentionally contradicted what we or other organizations, even government organizations, have told you. When possible, we try to get to the source or determine why something was put out there and many times it is a mistake but sometimes we just cannot determine "why". On Friday, March 19th there was an e-mail that was sent out to Christian organizations about grants and funding. After reading it we were scratching our heads wondering what in the world was being communicated and why? The e-mail basically stated that, after communication with the Department of Homeland Security, it was clear that "Unless you have a documented international terrorist threat against your church - There are no grants from the DHS for your church to improve security." If any of you know anything about the Christian Security Network is that we try to work very closely with DHS and other organizations, and one of the areas we are very concerned with is grants and funding - we feel it is necessary and important. In fact we recently undertook a partnership with a security organization in New York State who was working with that state Homeland Security officials to secure funding for Christian organizations. So this is why the e-mail that was sent out on March 19th had us wondering what was going on and why was this information put out, so we did what we tell you to do: verify with the sources. So we went right to our contacts that deal with security funding for religious organizations and they said "The e-mail is wrong" and then we went directly to the source at DHS and was told that the information was taken out of context and the conclusions stated in the e-mail was wrong. There are several "take-aways" that is necessary from this incident. The first is that there is a lot of misinformation out there and like we said, verify from different sources, don't take anything at face value. Even from CSN - if we are wrong about something, we will print a retraction and correct the information. The second is that the issues and challenges of security and emergency planning for the Christian community is being addressed at different levels, by different organizations, including the Department of Homeland Security. But with all things, it takes time and coordination among a variety of organizations and groups. Things like grants and funding can be complicated, but they are out there in various forms, and hopefully will be more so in the future. The Christian Security Network is committed to working with all legitimate professionals who are as concerned as we are to making all houses of worship safer and more secure and in the case of CSN, the Christian community specifically. If you should ever have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. In Christ, Jeff Hawkins Executive Director |
