How to deal with terror threats to your church
“The pretense of tolerance is over these days,” ADF attorney Erik Stanley says. He’s referring to a wave of terroristic threats made against Christian who dare publicly to support traditional values: ”churches who stand for biblical truth may be attacked for their stance.”
In a post, “Oklahoma church threatened for standing up for Family Values,” he explains,
Pastor Paul Blair and Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma . . . were opposing the decision by the Oklahoma City City Council to add “sexual orientation” to its anti-discrimination ordinance. Hours after Pastor Blair had spoken to the City Council and outlined why adding this category to the law was a bad idea, threatening phone calls came into the church answering machine.
Stanley cites the terroristic threats reported by WorldNetDaily:
“I have committed homicide more than one time and in more than one state – and yet have not been caught or charged. Think about that,” the clearly angry caller said in the first telephone call, recorded at 4:12 a.m.
Then he got aggressive: “I will be coming to visit you at 1230 North Sooner Road. I will be seeing you, bringing you something.”
Three minutes later, “I will be coming to see you at 1230 North Sooner Road.”
Then a few hours later the caller elevated his attack: “I suggest you listen to this message clearly. A (muffled) has been placed on your property in the building, as well as some visitors will be visiting Pastor Blair at his residence. This is just to let you know. Thank you. Detonate it, detonate.”
Apparently, this is not an uncommon response for some leftist radicals: “After Proposition 8 was passed in California that protected marriage as between one man and one woman, a wave of threats, violence, and property destruction was unleashed against churches. . . . It seems that it is acceptable to opponents of biblical truth to use any means necessary to get their point accepted, including threats, vandalism, and violence.”
That the media won’t call these attacks “terrorism” is totally hypocritical, for if anything fits the definition of terrorism, these do: “Terrorism includes the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives” (28 U.S.C. 0.85(l)).
But Christians need not cower in fear. We do have legal defenses and resources out there:
No church should be intimidated or threatened for standing up for biblical values in their community. ADF stands ready to protect any church that finds itself the target of threats or violence and we have resources to help churches prepare for this type of thing.
For those interested in being prepared, I recommend following Stanley’s links.