The shooting at a Baptist church in Texas has many wondering if churches are safe any more. The 26 people killed are 26 too many. What compounds this horrific loss is that the murders occurred in a place that reasonable people view as sacred. It was a place where couples were married, where families said goodbye to their loved ones, where children learned to pray and sing. I can’t imagine how the members of that church view their church now. It has been violated in the most grotesque and cruel way possible.
I despair that after shootings such as the recent massacre in Las Vegas and now in Sutherland Springs, Texas, that anything will be done to control access to guns by dangerous people. The weapons that are available boggle the mind with their capacity for large scale violence. I would have thought that the Sandy Hook massacre would turn the tide, but it did not.
Church shootings have happened before, and unfortunately, they will happen again. This particular instance is partly the result of a tragic oversight in which the shooter’s dishonorable discharge from the Air Force for domestic violence was not entered into the Federal database for people who are prohibited from purchasing firearms. It’s possible that he might have been able to acquire guns illegally had that prohibition been in place, but it’s impossible to say. This was a tragic failure. The shooter was prone to violence, nearly killing his infant stepson by striking him so hard that he cracked his skull.
Kelley was a violent person. He chose to shoot up the church in Sutherland Springs because his in-laws were members there. Ironically, they were not present on Sunday morning, but that did not prevent Kelley from spraying the interior of the church with bullets, killing 26 and wounding 20 more.
It is not the fault of the church that they were not ready for such an attack. No church is. This is no reason in the world why a church could possibly anticipate such an attack. There have been church shootings in the past. The shooting at Emmanuel AME Church in Charlestown, South Carolina comes to mind. That particular shooting, in which 9 people were killed including the pastor and several elderly women and men. That shooting was racially based. The shooter, Dylan Roof, wanted to start a race war and has been unapologetic. He targeted the church, presumably, because he knew that African Americans would be there. He also knew that a church such as Emmanuel AME Church was at the heart of the black community.
Surveys indicate that a bias against religion accounts for very few shootings. They are more often the result of mental illness, a perceived lack of welcome on the church’s part, and notably, domestic disputes. A church is a soft target. By nature churches seek to be welcoming and open to all.
The Texas attorney general said that what is needed is more guns in church. In Texas it is legal to have guns in churches. There have been suggestions in social media that churches need to have bouncers and install metal detectors. I can’t disagree enough. My own gut feeling is that we cannot afford to change course and turn our church into a fortress. It is a good conversation to have about how we might handle difficult situations during a church service, but not to fortify the church. That is not how we are called to be Christ’s disciples.
In short, I feel that we are safe. It is impossible to prepare for an attack such as this, and I don’t believe it will happen. As I’ve indicated above, churches are targets for attacks not because they are churches, but because of other factors. We are called to be a community open and welcoming to all, and we will endeavor to fulfill that calling.
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