| Church Security Article from The Des Moines Register |
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Keeping members safe is modern mission
By SHIRLEY RAGSDALE REGISTER RELIGION EDITOR October 30, 2005 Churches have long been considered safe havens from the evil of the outside world. No more. Across Iowa and the nation, churches increasingly are taking precautions to protect members by: • Issuing identification cards that are required before parents may pick up children from Sunday school classes. • Training and screening church leaders to recognize child abuse. • Installing sophisticated electronic surveillance equipment. • Monitoring sex offenders who may move from church to church. Congregations face walking a fine line in fulfilling their mission to lead sinners to salvation while keeping members - especially children - safe. Churches today must be "wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove," said Lori Jones , church administrator for Christ United Methodist Church in Davenport.
"Churches reflect the society at large," said Eric Spacek , senior risk manager for GuideOne Insurance of West Des Moines. GuideOne insures about 43,000 U.S. churches. Churchgoers initially may be taken aback by being required to show an ID card to pick up their children from Sunday school, but many appreciate the safety measures. Deb Iliff , a member of Calvary Baptist Church in Muscatine , said security measures at her church are important because "those are my grandbabies in there." "The church is located in a really visible place on the highway. We can't afford to take chances," Iliff said. When Calvary Baptist Church in Muscatine outgrew its traditional facility and bought a vacant shopping mall - a 180,000-square-foot facility sprawling over 22 acres in a commercial district - upgrading security became a priority. "We're spread over a larger campus, so we had to be conscious about who was coming and going," said Brad Janowski, church administrator.
"Nobody can get through the door to the Kids Zone if you don't have a badge," Iliff said. Approximately 4,200 people worship at Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines each weekend. Hundreds of children are checked in to church day care, nursery or youth activities each week. The church's elaborate check-in and check-out procedures act as a deterrent to children being taken from church by someone other than a custodial parent, said Chris Gunnare, business manager. "Church security is changing," Gunnare said. "The threat is not just from strangers, but also from split families in legal disputes. Nobody wants to make the paper for (a child abduction). It's not good outreach." Small, rural churches where congregants know one another are least likely to screen, according to Richard Hammar, a Springfield, Mo., attorney and author specializing in church risk management .
Since widespread reports of child abuse by Roman Catholic priests became public in recent years, Spacek of GuideOne said church leaders are more sensitive about bad things happening in sacred places. In Iowa, all four Catholic dioceses adopted a program to educate clergy, staff and volunteers about child sexual abuse, and instituted background checks for all those who work with children in Catholic schools and churches. "Reports of child sexual abuse have caused immense fear, with people guarding themselves all over the place, including church," said R. Dean Wright, a Drake University sociology professor who studies crime. The public is more sensitive than ever about child sexual exploitation, he said, although the number of cases is not increasing. Nationally, more than 78 percent of congregations conduct background checks on paid employees, compared with 48 percent 10 years ago, according to Hammar's colleague, the Rev. James Cobble, executive director of Christian Ministry Resources, an organization that has extensively studied church practices. In the past 10 years, 70 child-abuse allegations have been filed against U.S. churches of all denominations each week, Cobble's research shows. Cobble found more sex-abuse incidents in Protestant denominations than in Catholic churches.
"Sexual misconduct doesn't happen often, but when it happens it is catastrophic," Spacek said. "There is a general feeling that when it comes to the safety of children, one incident is too many." Staff background checks are the main screening tool used by Calvary Baptist Church, a Des Moines inner-city congregation that is about a tenth the size of Muscatine Calvary Baptist. The Rev. Cheryl R. Thomas believes congregational leaders walk a fine line between making their church secure and "becoming a fortress where people don't feel comfortable." Jones, Christ United Methodist's administrator in Davenport , was among representatives from 40 churches who attended a workshop on background checks at Muscatine Calvary Baptist - which has been named one of the nation's three safest churches by GuideOne and the National Safety Council.
"In our case, (the sex offender) was upfront about it and we verified the nature of his crime and feel comfortable he isn't a threat," Jones said. "If we had painted him with a broad brush, we would have lost the opportunity to minister to someone in his situation. Still, when he is with youth, other adults will always be present." Known sex offenders have attended church services at the Muscatine church, administrator Janowski said. "We don't bar them, but we do keep an eye on them," Janowski said. "We offer to pair them with a mentor or buddy who provides support and also holds them accountable when they're in the building. After we've offered, they stopped coming. "That's OK, because if I can make my property less attractive to bad guys, and he goes somewhere else, my security goals are accomplished." Religion Editor Shirley Ragsdale can be reached at (515) 284-8208 or sragsdale@dmreg.com |
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