Today in America we are seeing an increase of violence directed towards the church. What has caused this increase in violence? And how can we protect the church from future violence?

After serving 26 years in law enforcement, of which 23 years was in the US Secret Service, and then a decade as a national men’s minister to men in churches, I am asked frequently about security. I wrote an article, while serving as the National Director of the Assemblies of God Men’s Ministries, in the Honorbound magazine about a church youth event shooting in 1999 at Westwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Churches then and now feel the church is ‘America’s Final Safe Zone’, but it is not.

The intensity of violent acts has increased exponentially in the last decade. We have seen the increase but what is its cause? Part of the cause is fatherlessness in America and a downward spiral of respect for authority. The ushers on the front lines at most churches are not even safe from violence as we witnessed when Dr Tiller, the abortion doctor, was shot and killed while he ushered in his church.