A PISTOL PACKING PASTOR, RABBI & IMAM (& Other Responses to Increasing Attacks Against Houses of Faith)

Last updated on: April 25, 2017 at 5:52 pm by Dwight Lee Wolter

A PISTOL PACKING PASTOR, RABBI & IMAM (& Other Responses to Increasing Attacks Against Houses of Faith) 2017-04-25T17:52:26+00:00 Dwight Lee Wolter

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Although it has been happening for a long time, there are an increasing number of attacks on institutions, individuals, and houses of faith. Here are a few historic and current, general and personal examples:

Fifty years ago, fifteen sticks of dynamite were detonated at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four African American girls were killed and twenty-two others were injured in the blast at the church known as a center of activity in the civil rights movement.
Thirty-seven years ago, Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, who spoke tirelessly on behalf of the poor and victims of social injustice, was assassinated in church while offering Mass to the very people he sought to defend and protect.
Twenty years ago, while serving a church in Florida, I accepted an invitation to visit a mosque and was shown a new hole in the outside wall that was created by a drive-by shooter while the worship service was in progress.
Eight years ago, I presided at the Congregational Church of Patchogue (Long Island) over the funeral of an undocumented, Latino, hate crime murder victim named Marcelo Lucero. Shortly thereafter we convened an opportunity for alleged victims of hate crimes in Suffolk County (NY) who did not feel safe going to the authorities to come to the church to tell their stories without fear of violence, recrimination or deportation. I received numerous physical and verbal threats against my person, my son and my home.
Five years ago, I took my then teenage son to Dachau concentration camp where, in addition to scores of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and disabled persons were over 2,000 Catholic priests and other clergy had been imprisoned for speaking-out to their congregations about Hitler and the Third Reich.
Two years ago, twenty-one Coptic Christian migrant workers were beheaded by ISIS on a pristine beach in Libya that turned red with their innocent blood. Their execution was expertly filmed and circulated worldwide.
Two years ago also, Dylann Roof entered a prayer service at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and murdered nine people, including the senior pastor, in hopes of inciting a race riot. He chose to represent himself at trial to ~ in his own words ~ show the world that he was not criminally insane by any means and knew exactly what he was doing and why.
A few days after the Emanuel AME church massacre, I and many other clergy and laity affiliated with houses of faith were briefed at the Suffolk County Police Academy by Suffolk County Police Commissioner, Timothy Sini, the Department of Homeland Security, and many police officers and detectives on what to do if there is an active shooter loose in the church, mosque or synagogue. We appreciate the police care and concern who did their best to resolutely educate our minds and steady our trembling hands.
One year ago, Donald Trump came to Patchogue, Long Island, and I got into a very public dispute with his handlers. We held a Silent Vigil at the church where police were present. They also accompanied me, for my safety, to the venue where Trump was speaking and where I had been invited to meet him. We appreciated the police care and concern. I later received some disturbing mail from a Trump supporter that frightened our church office personnel who insisted we call the police. We did. They came and made a report. We appreciated the police care and concern.
Three months ago, I hosted a Post-Inaugural Peace Party at my church in Patchogue on the evening of the marches on Washington and NYC and elsewhere. We wanted to be open and ready just in case of violence at the marches and in case people wanted a place of peace, silence and solace. Police were in attendance at the Peace Vigil for our protection. We appreciated the police care and concern.
Two months ago, I discovered that even dead Jews are apparently perceived to be a threat to some person or group since over 100 headstones in a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia were toppled in an act of alleged anti-Semitism.
One month ago, New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, asked state police to investigate the vandalism of headstones in a Jewish cemetery, this one in Rochester. Cuomo citing a “dramatic increase in acts of hate and intolerance.”
Two weeks ago, 29 Christians were killed and 69 more were injured in a bomb attack on a Coptic Christian church in Egypt on Palm Sunday. The following week, Easter services in many Egyptian churches were cancelled for fear of similar violence and death on the day marking Jesus’ resurrection from a similar fate of unjust violence and death.

I am aware that it is not only religious institutions and people of faith that are being attacked and threatened. I am also aware that the police will never be able to prevent all future atrocities. I am also aware that the first window immediately inside the front door of the Suffolk County Police Department is for weapon permit applications. And I am also aware that just two weeks ago, the Alabama senate voted to allow Briarwood Presbyterian Church to form a private police force that the church believes is necessary to keep their congregation safe.

Many houses of faith (church, mosque, synagogue, etc.) want to be advocates for justice in addressing and confronting injustice and oppression. I accept that there is always inherent danger in speaking truth to power, and in speaking truth to madness. But it seems that these attacks are, in part, an attempt to tell faith leaders and congregations to shut their mouth, lock their doors, and turn a blind eye to injustice or else become a target of terror.

Everybody knows that Islamophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, etc. is wrong but clergy and others will be less willing to preach it in their houses of faith if the consequence is being next on the hit list of those who dare to speak out.

If we wish to continue to empower and encourage houses of faith to speak and act boldly for justice; we also need to find ways to help houses of faith to provide internal and external security against increasingly frequent and audacious attacks ~ lest fear and vulnerability succeed in silencing this and future generations if these tactics of violence and intimidation continue unabated.

Dwight Lee Wolter is the author of several books and pastor of The Congregational Church of Patchogue.

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