Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Associated Baptist Press - 2/5/2008

Associated Baptist Press

February 5, 2008 (8-15)

IN THIS ISSUE:


The security of the believer: Protecting churches from attack
Church security: What to do when under attack at church
Church security demands all hands on deck -- with firearms included?
New York court ruling advances gay marriage
CBF chaplain serves Marines at legendary Parris Island
Opinion: Layers of healing at the New Baptist Covenant



The security of the believer:
Protecting churches from attack

By Hannah Elliott


NEW YORK (ABP) -- One day after a shooter killed two sisters at Colorado’s New Life Church, Pastor Brady Boyd told reporters the church had become a target because of its size and its notoriety.

But the toll to the former church of Ted Haggard, the pastor accused of homosexual acts and drug abuse, could have been much worse, Boyd quickly added. The church security team quickly and effectively subdued the attacker, a 24-year-old man who ultimately was shot and killed in the attack.

“Because we took extra precautions, we saved a lot of lives yesterday,” Boyd said. “We have had a plan in place here for many years, before I ever came as senior pastor, for situations like this. And for a group of volunteers to be able to pull off an evacuation plan the way they did yesterday was supernatural and unbelievable.”

But what should an average church do to prepare for a violent crisis? What’s more, how should staff members prepare a congregation for the unthinkable without terrifying it in the process?

It’s helpful to recognize that simply articulating security plans doesn’t mean a church is dangerous any more than pointing out emergency exits on an airplane means it will crash. It just means precautions have been taken.

Experts say the first step to ensuring safety is deciding what kind of image a particular church wants to present and then acting on it. Richard Schaber, the risk-control manager for Church Mutual Insurance Company, says there are two basic ways to address security in a church -- like a shopping mall or like an airport.

Each method has its own irregularities. Shopping malls have lots of open space, allow for fluid motion of crowds, and have several points of entry and exits. For better or for worse, airports don’t.

“Unfortunately when we mostly look at [a church] like a shopping mall, it’s very difficult to secure. You’ve got people coming and going,” Schaber said. But using metal detectors at a single entrance “certainly has an impact on those attending and members. When you treat it like an airport and you’re wanding people [with a metal-detecing 'wand'], that doesn’t always go over very well.”

Ultimately, there’s no one right way to form the plan for a particular church, he said: “You’ve got to keep what the church wants in mind. How do they want to be seen?”

The essential thing is to make response plans tailored to a specific church, at specific times and in specific scenarios. That begins with forming a security team to identify potential threats. The team should include staff members, volunteers and church members with skills in the medical, military or law-enforcement fields.

Members should then brainstorm threatening scenarios, including events during weekend services, weekdays, nights, school hours and special events.

It’s important to remember that each church will have specific needs, experts say. Generic policies may not fit what a particular congregation is able or willing to implement, and misguided or unheeded policies can increase liability, said Phill Martin, deputy chief executive officer of the Texas-based National Association of Church Business Administration.

Churches need to establish clear security policies, but once size does not fit all, he stressed.

“Be careful what policies you put into place,” Martin warned, noting the “boilerplate” language of generic policies may not fit what a particular congregation is able or willing to implement. “If you have a policy and don’t follow it, it can increase your liability.”

Security policies should include a sunset clause that renders them void if they are not reviewed and ratified periodically. “A security policy should be reviewed every six months by somebody,” he suggested.

Three of the basic threats to churches are the presence of a weapon, the use of a weapon, and a hostage situation or barricaded gunman. After determining the vulnerability to and potential impact of a worst-case scenario, members should assign each other responsibilities that will minimize damage to people and property. Duties could include locking the building, checking classrooms, calling authorities, conducting head counts, administering first-aid and counseling victims.

A simple step toward mitigating the consequences of any security threat is to improve general building security, according to a newsletter from the Wisconsin-based Church Mutual. Keeping doors and windows locked, installing video cameras and adequate lighting, trimming bushes and changing locks annually can prevent a crisis before it starts.

Small churches that can’t afford or don’t need to hire professional security should reach an understanding with local police about what to do in a crisis. Networking with community schools or area churches also is valuable.

Once a team is formed and a safety plan established, church staff should inform the congregation so that panic doesn't overwhelm them if a gunman enters the building. A crime-prevention checklist from Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company suggests using announcements during services to outline evacuation plans, show emergency exits and explain how children will be protected in the nursery. It also suggests posting emergency policies on walls, printing them in the church bulletin, posting them on websites and printing them in visitor packets.

Unfortunately, as worshipers at New Life Church know, the impact of a crisis doesn’t stop after danger is eliminated. A key responsibility of any safety team is to designate a spokesperson for media inquiries -- and depending on the nature of the crisis, it could be a huge task.

According to experts, church employees and members should direct all media questions to the designated person -- usually a pastor, business administrator or board chairman. A communication plan should be included in the overall security plan, they said. Pstors should neither seek nor hide from media coverage, and they should be ready to respond to media questions with more than a “no comment.”

“Your spokesperson needs to realize how the media coverage will affect the families and the victims,” Shaber wrote in a column for Church Mutual. “Above all, tell the truth.”

Boyd took the expert advice to heart -- and it paid off.

Hundreds of lives were saved because of the pre-determined plan, he told reporters. “We are grateful to God for giving us the wisdom to do that….”

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-- This story is part of a three-part series on church security. Ken Camp contributed to this story.




Church security: What to do
when under attack at church

By Hannah Elliott


NEW YORK (ABP) -- Last December, worshipers at a Colorado church lost two members to a murderous gunman. In 2006, a man entered an Oregon church and threw fuel during a Sunday service, intending to set the building ablaze. And in 2005, a man opened fire in a Wisconsin church, killing seven people and wounding four others.

In this day and age, even elementary schools are better prepared to deal with violent attacks than churches, experts say, because church-goers think it won’t happen to them. But that false sense of security gives physical and psychological advantages to any would-be attacker.

There are two main reasons churches are attacked, according to Rick Schaber, risk control manager for Church Mutual Insurance Company in Merrill, Wis.

“First, worship centers are open to the public, so gaining access is extremely easy,” he said. “Second, people are passionate about their faith. When someone wants to take extreme action against their church, oftentimes it isn't difficult.”

Most risk experts say worshipers have five options when threatened by a shooter.

-- Escape. Experts say the first choice for anyone in a threatening situation is to escape. Churches should develop plans that determine how people will leave the building and where they will meet afterward -- keeping in mind worshipers with disabilities. Security teams should highlight escape routes and assign people to ensure everyone gets out.

In Colorado Springs, Colo., Pastor Brady Boyd lost two church members when a man with a gun entered his church. But the New Life Church security team quickly activated a crisis plan that helped people escape.

“People were ushered off the campus or taken to safe places,” Boyd said in a press conference the next day. “We had security details in each of those locations to keep people safe.”

-- Lock down. “Lockdowns are designed to be exercised when the threat is outside of the building or outside a specific room,” Schaber said. “It's designed to prohibit the person from entering an area.”

For example, a safety newsletter from Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company noted, the killer on the Virginia Tech campus didn’t take the time to force his way through locked doors -- he looked instead for easy targets.

Ideally, all rooms on the church campus should have locks on them, and children’s areas should be secured by one entrance that teachers can quickly lock, protecting everyone inside.

-- Hide. If escape and lock-down are not possible, hiding under tables or chairs can reduce vertical targets for a potential killer, safety consultant John Nicoletti said in the Brotherhood Mutual letter.

-- Play dead. “This is one of the more difficult options. It requires people to have already been shot, and you have to really look dead,” Nicoletti said. But at times, it has been effective.

-- Confront the killer. Experts urge this tactic only as a last resort, since it is inherently risky. But resistance did stop a school shooting in Springfield, Ore., in 1998.

The question of whether church leaders or security guards should carry guns is a tricky one, Schaber admitted. Each religious organization must determine an answer for itself.

“There are risks involved” with having guns on the premises, he said. “Training is extremely important, as is the selection of the person given the responsibility of carrying a gun.

“There is a lot that can go wrong if you have armed security at a service and a threat, or perceived threat, occurs. However, that presence also might prevent a threat from ever happening.”

The bottom line? Don’t rely on instinct. Church attacks are a reality in the modern world, so it pays to prepare, Boyd said: “I don't think any of us grew up in churches where that was a reality, but today it is.”

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-- This story is part of a three-part series on church security.




Church security demands all hands
on deck -- with firearms included?

By Ken Camp


FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) -- Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, has long employed personnel to patrol its campus, escort women to cars after dark and ensure buildings are locked.

But after a security guard stopped a gunman who entered a Colorado church in December, leaders at Travis Avenue Baptist decided to take another look at how they provide security.

“We’re in transition,” said Russ Hibner, the church’s facilities manager.

In recent weeks, the church secured training for its courtesy-patrol officers to let them become certified non-commissioned security officers. As non-commissioned officers, they are trained how to handle emergencies and understand the scope of their authority, but they are not permitted to carry deadly weapons. For occasions when armed personnel are needed, the church hires off-duty police officers, Hibner explained.

“We have to weigh a lot of factors and seek a balance,” he said. “We want to provide a service for our members and guests without going overboard and making it an armed camp.”

Just by its presence, the courtesy patrol probably has deterred some criminal acts, Hibner noted. Personnel routinely patrol parking lots in vehicles with flashing lights, and on more than one occasion, small groups have “dispersed quickly” when the vehicles came into sight, he said.

And although the security officers do not carry guns, they do carry direct-connect radios that enable them to contact other staff or call 911. Ambulance service and police have responded promptly when summoned, Hibner said, and police cars often use the church’s parking lot as a gathering spot at night.

“We’ve very happy about that, and we tell them they can use our parking lot any time they want to,” he said.

In addition to the security officers and off-duty police, a parking committee helps provide additional parking-lot security during worship services, and the church instructs ushers and deacons how to handle minor disturbances during worship services.

All churches should do the same, said Phill Martin from the National Association of Church Business Administration.

“They [ushers] should be the first line of defense,” he said. “The day of ushers just handing out bulletins is long past. They need to be trained in what to watch for. They need to understand if something looks suspicious, it may be. A church should have procedures in place to help ushers know how to respond.”

In addition to training ushers, Church staff members should periodically ask a series of “what if” questions to prepare for a variety of security-related issues, Martin suggested.

“We highly recommend church staffs do scenario planning” to envision proper responses for various situations, he said.

At Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas, armed off-duty police officers patrol the facility on Sundays and Wednesdays, but they aren’t necessarily the only people carrying weapons, according to Senior Associate Pastor Ken Warren.

Paid uniformed officers regulate traffic flow and security in parking lots, and they wait in the sanctuary while the offering is collected in order to escort ushers to the church’s safe.

Their presence is augmented by a significant number of law enforcement officers, who attend the church and will respond to emergencies as members of Green Acres’ security ministry team, Warren said.

“They are required to be armed even when they are off duty,” he said. “So, they may be sitting up in the choir or in the congregation, but they are alert and prepared to respond as needed at a moment’s notice.”

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-- This story is part of a three-part series on church security.




New York court ruling
advances gay marriage

By Robert Marus


NEW YORK (ABP) -- Recent rulings in Oregon and New York have provided victories for supporters of same-sex unions and setbacks for gay-rights opponents.

A New York appellate panel ruled unanimously that, although the Empire State does not allow same-sex marriages, it must recognize such unions legally performed in other states.

In Oregon, meanwhile, gay couples can enter into legal domestic partnerships -- a federal judge allowed a law approving them to take effect despite petitions from opponents.

The New York ruling, delivered Feb. 1 by a five-judge panel of the state Supreme Court Appellate Division, overturned a lower court’s 2006 ruling. It said a state employee who married her lesbian partner in Canada must receive the same recognition as a heterosexual woman legally married in another jurisdiction.

“The Legislature may decide to prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages solemnized abroad,” the court said. “Until it does so, however, such marriages are entitled to recognition in New York.”

The court depended on the state’s century-old practice of recognizing marriages performed elsewhere, even when such marriages could not have been performed in the state. For example, the court noted, the state recognizes close relatives married elsewhere, even though they would not have been eligible for a New York marriage license.

The state’s highest court -- the New York Court of Appeals -- ruled in 2006 that the state’s charter neither requires nor bans marriage rights for same-sex couples. The appeals panel cited the ruling in saying that, unless legislators move to ban it explicitly, same-sex marriage is not contrary to the state’s public policy. Therefore, under New York’s marriage-recognition doctrine, legal gay unions from other states and from abroad will remain legal for state purposes.

In Oregon, hundreds of same-sex couples filed into courthouses Feb. 4 to apply for legal domestic-partner status after United States District Judge Michael Mosman ruled that a new law allowing such partnerships should take effect.

The law -- approved last year by the Oregon Legislature -- was set to take effect Jan. 1. But Mosman stayed its implementation to look into allegations from anti-gay-rights groups that attempted to bring the law up for a statewide vote.

The petition drive to place the law on the November 2008 ballot fell only 96 votes short of the 55,179 it required. Supporters of the repeal -- including several Christian organizations -- said election officials had unfairly disqualified many signatures and there is not a consistent statewide standard for validating signatures.

But Mosman, after an inquiry into the subject, said the state’s standard for validating petition signatures is sufficiently consistent to allow the law to take effect.

Gay couples who register as domestic partners in Oregon will get similar state rights and responsibilities as married couples. With the law, Oregon joins nine other states and the District of Columbia in offering some form of legal recognition for same-sex couples. Massachusetts remains the only U.S. jurisdiction that offers gay couples full marriage rights.

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Read more:

Oregon, New Hampshire latest states set to recognize gay relationships (5/4/2007)

Courts in New York, Georgia deal blows to gay-marriage backers (7/7/2007)




CBF chaplain serves Marines
at legendary Parris Island

By Carla Wynn Davis


ATLANTA (ABP) -- When Marines return from Iraq -- their faith often shaken by what they have seen there -- they need someone to listen, to understand and to help.

That’s where Arthur Wiggins comes in.

“We're helping [a particular Marine] cope with why his life was spared while his buddy's life was taken,” said Wiggins, a Navy chaplain supported by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. “It's a profound question.”

It’s also a common question for Wiggins, stationed at the famous Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S.C. He ministers to thousands of military recruits and the base's permanent staff, including many who have served in Iraq.

Wiggins became a Navy chaplain in 2004. After serving nearly two years in Cuba, he transferred to Parris Island in 2006. He will transfer again later this month -- this time to the USS George Bush in Norfolk, Va.

During the week, Wiggins teaches classes on core values, moral courage and ethics. He counsels both recruits and Marines, whether they're having difficulty with training or dealing with non-work issues.

While no two days on the base are the same for Wiggins, his message to recruits remains consistent: “If you know God, grow in God.” He leads Sunday chapel services, which many recruits attend. The message is anything but relaxed for a group of recruits who may soon deploy to Iraq.

“I, like many Christian ministers, preach a message of life and abundant life,” he said. “We don't forget that message, but the truth of the matter is, not everyone who goes over [to Iraq] will return. We do our best to spiritually prepare them for stresses of combat.”

Wiggins' message is more than a call to know Christ. It's a call for Marines to be spiritual leaders, knowing there won't always be chaplains around during a crisis on the battlefield. It's a call to take faith seriously by growing spiritually, he said.

Marines often seek Wiggins’ advice when making the difficult decision of whether someone is fit to continue on active duty.

“We assess whether recruits can handle being a Marine, and whether Marines can handle continued service,” he said. “We are dealing with people’s lives -- impressionable young men and women. And so while we are always concerned about the individual, we must base our recommendations on what is best for the Corps.”

Chaplaincy is a second career for Wiggins, who began his military service as a Marine Corps judge advocate general.

“I got to the point where going to court was drudgery,” he said. “I wanted to do the Lord’s work, and at church is where I found my joy.”

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Opinion: Layers of healing
at the New Baptist Covenant

By David Gushee


(ABP) -- It is hard to describe the euphoria felt by most of us who attended the New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta this past week. I would like to analyze that euphoria as reflecting layers of healing and maybe try to name at least a few of those layers.

The most obvious layer of healing was found in the joyful reunion of black and white Baptists, sprinkled richly with Asian, Hispanic, and other Baptist brothers and sisters as well.

We really did worship together, sing together, laugh together, clap together, marvel together, study together, and talk together. We really did find unity in Christ, after 160 years of institutional division, itself occurring against the broader backdrop of centuries of slavery, segregation, and racism. Black and white Baptists met together on terms of equality and unity. This is miracle enough for one meeting.

Another layer of healing had to do with gender. Women preached, women taught, women sang, women danced, women read Scripture, women prayed. Certainly the majority of plenary speakers were men, and the various Baptist bodies represented at this meeting reflect different views on the issue of gender. But the bottom line was that at this meeting the question of women’s leadership in Baptist life was not a question at all. Some might consider it heresy. I consider it healing.

There was healing in the institutional relationships between the various Baptist bodies. It remains relatively new for the major black Baptist groups to meet together, let alone for the various white Baptist groups to meet together, let alone for all these groups to meet together. That’s healing, or at least the beginning of healing.

A more subtle kind of healing was visible as various speakers, especially the white southern Baptists, reflected on their own conflicts with, and breaks from, the Southern Baptist Convention. A narrative voice prevailed here, rather than a didactic one, and this trend was most profoundly and unexpectedly exemplified in the impromptu reflections of Bill Clinton on his own history as a Baptist. As the former president told the story of his long sojourn as a Southern Baptist, and attempted to pinpoint the crux of the difference between the prevailing SBC vision and that of those who do not share it, he did so with sympathy and without rancor.

I wondered what our black Baptist brethren were thinking while Clinton was speaking and while other white speakers like John Grisham were reflecting on the conflicts within the white southern Baptist world. In a sense, the problems dividing the white southern Baptists are not their problems, not their history. And yet somehow just being in the presence of Christian people who have had such grievous wrongs of their own to forgive makes it easier to abandon anger and embrace love and humility ourselves. If black Baptists can forgive and move on after slavery, segregation, and cruel racism, surely white southern Baptists can do the same after our own grievances?

Another layer of healing has to do with claiming our identity as Baptists once again with a healthy measure of pride. Grisham spoke for many of us in reflecting on the embarrassment he has sometimes felt when pressed about his Baptist identity and commitment. Our “brand” has been damaged. But this meeting, which was simultaneously a private religious gathering and a public declaration of a renewed Baptist identity before a watching world, made me proud to be a Baptist again.

I want to suggest a final possible kind of healing, especially for white Baptists who identify as moderate or post-SBC. This is a healing in relation to our own traditional piety.

I have argued earlier in this column that there are signs of a kind of reaction-formation among some of us: Whatever the "SBC types” do, we will do the reverse. This is certainly not universal but I have witnessed it in many different settings. At its worst what emerges is a kind of stultifying cynicism about all passionate expressions of traditional Christian faith. Ultimately this is a path to a jaded secularism -- and empty churches.

It would be hard to remain a cynic if one truly entered into the spirit of the event just concluded in Atlanta. Here again white Baptists have so much to learn from Baptists of color, and perhaps we began learning it at the New Baptist Covenant. This combination is hard to beat: a vivid focus on Jesus Christ the incarnate Savior and Lord, theologically rich biblical preaching, gloriously passionate and skillful worship performance and participation, and a serious commitment to love and justice in both personal and public morality.

If that’s what it means to be Baptist, count me in. It’s certainly what it meant to be Baptist at the New Baptist Covenant meeting.

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-- David Gushee is distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University. His latest book is The Future of Faith in American Politics: The Public Witness of the Evangelical Center. www.davidpgushee.com

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