More Ohio pastors allow armed church security; Gun ban extremist objects

by Chad D. Baus

WHIO (CBS Dayton) is reporting that "churches across the country and here in the Miami Valley are responding to violence by putting their trust in God and taking security into their own hands."

From the article:

At Phillips Temple in Trotwood, armed security guards routinely patrol the church grounds and stand watch inside during services and events. It is a visible presence that Pastor James Washington considers a necessary deterrent from evil.

"The Bible calls it lawlessness. It's just a complete disregard for what's right and wrong and what's legal and what's not," said Washington.

Police cruisers surrounded an Ashtabula, Ohio church on Easter Sunday after a man walked in with a handgun and fatally shot his own father. There were 135 deadly force incidents at places of worship across the country in 2012. Four people have died in 11 shooting incidents so far this year.

"Let's get people trained and certified so that if we have a serious incident here, we can respond immediately," said Mark Stusek, a church security consultant.

Stusek, a retired Dayton Police Officer, founded Glory-2-God Solutions, designing special classes for pastors and church leaders.The students not only qualify for their concealed carry licenses, but they become Certified Security Officers trained on how and when to engage an active shooter.

Jon Faulkner of Beavercreek said, "People are trying to evaluate circumstances they find themselves day in and day out at work, church, even their home, the mall and trying to figure out if something went wrong, what would I do?"

Toby Hoover, who often appears to be a one-woman show at the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, is quoted as saying that having trained, armed church-goers provides nothing but "a false sense of security." (Unfortunately, the reporter who recorded the quote apparently failed to ask Hoover if she thought it was a "false sense of security" that saved potentially hundreds of lives at New Life Church in Colorado.)

This isn't Hoover's first such attempt to insert herself into discussions over the measures places of worship should take to protect their members.

In 2009, Hoover, who the evidence proves has no qualms about mixing religion and political advocacy, at least when it comes to arguing against the right to bear arms for self-defense, issued a press release condemning an Ohio pastor simply for announcing that his church was going to hold a forum to address such topics as "whether the Old Testament and New Testament teach people that they have the right to keep and bear arms, what Jesus says about bearing arms, and whether American citizens would be safer being disarmed."

Clearly Hoover is not only opposed to the rights of Ohioans to exercise their Second Amendment rights in a place of worship, but also their First Amendment rights.

If there had been a "Jerusalem Coalition Against Sword Violence", I suspect a press release issued in response to Jesus' instruction would have read a lot like something Toby Hoover wrote. In fact, one could likely have to do little more than substitute the word "sword" - the sidearm of Jesus' day, which he clearly advocated carrying - with "firearm" or "gun", the sidearm of today.

Let us step back in time for a moment, some 2000 years ago. As He was instructing His disciples on how to prepare for the aftermath of His crucifixion, the physician known as Luke quotes Jesus as saying "...Take your money and a traveler's bag. And if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one! For the time has come for this prophecy about me to be fulfilled: 'He was counted among the rebels.' Yes, everything written about me by the prophets will come true."

The disciples respond, saying "Look, Lord, we have two swords among us." Jesus' reply? "That's enough."

To hear Hoover tell it, though, Jesus was just wanting to give his disciples a "false sense of security."

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman.