by Chuck Ness
I have seen this time and time again. A church feels they are under attack by outside forces and they decide to use armed guards to protect the Pastors and parishioners. The first time I ran across this was in the early "80"s when I asked if my wife and child could attend my sister-in-laws church. She told me she would have to get permission from the leaders of the church to attend. After inquiring why, I learned that the church had been under attack and that guards were placed at the entrances, and no one was allowed in that was not a member.
This struck me odd, because ever since I was a young boy I was allowed to walk into any church I wanted to, and sit and listen to the sermon. Yes, even when I walked into a Catholic Church when I was 11, I walked in and just sat down with no one trying to stop me. In the years since, I have grown to disagree with Catholicism. I digress though because this is not about the Catholic church. I later learned that my sister-in-laws church was the, "World Wide Church Of God", and a cult. Since then it's founder, Herbert W. Armstrong has died, and his successor has brought the church into the mainstream of Christ's teachings, The WCG has also been recognized by the National Association of Evangelicals. However, this is about an Evangelical church in Alabama that decided to ask the State of Alabama if they could create their own police force. So far they have the Alabama State Senate approved by a 24 to 4 vote.
