Christian Men: You Must Defend Your Own Churches

By Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America

Another Sunday, another house of worship is attacked. This time, it was the Mormons’ turn. A gunman rammed a vehicle into the Grand Blanc Township church on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 28. The gunman exited the vehicle and began firing a semi-automatic rifle. It is not clear how at this time, but the church was also set on fire. At least three people are dead, including the gunman, and eight others are being treated. More victims may be uncovered as a result of the fire. As bad as the attack was, it could have been a lot worse. Two officers on the scene — one from the township police department and one from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources — shot the gunman, saving an unknown number of innocent lives.

This is the second shooting at a church in Michigan in 2025. In June, a gunman began shooting at people outside the CrossPointe Community Church. The Detroit Free Press reported the gunman in that case was shot and killed by two church staff members.

An effective 911 response to an active shooting is going to take multiple minutes to arrive. Sometimes as many as 10 minutes or more. Those are horrifying minutes in which innocent people are being killed and injured. FBI statistics indicate that most active shooting incidents last around 5 minutes, meaning that most are concluded before the local police even arrive. A determined psychopath can do a lot of damage in 5 minutes.

There is a huge lesson Christian men need to learn from the two Michigan active shooter incidents. You must be prepared to defend your own parish. The resources needed to stop an active shooter need to already be at the parish, not on their way following frantic 911 calls. You need armed men guarding the inside and outside of your parish during worship. They can double as greeters, while keeping watch to ensure everyone’s safety. 

Your parish needs men with guns on security detail. Men who are not on security detail on a given Sunday should still be armed. You never know when additional firepower will be needed. Just because most active shooters are alone does not mean groups like Antifa are not a thing. Plus, even a lone shooter could be wearing body armor, carrying a rifle that makes handgun engagement difficult, or have explosives that disrupt effective response. You always want more guns at the fight, because you never know what resources will be necessary to handle a given threat. Better to have more than you need, than watch people die.

Am I being paranoid with this advice? In a 2025 report, the Family Research Council, an evangelical nonprofit and activist group, identified 1,384 incidents of attacks on U.S. Churches such as arson, shootings, and vandalism between January 2018 and December 2024. Over 800 of those incidents were recorded in the last two years alone. So it is not just perception that attacks on Christian churches are increasing. The numbers bear that out. For Christian sanctuaries, America is getting increasingly dangerous.

Your parish needs security cameras, alarms (if possible), and men with guns. Otherwise, you could be the victims hiding under pews, helplessly dialing 911 while a madman kills your parish’s children. Your parish could be the next one set on fire at 2 A.M., leaving no evidence as your parish council was too cheap to spring for cameras. Your priest could come in one morning, only to find your entire iconostasis covered with graffiti. Tens of thousands of dollars in damage to holy objects, because alarms are just so darn pricey.

Probably few parishioners are going to argue over security measures such as alarms and cameras. A lot of people have those at home, and the costs are not so prohibitive that a few families couldn’t cover them, even at smaller parishes. Guns in church, however, is likely to be a more controversial topic. Let’s get this out of the way upfront. It is true that martyrdom is highly valued in the Orthodox Church. It is also true that Orthodox teaching emphasizes reliance on God’s protection, rather than on self-defense with weapons. Would not change that teaching for anything.

So no guns, right? Not so fast. By refusing to protect innocent people, you are not choosing martyrdom for yourself. You are choosing it for others you could have defended, but chose not to. Other people who may not be ready to meet Christ face-to-face, even if you are. How about the lives of innocent children? Are you willing to watch children die, because of your commitment to martyrdom? Are you willing to look their parents in the face at their funerals, knowing that you might have done something, but consciously chose not to?

Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, the two children killed at mass at the Annunciation Catholic school shooting

Sophia Forchas, 12, a Greek Orthodox Christian shot in the head at Annunciation, gravely wounded, but so far making “miraculous” progress towards recovery. 

Orthodoxy emphasizes martyrdom, but our faith also emphasizes the defense of the innocent. The following quote is from the Russian Orthodox Church’s Social Concept Document, and the section on “War and Peace” is instructive:

When St. Cyril Equal-to-the-Apostles was sent by the Patriarch of Constantinople to preach the gospel among the Saracens, in their capital city he had to enter into a dispute about faith with Muhamaddan scholars. Among others, they asked him: “Your God is Christ. He commanded you to pray for enemies, to do good to those who hate and persecute you and to offer the other cheek to those who hit you, but what do you actually do? If anyone offends you, you sharpen your sword and go into battle and kill. Why do you not obey your Christ?” Having heard this, St. Cyril asked his fellow-polemists: “If there are two commandments written in one law, who will be its best respecter—the one who obeys only one commandment or the one who obeys both?” When the Hagerenes said that the best respecter of law is the one who obeys both commandments, the holy preacher continued: “Christ is our God Who ordered us to pray for our offenders and to do good to them. He also said that no one of us can show greater love in life than he who gives his life for his friends (Jn. 15:3). That is why we generously endure offences caused us as private people. But in company we defend one another and give our lives in battle for our neighbours, so that you, having taken our fellows prisoners, could not imprison their souls together with their bodies by forcing them into renouncing their faith and into godless deeds. Our Christ-loving soldiers protect our Holy Church with arms in their hands. They safeguard the sovereign in whose sacred person they respect the image of the rule of the Heavenly King. They safeguard their land because with its fall the home authority will inevitably fall too and the evangelical faith will be shaken. These are precious pledges for which soldiers should fight to the last. And if they give their lives in battlefield, the Church will include them in the community of the holy martyrs and call them intercessors before God.”

There is no conflict between a commitment to martyrdom and a commitment to protecting innocent life from a psychopathic murderer. If you can’t reconcile yourself to that, then fine. Don’t carry a gun. Just don’t get in the way of those who do. You might find that when facing the barrel of an AR-15, you are not as ready to face Christ as you thought.

What about divine protection? Of course we pray for, and rely on, divine protection. But do we rely solely on the hope of divine protection in our lives, or do we also make use of things God has given us access to that reduce risk? Do you wear a seatbelt in the car? Do you wear safety gear at a dangerous jobsite? Do you pay for insurance on your property, health, and life?  Did you ever relocate a child to a better school because of safety concerns? Do you drive a car, instead of taking public transportation because you feel safer? Did you buy a car with a higher safety rating, even though you really wanted something sportier?

We live in a country, that for all its many flaws, guarantees us access to the means of effective self-defense. Thank God for that, the same as you would for any other risk mitigation method you use in your daily life. You might not like guns. Your personal feelings won’t protect you or anyone else from a madman with one. You may want to ban all guns. Won’t happen. Can’t actually happen. Aside from the Constitution, there is the practical matter that America is swimming in guns. You can’t stop someone else from carrying a gun. You can only decide if you, and your family, will be protected by one.

A local priest, in most cases, can bless members of his parish to be armed, and to fulfill a (usually rotating) security role at worship services. If necessary, he can seek guidance from his bishop. There could be restrictions on that blessing. Perhaps only veterans are blessed to carry. Or only those who have passed one of the gun safety courses offered in every community. If sufficient law enforcement officers are available, then he may restrict his blessing to them while off duty. Notice, however, the phrase “sufficient.” One off duty police officer who attends occasionally is not “sufficient.” The priest may also want to limit the use of certain ammo. Reasonable guidelines are justifiable. Blanket prohibitions on protective firearms are not.

But aren’t weapons banned in parishes by canon? No. While there are Orthodox precedents for warriors voluntarily leaving their weapons outside, there are also ample precedents for weapons being carried during services. If you want to keep innocent women and children defenseless, than you need to own that opinion. You can’t blame anyone else.

Look, I don’t like the world we live in anymore than anyone else does. It is sheer madness that men of our parishes have to forego Divine Liturgy to watch the outside of our parishes for the safety of everyone inside. It is sheer madness that we have to bring our concealed carry pieces to the Chalice while communing with the Eternal Prince of Peace.

But whether we like it or not, sheer madness is what we are surrounded by. Our society is sick, and Christ is the cure. Which is why our parishes are not closed clubs meeting in secret. Our doors are wide open to all. Our service times are published on the Internet, complete with directions on how to find us. That will not change, no matter how depraved and nihilistic our society becomes. We will never be able to reduce the risk of following Christ to zero. Our Lord warned of that in John 15:19-21:

19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

 

20 Remember the word that I said unto you: ‘The servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also.

 

21 But all these things will they do unto you for My name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent Me.

Just because we can never fully protect ourselves from a world that despises Jesus Christ, does not mean we Christian men should do nothing to protect the innocent lives we have been given charge over. Protection is what men do, whether it is the wolf at the door or an active shooter. If your parish has not started discussions on security, then now is a good time. And not just security from crazed individuals. Kindly remember that during the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, for example, many parishes in North Carolina and Tennessee became focal points for housing and feeding their congregations whose lives had been completely gutted by a natural disaster.

Parish councils, parish priests, bishops, and Orthodox Christian men have much work to do.

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