We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

Should churches have armed security guards?
Question: Recently (December, 2007) a security guard at New Life Church in Colorado Springs shot and apparently killed a man who was shooting people in the church parking lot. The pastor (Brady Boyd) hailed her as a “real hero.” Do you think churches should have armed security guards and do you think the pastor was right in calling this woman a “hero”?
Answer: By all normal standards, this woman was justified in shooting the threatening man and should be regarded as a “hero” for her bravery. But the Kingdom of God is not normal. The Kingdom always looks like Jesus. When Jesus was threatened, Peter tried to defend him with violence. It was, by all normal standards, a justified use of force in self-defense and Peter should be regarded as heroically brave for using it. (He was, after all, taking on a mob!) Yet Jesus rebuked Peter for his action.
Later, Jesus told Pilate his Kingdom was “not of this world,” and he appealed to the fact that his followers were not fighting in his defense as proof of his claim (Jn 18:36). This is consistent with everything else Jesus taught his disciples. We are never to respond to violence with violence (Mt 5:39) but are rather to love and do good to our enemies (e.g. Lk 6:27-35, cf. Rom. 12:17-21).
The way followers of Jesus show that they belong to a Kingdom that is “not of this world” is by refusing to act according to the common sense of the world and by refusing to fight when it seems justified to do so. The central call of the Kingdom is to follow Jesus’ example in all things, especially in our willingness to suffer instead of using violence in self-defense (e.g. I Cor 4:6; 11:1; Eph 5:1-2; Phil. 3:17; I Thess 1:6; 2 Thess 3:7; Col 2:6; I Pet 2:21). So, while I can grant that this security guard was brave and even “heroic” by ordinary standards, I cannot grant that she was a hero in a Kingdom sense of the term. The criteria for heroism in the Kingdom is not how brave one is in using violence, but how brave one is in imitating Jesus’ refusal to use violence.
Along the same lines, I can understand why churches — especially mega-churches — have security guards. From my own experience I can testify that public figures sometimes get death threats. But as practically expedient as this is, I think it is antithetical to the Kingdom. Because by doing this, we’re saying we have no intention of following Jesus’ teaching and example if and when we’re threatened.
I know this may strike some — maybe most — as insane, and I actually respect people who, out of integrity, reject Jesus’ teaching as insane. But for people who have pledged their life to following Jesus, we have no choice but to follow his example, even if it strikes us as insane. For if Jesus’ teaching strikes us as insane, it is only because our criteria of sanity is set by a fallen world that instinctively relies on violence to solve problems.
Category: Q&A
Tags: Christian Life, Church, Peacemaking, Q&A, Social Issues, Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence, Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
Related Reading

Uncrossed
Did any of you catch SNL this weekend? They did a parody of Tarantino’s DJango Unchained called DJesus Uncrossed. Many were deeply offended by the depiction of Jesus in this, but David R. Henson blogged about how this skit revealed what we’ve already been doing for quite a while as a culture. In his blog…

The Problem with Mixing Church & Government
Image by fusion-of-horizons via Flickr Some people insist that the only reason that neither Jesus nor anyone else in the first several centuries of the church tried to dominate the political system of their day was because they were a small minority of people living in a nondemocratic and hostile environment. By contrast, the argument goes,…

The Right to Remain Silent
A reader (Thanks Adam) sent us this reflection written by Jason Hess on how we as Christians sometimes use the freedom of speech in ways that are in opposition with our call to love. How we live is infinitely more important than what we say, and sometimes our free speech is a detriment to bringing…

How do you respond to John 13:18–19; 17:12?
“I am not speaking of you all; I know whom I have chosen. But it is to fulfill the scripture, ‘The one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I tell you this now, before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he.’” Jesus prays…

The Purpose of the Church
Unlike most social groups, the relationships forged in the body of Christ are not ends in and of themselves. Rather, Christ calls us to unite with other believers for a unique purpose: to grow in, express and advance the kingdom revolution. We can gain clearer understanding of what the church is to be about by…

Dear Greg: The Church has Forced My Dad Out for a Younger, Hipper Pastor (podcast)
Greg talks about leading churches and about how the age of the pastor can impact a congregation. Episode 556 http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0556.mp3