Man makes a 'ministry' of protecting Quad-City churches

MOLINE, Ill. (AP) - A sanctuary ceases to be a place of refuge when bullets are flying.

As more shootings occur in churches, mosques and synagogues in the U.S., more religious leaders are being forced to reckon with a new reality.

When a Moline pastor realized other local houses of worship may not be as prepared as his for an attack, he made a gesture that has since turned into a ministry.

In the fall of 2018, 11 people were killed and six injured during morning services at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. The mass shooting was a direct attack on Jews.

"After Pittsburgh, my pastor, Pastor (Scott) Reece, came to me, knowing my skill set," said Dan Mobly, a member of MGT New Hope Church in Moline.

Mobly's skill set already had helped equip New Hope's church and school with protection against a violent threat. His 30 years in security for the federal government led him into a licensed consulting role in the private sector, and he used his experience to train a security team at New Hope.

After the Pittsburgh attack, Mobly took his security expertise in a new direction, courtesy of his pastor's offering.

"After that shooting, Pastor Reece called and offered to send over his security officer," said Allan Ross, executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities, which is located at the Tri-City Jewish Center. "The synagogues have always had security - for decades.

"After Pittsburgh, everything was improved; security was enhanced."

And Mobly helped direct those enhancements.

"That day, when that happened in Pittsburgh, there was a weightiness on me," Pastor Reece said. "It really was out of that heart of friendship - a heart of love - that I reached out.

"I called Dan (Mobly) first, and he was, like, 'Absolutely.'"

The Evangelical pastor's gesture was welcome at the Jewish synagogue.

"Talk about interfaith cooperation," Ross said. "He did an analysis and supplied a report. He's had a tremendous amount of experience, and he's a really good guy.

"He came to services and to Hebrew school to look at security. He did it for free."

The pro-bono security services have become a ministry for Mobly and New Hope Church. He has trained fellow congregants, including military veterans, in security strategies. The Rock Island-based synagogue was the team's first outreach, but they since have provided security consulting to nearly a dozen Quad-City houses of worship.

"We do a full assessment, and we go from there," Mobly said. "Some (religious leaders) aren't at all comfortable with weapons. I don't try to convince them either way.

"When I go in to help a church - to do a full risk assessment - I'll sit down with their pastor to determine their rules of engagement. The one thing we stress is that we want detection.

"We don't even want them (the threat) in the building. You've got 500 opinions out there on whether to arm or not arm."

In addition to teaching others to protect themselves, Mobly and his team provide security during large religious gatherings, including personal security for Israeli leaders during the annual Night to Honor Israel and during the Praise on the River event.

"Our whole ministry is about supporting places of worship," Mobly said.

His team also has provided free security consultation for a local mosque - in keeping with an all-denominations approach.

Though the risk of a mass shooting at a Quad-City church is low, he said, the resulting impact would be high.

"Common sense tells you, if you have a shooting in a church, you may not have anyone in church the next weekend," Mobly said. "It's like last year's flood: Some didn't recover."

At Temple Emanuel in Davenport, security has been in place for decades. But the oldest synagogue in Iowa regularly updates its security protocols, especially after attacks like the one in Pittsburgh.

"Church violence is distressing; it's shocking," said Neal Sears, board president at Temple Emanuel. "But Jews are aware. It's not unique to the Jewish community.

"After Pittsburgh especially, we've taken a look at enhancing security. We've worked with other churches and with law enforcement. We have mutual support from interfaith groups, and we have a security plan in place."

Growing up in a northern-Chicago suburb, Sears said, he has long been aware of anti-Semitism and its related threats.

"I remember when the Neo-Nazis marched in Skokie," he said. "Hate speech is nothing new and religious bias is nothing new, but we're inundated with it now."

And no denomination is safe.

At Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Moline, security is a fairly new issue. While Jews and Muslims have for many years been working to protect congregants from attack, Christians know they are not immune.

"We've been working on a plan the last couple of years," said Father Mark DeSutter, of Sacred Heart. "We have plans for a fire or a tornado, and we've debated what to do about intruders.

``The frightening thing is that somebody can just walk in unannounced and start shooting. We waited for some time to see if something came from the Diocese, but there's been nothing from them at all."

Sacred Heart has an advantage, however: Highly experienced members of local law enforcement are members of the church.

"We've been doing a threat assessment and contemplating to what extent we are training our people," DeSutter said. "We have evacuation plans for other things, so it's been a matter of some new training."

As Mobly noted, clergy and firearms are not a natural fit.

"In the (shooting) situation recently in Texas, they were lucky that having armed security worked, rather than creating more problems," DeSutter said. "There are pretty loose firearms laws in Texas, and it doesn't seem to be a deterrent.

"The proliferation of firearms doesn't seem to be preventing people from violent activity."

A reluctance to fight back is not unusual in some religious-leadership circles, Mobly said.

"If you're protecting people in an active-shooter situation, you can't move," he said. "You can't give up ground. You cannot retreat.

"(Church leaders) are men of God. When they have to think about this, they don't know where to start."

That's where he comes in, helping churches large and small come up with an action plan that allows congregants to worship freely without worry of an attack.

"I've even been involved with a pastor from Togo (Africa)," Mobly said. "We're willing and ready to help anybody we can - as long as it doesn't affect my ministry here (at New Hope)."

And he continues to have his pastor's support.

"What I like is that we've been able to help churches of every size, because any church can be vulnerable," Reece said. "Having a school here is a huge deal for us, and it changes everything.

'œBut we feel safe. That's what Dan and his team have offered us - safety and security.'ť

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Source: The (Moline) Dispatch and The Rock Island Argus, https://bit.ly/38737xJ