A Church of the Nazarene in West Palm Beach, FL gave a burglar more than he bargained for recently. The church had suffered from a string of burglaries and didn’t want to let it keep happening. They rotated taking shifts sleeping in the church and waiting for the next intruder with baseball bats ready.
Sure enough, there was another break-in and the church members were ready. They stopped the burglar and he’s now spending time in jail.
What do you think? Before you start jumping to conclusions on either side. Should Christians be expected to let things like this continue to happen to them? Yes? So, why do churches have locks on the door? No? How far can they go to not be taken advantage of anymore.
There’s a reader poll on the Palm Beach Post website:
- 87.18% (1611 votes) – Yes, it was their right to defend their church.
- 11.09% (205 votes) – No, they should have let authorities handle it.
- 1.73% (32 votes) – I’m not sure.
My entire heritage growing up was in the Nazarene church, I voted “Yes”. Very interested in hearing everyone else’s thoughts and rationale.
Source: ChurchMarketingSucks and Palm Beach Post and CNN has video
Update: Here’s a nice article that gives more details from Nazarene Communications Network?