Most Protestant pastors depending on armed congregants or security personnel at worship services, study finds

In contrast, fifth of pastors ban firearms at their buildings

Photo by Thomas Tucker, licensed by Unsplash.

Early Christian apologist Tertullian is well known for having said that when Jesus disarmed Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, he disarmed all Christians. But today’s Protestant pastors apparently don’t accept that interpretation of the Biblical account, a new survey of pastors and their churches’ security measures suggests.

A majority of Protestant pastors participating in a Lifeway Research study released last week, 54 percent, said they depend on armed members of their congregations to provide security for their worship gatherings. Also, 20 percent of the pastors said they have armed private security at their services; these two numbers overlap, so it’s not clear what is the total percentage of pastors relying on the presence of firearms. Additionally, 5 percent said they have armed police officers on site.

In contrast, 21 percent of pastors said their churches have a no-firearms policy for their buildings as their method of helping keep congregants safe.

Other security measures employed include the use of radio communications among security personnel (26 percent of pastors) and the use of metal detectors at entrances (1 percent). Also, 57 percent said they have an intentional plan for an active-shooter situation, although the survey didn’t analyze what those plans involve.

Overall, about four out of five pastors use one or more of the above security measures (including the no-firearms policies).

The study results were based on telephone interviews with 1,000 Protestant pastors from throughout the United States last September. Responses were weighted to account for church size. Lifeway said the sample provided a 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed 3.2 percent.

Some of the numbers vary widely with the education level, race, denominational group and other demographic factors of the pastors. Among the differences:

• Black pastors (12 percent) are more likely than White pastors (4 percent) to have uniformed police officers on site. But White pastors are more likely to depend on armed congregants (56 percent) than do Black pastors (33 percent).

• Pastors without a college degree (28 percent) or with a bachelor’s degree (25 percent) are more likely to use armed security personnel than pastors with a graduate degree (16 percent).

• Pentecostals at 44 percent are the most likely to use armed security personnel; mainline pastors at 16 percent are the least likely.

• As would be expected, pastors at large churches are more likely to rely on armed congregants or security personnel than those at smaller churches.

• Female pastors (31 percent) are more likely to have a no-firearms policy than male pastors (18 percent).