{"id":25964,"date":"2015-06-24T11:37:13","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T15:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=25964"},"modified":"2015-06-25T07:31:46","modified_gmt":"2015-06-25T11:31:46","slug":"the-charleston-shooting-and-christian-persecution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2015\/06\/the-charleston-shooting-and-christian-persecution.html","title":{"rendered":"The Charleston Shooting and Christian Persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

As I read about various reactions to\u00a0last week\u2019s tragic shootings in Charleston\u2019s\u00a0historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, I was shocked to see many conservative leaders using the fact that the shooting happened in a church as evidence that Christianity is under attack in this country<\/a>. See for example this from former Senator\u00a0Rick Santorum<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This is one of those situations where\u00a0you just have to take a step back and say we \u2014 you know, you talk about the importance of prayer in this time and we\u2019re now seeing assaults on our religious liberty we\u2019ve never seen before.\u00a0It\u2019s a time for deeper reflection beyond this horrible situation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I had assumed conservatives would admit that the shooter was motivated by racism but argue that he\u00a0was a lone extremist, or that he had mental problems, and thus downplay the extent of racism that still exists in our society today. I hadn\u2019t<\/em> expected them to argue that an overtly race-based<\/em> incident\u00a0was in fact an example of anti-Christian persecution. Dylann Roof left no ambiguity. He stated flat out that he shot those he did because of race<\/em>, not because they were in a church. But perhaps I expected too much.<\/p>\n

After reading these responses, my mind was drawn to the two\u00a0church shootings I could think of off the top of my head, and I was startled by how badly they fit into evangelicals\u2019\u00a0Christian persecution narrative. Because they don\u2019t. Like, at all.<\/p>\n

In 2009, abortion doctor George Tiller was shot to death<\/a> by a right-wing\u00a0extremist in the\u00a0church where he served as an usher, Reformation Lutheran Church. In 2008, two were killed and more injured when a right-wing extremist opened fire in a Unitarian Universalist church<\/a> in Knoxville, Tennessee, citing a hatred for\u00a0democrats and liberals as his motivation. Neither of these examples fit evangelicals\u2019 Christian persecution narrative at all<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So I wondered. How many church shootings are there, and with what motivations?<\/p>\n

I typed some terms into Google and the first church shooting I found occurred\u00a0on May 24th, 2015, when a pastor, Augustus Sealy,\u00a0<\/span>was shot outside of his church in Hartford, Connecticut. As I read further, I read that<\/a> it was being investigated as a hate crime, and initially assumed this meant as a hate crime against Christians<\/em>. But no. As I kept reading<\/a> I learned that Augustus Sealy was African American and that his church was well known as being supportive of LGBTQ rights, and that the shooter made anti-gay comments on the scene. Huh.<\/p>\n

Then I found a 2012 Christianity Today article titled Church Shootings Prompt Pastors to Reevaluate Security<\/a>. The article started by noting that \u201cMore than 115 incidents of church violence in 2012, compared to only 10 a decade ago,\u201d which sounds startling. The article went on as follows:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

On Oct. 24,\u00a0a shooting attack<\/a>\u00a0at Atlanta megachurch World Changers Church International killed a volunteer leader\u00a0as he led prayer during a service<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, that attack has\u00a0many pastors\u2013from Washington D.C. to Knoxville<\/span><\/a>\u2013reviewing their churches\u2019 safety measures<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in order to\u00a0prevent similar violence from occurring<\/span><\/a>\u00a0closer to home as church violence\u00a0continues to soar<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rolling Out<\/em>, an African American news site, noted that the Atlanta incident is\u00a0one of five attacks on largely black congregations<\/span><\/a>\u00a0within the last year. But other pastors say the attack, perpetrated by a former church employee who resigned this summer, is\u00a0a warning for all churches<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that are generally open and welcomin<\/span>g.<\/p>\n

Regardless of security precautions, church-related violence has been on the rise for the past decade. According to Carl Chinn, a former Focus on the Family building engineer who tracks church crime and violence statistics, 115 attacks\u201363 of which resulted in at least one fatality<\/a>\u2013have occurred so far in 2012, up from 108 attacks last year and just 10 such attacks a decade ago.<\/p>\n

CT previously spotlighted the\u00a0recent surge in church violence<\/a>\u00a0and has reported church shootings\u00a0in Colorado<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0in Phoenix<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While the motive for the 2012 Atlanta megachurch shooting is not clear, the shooter was a former employee, so the shooting was likely motivated by personal reasons. The mentioned Phoenix shooting was the result of domestic violence, and the Colorado shooting I\u2019ll get to later on in my post. I looked through the Rolling Out<\/em> article to see what motivated the five mentioned shootings in black churches, and all involved either domestic violence or personal disputes.<\/p>\n

But what of the statement that there were 115 attacks in churches in 2012 and 108 the year before? We\u2019ll get to that in a moment and look at the motivations behind those attacks, but first I want to note that this Christianity Today article was not the first article to note that pastors had started to ramp up security. The Washington Post had this to say<\/a> in a 2009 article:<\/p>\n

\n

The youth choir belted out \u201cO Happy Day\u201d as folks trickled in through the church doors. Few noticed the accountant sitting in the back pew, his eyes flickering over each latecomer.<\/p>\n

In one hand, he held a Bible. In the other, tucked inside his coat pocket, he gripped a .38 caliber revolver.<\/p>\n

He had come to People\u2019s Community Baptist Church in Silver Spring looking for his estranged wife. And once she arrived and began arguing with him outside, the Bible would be forgotten. The gun would be raised. And in a matter of seconds, the congregation\u2019s sense of sanctuary would be shattered.<\/p>\n

What happened that Sunday morning at People\u2019s Church was just one in a string of fatal shootings at houses of worship across the country. The most high-profile incidents \u2014 a Kansas abortion doctor gunned down in May, an Illinois pastor shot mid-sermon in March, a Tennessee church attacked during a children\u2019s play in 2008 \u2014 have begun to alter the way many churches operate.<\/p>\n

Sanctuaries that once left their doors open all day now employ armed guards, off-duty police officers, surveillance cameras and even undercover plainclothes guards who mingle with the congregation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Kansas and Tennessee shootings mentioned here are the ones I referenced above\u2014the murder of Dr. Tiller and the attack on a Unitarian Universalist congregation\u00a0for being politically liberal. Neither of these churches fit the Christian persecution narrative, and neither does the People\u2019s Community Baptist Church shooting described here, which was motivated by domestic violence.<\/p>\n

A 2013 USA Today article also address increases in church security<\/a>, again referencing the 115 attacks in 2012 mentioned in the Christianity Today article. What exactly do we know about those attacks? ? Well, let\u2019s take a look<\/a>. The webpage in question, which has been updated through 2015, notes\u00a0a total of 971 \u201cdeadly force incidents\u201d have occurred\u00a0in \u201cfaith-based organizations\u201d (including churches) since 1999. The webpage\u00a0is maintained by Carl Chinn<\/a>, who previously worked as a building engineer for Focus on the Family and now works as an independent consultant in ministry security.<\/p>\n

Actually, something in his description section<\/a> piqued my curiosity:<\/p>\n

In 1996 he [Chinn] was a responder in a standoff with an angry gunman who took hostages at the Focus on the Family ministry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Curious, I looked up the 1996 Focus on the Family hostage situation and found this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy for Focus on the Family, said the man apparently was injured while helping put up the three-building complex and felt he had not been adequately compensated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe apparently doesn\u2019t feel workers compensation or the construction company took care of it,\u201d Minnery said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I hope you\u2019re beginning to notice a bit of a theme here. In a country best by anti-Christian persecution, you would expect a hostage situation at a major Christian ministry to be motivated by anti-religious sentiment, not anger at not being properly compensated for a work-related accident.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s return to Chinn\u2019s numbers. Chinn\u00a0lists motivations for 769\u00a0of the 971 \u201cdeadly force incidents\u201d in his lists. You can see these motivations in the following chart, copied from his webpage<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

In other words, 17.0% of attacks were motivated by domestic violence, 12.6% by personal conflicts, and 24.8% by robbery. In addition, 10.4% \u00a0were gang related and 10.9% involved \u201cconfirmed\u201d mental illness. Only 6.1% of attacks in Chinn\u2019s listing were motivated by \u201creligious bias.\u201d The 971 incidents resulted in 430 deaths. Chinn also notes that 22.7% of aggressors were affiliated with the church or ministry.<\/p>\n

I will say that I\u2019m not entirely sure how Chinn is tallying his statistics, because he states that only 30.7% of incidents occurred in the building and that 57.4% of attacks involved a gun while the others involved knives, cars, molotov cocktails, fire, and poison. I also am not sure whether Chinn is including all church robberies or only those involving violence against persons.<\/p>\n

Chinn does offer a list of \u201cdeadly force incidents,<\/a>\u201d though it\u2019s limited to 2014 and 2015. It includes entries like this:<\/p>\n

Within an hour after children left the Bethel Apostolic Church Easter egg hunt, shots rang out on the church grounds. It appears as though several local teens had gotten into an altercation and guns came out. The pastor was alone at the church when the shooting happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

A man who appears to have served as the Youth Pastor of Polly Ann Church of God (the church denies this saying he was only a teacher) claimed to be \u201cex-gay\u201d. However, he not only raped a young man in the church, but also threatened to kill him if he told.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a woman left Wednesday night services at Keys to Successful Living Church, she was approached by an armed man as she began to get into her car in the parking lot. As she opened her door he appeared, displayed the firearm and demanded her purse. She complied and lived.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A 22-year-old man apparently stabbed his own mother to death as she sat behind the wheel in her car at Grace Church. The man then killed himself.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Many of the entries do not appear to have had anything to do with the church involved:<\/p>\n

Lesbian lovers got into an altercation that ended with police finding them in the parking lot of the Gospel Tabernacle Pentecostal<\/a> Church. When police arrived one of the women was dead from knife wounds inflicted by the other. The fight started on nearby I-15. It is unclear where the death took place.<\/span><\/p>\n

A 17-year-old girl conspired with an out-of-state 19-year-old male friend to lure an 18-year-old male to the Westwood Community Church for a \u201cboy-girl\u201d talk. The 18-year-old had no clue the coerced attacker was in the back seat of the girl\u2019s car until the attack. The 18-year-old was hit multiple times with a ball-bat, but finally got it away from the attacker who then fled, but was apprehended later in his home state of Arizona.<\/span><\/p>\n

A man wanted on suspicion of a car-jacking was discovered by police and fled in his vehicle. He crashed the vehicle he was fleeing in into the fence and playground equipment at the Victory Outreach Church.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>He then exited the vehicle and the officers feeling threatened opened fire killing him on the church grounds.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While it is absolutely reasonable to use incidents like these\u00a0to illustrate the need for churches to have security plans in place (just like other community centers), it is not<\/em> reasonable to use these incidents to point to\u00a0a rise in anti-Christian violence<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While Chinn\u2019s numbers do appear to point to an increasing number of incidents, I would suggest that what is actually<\/em> happening is that his list is becoming more comprehensive as time goes by. After all, it is utterly ridiculous to suggest that no more than ten incidents per year occurred from 1999 to 2005, as per Chinn\u2019s list, given the breadth of what he is including (as seen by the sample listings above). I suspect, rather, that over time he has begun tracking an increasingly broad array of incidents.<\/p>\n

Actually, let me show you this\u00a0list<\/a>, because I want to draw attention to something specific to the numbers:<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

The total death stat provided here (549) contradicts the one provided earlier on the webpage (430). More importantly,\u00a0the number of incidents in the first six years of Chinn\u2019s list (54) is far smaller than the total number of deaths for those years\u00a0(80), meaning that each incident averaged between one and two deaths. In contrast, the listings in more recent years are far less deadly\u2014the total number of deaths is less than\u00a0half of the total number of incidents, meaning that each incident averaged half a death.<\/p>\n

Based on this, and based on the sort of entries he\u2019s including (as seen above), I would posit\u00a0that\u00a0Chinn\u2019s listing is clearly not comprehensive in the earlier years. This means both that we cannot use his numbers to show an increase in the number of attacks and also that we can\u2019t trust his 6.1% stat for the number of attacks motivated by \u201creligious bias.\u201d After all, the sort of incidents listed above\u2014which are the ones he has undercounted for the earlier years of his listing\u2014appear to be the sort of incidents least likely to be motivated by \u201creligious bias.\u201d<\/p>\n

What can we glean from this? Well, first, we should look skeptically on claims that the number of church shootings is on the rise, especially when those claims link these shootings to anti-Christian bias. To the extent that the number may be on the rise (something the above numbers do not tell us conclusively, but could\u00a0be the case), it should be remembered that according to the FBI the number of \u201cactive shooter incidents\u201d has increased since 2000<\/a>. It\u2019s also worth remembering that Chinn does not say how many deaths were incurred during\u00a0the 6.1% of cases he has tallied that were motivated by \u201creligious bias.\u201d Either way, the vast majority of attacks are motivated by personal disputes, domestic violence, and robbery, not \u201creligious bias.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, a perusal of the 2014 and 2015 entries Chinn includes in his tally<\/a>\u00a0reveals that he is including violence against non-Christian houses of worship, including synagogues and mosques.<\/p>\n

Someone threw what appears to have been a Molotov cocktail at the southeast Albuquerque Islamic Center between 08:30 and 09:30 that Friday AM. Video surveillance of the suspect\u2019s car was not good enough quality to determine any identification.<\/span><\/p>\n

15-year-old Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein was killed as he was getting into his vehicle after leaving services at the Somali Center Mosque. The killer \u2014 a fellow Somali who has developed radical hatred for the Islamic teachings \u2013 was arrested for the vehicular homicide.<\/span><\/p>\n

As members of the Islamic Society of the Coachella Valley were inside at 5:00 AM that Tuesday morning, at least 5 shots were fired at the facility. 3 of the shots hit a car parked in front of the building while the other 2 hit the facility. No-one was injured and no suspects have been named.<\/span><\/p>\n

A man with a history of mental illness had apparently stopped taking his medications when he went to the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic world headquarters (a Jewish Synagogue). For no apparent reason he stabbed rabbinical student Levi Rosenblat in the head. Police shot and killed the attacker after arriving and him not putting down the knife. Rosenblat will survive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thinking in error that he was killing Jews associated with the Jewish Community Center (which went into lockdown as the killings outside began) a well-known neo-Nazi puppet killed 2 Methodists and a Catholic outside the center and at a nearby home for the elderly. When the moron was arrested he began to yell, \u201cHeil Hitler\u201d.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Remembering that Chinn is tallying attacks on all faith-based organizations is incredibly important\u00a0given that magazines like Christianity Today have used Chinn\u2019s numbers to point to an increase in attacks on churches<\/em>. Remember, too, that religiously motivated attacks on mosques or synagogues are factored into the 6.1% of the deadly force incidents that involve \u201creligious bias.\u201d Given the amount of Islamophobia and anti-semitism in our society, it is very likely that if we narrowed the lens and looked only at attacks on churches, the percentage of attacks based on \u201creligious bias\u201d would fall.<\/p>\n

Now that we\u2019ve finished looking at Chinn\u2019s numbers, let\u2019s turn to shootings at churches that involve opposition to religion rather than personal disputes or domestic violence. I have found only two mass church shootings that one could argue were based on anti-Christian sentiment, but\u00a0even these aren\u2019t open and shut.<\/p>\n

In 2007, twenty-four-year-old\u00a0Matthew J. Murray\u00a0killed four and injured several mor<\/a>e in a church and religious training center in Colorado. Murray cited hatred of Christianity as his motivation,\u00a0hatred apparently born out of<\/a>\u00a0the abuse he had faced at the hands of his parents during his extreme conservative religious upbringing, which involved homeschooling and the teachings of Bill Gothard.<\/p>\n

In 1999, Larry Gene Ashbrook opened fire in Wedgeworth Baptist Church<\/a> and killed seven people, most of them\u00a0teens, before turning the gun on himself. A churchgoer present at the shooting claims that when he told Ashbrook he needed Jesus, Ashbrook called Christianity a \u201cstupid religion\u201d and declared it \u201cbullshit.\u201d Based on this, Christianity Today declared that the dead were<\/a> \u201cmartyrs.\u201d Writers at Time Magazine objected<\/a>, pointing out that Ashbrook was delusional and had become increasingly paranoid, but that there was no evidence\u00a0that he was motivated by opposition to Christianity.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t do much to back up allegations of increasing persecution of Christians, does it?<\/p>\n

I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t return to the issue of race<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Black churches have long served as sanctuaries and homes to many African Americans. However, they have also been targets for violence, mainly by white people, who would use their power to plan and execute attacks to terrorize the black community.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Charleston<\/a>\u00a0shooting is one of the latest acts of violence against Emanuel AME Church, a predominantly black church where a white supremacist opened fire after\u00a0sitting amongst the churchgoers<\/a>\u00a0for an hour.\u00a0Dylann Roof<\/a>\u00a0reloaded his gunfive times<\/a>, killing nine and leaving only three survivors, including a\u00a0five-year-old who played dead<\/a>\u00a0and a woman who Roof\u00a0spared as a witness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Roof committed a\u00a0hate crime<\/a>, an act of\u00a0domestic terrorism<\/a>\u00a0that doesn\u2019t exist in isolation. A look at the\u00a0history of black church bombings<\/a>\u2014in addition to the\u00a0rapes<\/a>,\u00a0lynchings<\/a>, and\u00a0murders<\/a>\u00a0that took place during and after black church services\u2014shows this situation, and this mindset, isn\u2019t the behavior of a supposedly deranged loner. This was a deliberate attack on black people and the Black Church, an institution that has served African-American communities for generations.<\/p>\n

For generations, black churches have uplifted the downtrodden through prayer, offered financial support, provided\u00a0a home for slaves<\/a>, and have encouraged political activism and community leadership. For example, civil rights leaders and ordained ministers such as\u00a0Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.<\/a>\u00a0often\u00a0traveled to black churches\u2014including Emanuel AME\u2014to deliver speeches<\/a>\u00a0on voting rights and encourage protesting. The church has always served as a fixture in the\u00a0black community<\/a>. But because it has long been a boon for community development and political power, black churches have long been targeted for terrorist attacks at the hands of\u00a0white supremacists<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The above article goes on to discuss<\/a> the history of white supremacist violence against black churches.<\/p>\n

As a white conservative, Rick Santorum can hear\u00a0about a mass shooting in a historically black church and think\u00a0immediately\u00a0of anti-Christian persecution.\u00a0The same is not true for African Americans, who tend to be keenly aware of the the ways black churches have too often served as sites for white supremacist violence. Indeed, I suspect those mourning their loved ones this week would be aghast at attempts to make this conversation about Christian persecution rather than about race and (for many of them<\/a>) the importance of racial reconciliation.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s the way it goes, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0The (white) evangelical persecution narrative allows (white) evangelicals to see themselves<\/em> as the victims, and thus excuse themselves from their complicity in victimizing others. Making this tragedy about religion instead of race allows (white) evangelicals and other (white) conservatives to avoid discussions about how their positions vis a vis race and government tend to reenforce rather than dismantle the structural racism still present in our society today. And that, perhaps, is the main reason I find the recent\u00a0statements made by Rick Santorum and others<\/a> so problematic.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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