This past weekend, I heard disturbing information from two different sources.

One source was a presentation I listened to last Saturday at the House of Peace Worship Church International’s Leadership Conference. The other was an article in the Baton Rouge, La., Sunday Advocate I read online. Both dealt with churches.

The program at the House of Peace Worship was presented by Sheriff Martin Pace and dealt with church safety; not about preventing someone from having an accident in church, but how to handle and diffuse a hostile or potentially difficult situation that could turn into a tragedy. The article in the Advocate discussed how some churches in St. Tammany Parish, La., north of New Orleans were training male members to qualify for concealed carry permits to be armed in church as a deterrent to a hostile event.

Those things disturb me greatly.

A church, we were taught as children, is God’s house. A place of peace and prayer, where people could go seeking relief from troubles to ease their pain. I remember a line from the movie, “Zulu,” where actor Jack Hawkins, playing the minister of a mission about to be attacked by a Zulu tribe, complained about British soldiers using the mission chapel as a hospital. The unit’s surgeon responded, “Can you think of a better place for a man to be when he’s in pain?”

In the Middle Ages, the right of sanctuary, the right of a person in trouble to take refuge in a church for a limited time, was universally recognized.

In some ways, churches still fill that role, but changes in society have violated that sanctuary, and it’s appalling. And when it reaches the point where seminars on church safety discuss not how to prevent grandma from slipping in the aisle or on the steps, but how to stop a potential violent threat to the congregation, or sending members to be trained to carry concealed firearms, it’s time for us to start thinking how we allowed society to reach this point.

Some may blame church violence on the “moral decline of America,” but in fact, all of us are to blame. We don’t educate children to respect traditions and institutions like churches. We don’t push to have accessible and affordable mental health care for the people who need it. We don’t take steps to have thorough background checks to ensure the mentally ill don’t have access to deadly weapons.

It’s time we start reassessing how we approach the problems in society that have led us to this point and begin putting personal petty reasons aside and get serious about changes to make our country better.

A church should be a place where someone can go for peace, healing and meditation. It should not be a place where someone fears for their life. And if a church, God’s house, a place of peace and worship isn’t safe, what does that say about our society?
John Surratt is a staff writer at The Vicksburg Post. You may reach him at john.surratt@vicksburgpost.com.