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Should Black Churches Have Armed Security After Attacks? Pastors Say 'No'

By  Josh McGhee and Andrea V. Watson | July 2, 2015 6:12am 

 Mount Zion AME Church in Greeleyville, S.C., which was burned to the ground by the KKK 20 years ago, is one of several Southern black churches that have caught fire in recent weeks.
Mount Zion AME Church in Greeleyville, S.C., which was burned to the ground by the KKK 20 years ago, is one of several Southern black churches that have caught fire in recent weeks.
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CHICAGO — In the two weeks since Dylann Roof was accused of walking into a historically black church in South Carolina and opening fire, assassinating a state senator and leaving eight members of the congregation dead, several black churches have caught fire in the South.

While some of the fires weren't intentionally set, at least three were — and the timing of the incidents has church attendees and their leaders on their toes.

The Rev. William Hall, pastor of St. James Evangelical Church, 8000 S. Michigan Ave. in Chatham, went to the site of the Charleston shooting to pray with families of the victims after the shooting. After hearing about the fires, his first reaction was to pray, he said — not worry about his own security.

"It's not a time to be paranoid, it's a time to pray. We do know people come to church to prey, but we come to pray for them," Hall said, adding that while the church always has had security measures in place, it won't be "going above and beyond" because of the fires.

"Under no circumstances have we gone out of our way to beef up our security, or to do anything like that because by doing that, fear wins," Hall said.

"The Bible tells us that Jesus didn’t give us a spirit of fear, so one of the the things I refuse to do is perpetuate fear. People should come to church to worship, people should come to church to lift their hands and to indulge in Scripture," he said.

He added: "We're not going to exacerbate that fear to our community. To do that would be to suggest fear has won — or even racism has won."

Andrea Watson discusses church security with some local leaders:

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham, said the fires should remind us that "racism isn't going to be solved by taking down a flag or a great speech by the president."

"Until we have the courage to dismantle [racism], it's going to keep showing up. We have to have the courage in America to deal with race consistently," Pfleger said.

While St. Sabina, 1210 W. 78th Place, doesn't plan on beefing up security, Pfleger said when he spoke to church leaders around Chicago after the Charleston massacre, some leaders were lobbying for the idea.

"There were many different conversations. Some said there should be armed guards at the door, and some said there shouldn't. There was a split," Pfleger said. "I'm just not one that thinks we should. It'd be very hard to tell our young people, 'You don't need a gun to protect yourself, but the church does.'"

The congregation is just as split, but that's when pastors need to step up and be leaders, Pfleger said.

"Unfortunately, this is the day we live in in America, where no place is safe and no place is sacred," Pfleger said.

Otis Moss III is the senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, 400 W. 95th St. Moss said that since the news broke about Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Greeleyville, S.C., catching on fire, he has been communicating with national and local leaders.

"Trinity will be joining with other denominations and organizations such as the NAACP to demand that not only the task force is opened, but that there will be an investigation from the Department of Justice and the FBI to track the hate crimes," he said.

The task force Moss is referring to is formally called the National Church Arson Task Force, formed in 1996 after several arson attacks on Southern black churches in the mid-1990s, according to the Los Angeles Times. A number of government agencies, including the FBI, and state law enforcement officials are on the panel.

Mount Zion AME Church was burned down by the Ku Klux Klan almost 20 years ago, according to news reports.

Moss said  the symbolic meaning of  black churches has made them the frequent target of white supremacist groups.

"I’m not a forensic scientist, nor am I part of any investigative group, but I can say this: Black churches were targeted in the antebellum South when slavery was legal," he said.

"Churches were targeted during the era of Jim Crow, and churches have been targeted throughout each presidential administration. There is a connection, because churches represent ... freedom, progress, growth and development, and spiritual and intellectual power for people of African descent."

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