Perhaps TV preachers are the wave of the future.

And drive-in churches. At least then you could lock your doors. Of course there'd still be church carjackers to fear.

Perhaps the church that is the subject of this thread should actively recruit parishioners from area police departments and encourage them to bring their guns, and badges, into church (if their police department sanctions carrying their guns off-duty - I don't know what the norm is on that).

I'd much rather have professional off-duty, armed police in my congregation than nonprofessionals with concealed carry permits.

Despite the listing of past incidents in churches, I have to wonder if this is not over-reaction. In this nation of 300 million people, a significant list spanning several years can be compiled on just about any category of violence.

I don't mean to belittle this discussion. It is interesting and I'm going to discuss it with friends in a number of churches in the DC metro area. Perhaps this is a concern more widespread than I realized.

If this is the depths to which this country has sunk, it saddens me less than it angers.

I live in one of the most crime-ridden, violent metropolitan areas in America. I'd feel safe inside a church on Sunday morning in even the worst zip codes. And zip codes aren't even determinative of parishioners as people here commute from the 'burbs to attend inner city churches such as are near me (mostly Maryland plates, but some Virginia, park outside our neighborhood churches on Sundays).