Churches typically don't need bulletproof glass, surveillance cameras and security officers. Except in Detroit, as Oralandar Brand-Williams reports in The Detroit News.
Thefts, muggings and even shootings at Detroit churches have led pastors to beef up security and, in some cases, arm themselves.
"Members are being assaulted coming and going," said the Rev. Oscar King III, pastor of Northwest Unity Church on the city's west side. "It's a continuing problem. There's less and less respect for the house of God. (Criminals) are walking into church like they are walking into a gas station." . . .
In some cases, churches are moving night services and prayer meetings to daytime because some members are afraid to attend after sundown.
Brand-Williams notes that Greater Christ Missionary Baptist Church on the east side has hired security guards and taken other anti-crime precautions. She also quotes the choir director at Plymouth United Church of Christ on Warren Avenue near Interstate 75,
