The Armed Church: Why Christians Are Safer in America Than in Other Countries * The Gateway Pundit * by Antonio Graceffo

Christians are experiencing some of the worst persecution of modern times, with believers around the world being killed because they are easy targets. Outside the United States, many have no weapons and have been taught that being a Christian means being a pacifist who turns the other cheek and does not defend himself.

Less than two days ago, on October 23, 2026, gunmen carrying pistols and a long gun opened fire on a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in Jordan’s Karak governorate. They killed seven people and wounded 34 others.

In Damascus in June 2025, an Islamic State suicide bomber entered Mar Elias Church, opened fire on worshippers and detonated his explosive vest. The attack killed 22 people, according to Syria’s Ministry of Health, and Islamists have repeatedly targeted Syria’s Christians since. In July 2025, Allied Democratic Forces rebels stormed a Catholic church in Komanda, Congo, during a vigil, killing at least 38 people inside with guns and machetes. The rebels are affiliated with the Islamic State.

In Nigeria, Christians are killed on a daily basis. According to Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List, 3,490 Christians were killed for their faith in Nigeria between October 2024 and September 2025. That is an average of more than nine per day and 72 percent of the 4,849 Christians killed worldwide.

Massacres followed by mass burials have become the norm for Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. On Easter Sunday 2026, gunmen raided a Catholic church and an evangelical church in Ariko, in Kaduna State, killing worshippers and abducting dozens.

In April, Islamic State West Africa Province gunmen killed 29 Christians. On June 22, 2026, Fulani gunmen killed 28 Christians, including Rev. Markus Nyam of the Church of Christ in Nations, in Kawel village in Bokkos County.

In October, Boko Haram fighters locked an evangelist inside his house in Adamawa State and set it on fire.

Witnesses have repeatedly described attackers carrying AK-47s and machetes. Some Fulani herdsmen attack Christian villages with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, while villagers try to defend themselves with clubs or knives. One local told WORLD, “if someone comes to attack you with an AK-47, you’re dead.”

In Jordan, Syria, Congo and Nigeria, the attackers were armed and the worshippers were not.

Islamists have also killed Christians in Europe, where civilian gun ownership is a fraction of the American rate. The Small Arms Survey estimated 120.5 civilian firearms per 100 residents in the United States in 2017, compared with 19.6 in both France and Germany.

In July 2016, two 19-year-old men slit the throat of Father Jacques Hamel, 85, at the foot of the altar during morning Mass in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, France. Police shot both attackers dead as they left the church. The Islamic State claimed the attack.

In October 2020, a Tunisian man armed with a knife killed three people at the Notre-Dame Basilica in Nice.

In December 2016, Anis Amri, a Tunisian, hijacked a truck and drove it into the Christmas market beside Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, killing 12 people. A 13th victim later died of his injuries. The Islamic State claimed that attack as well. Amri fled to Italy, where police shot him dead days later.

Christmas markets in Europe have been targeted by jihadist attacks and foiled plots every year since. The Islamic State has promoted vehicle ramming as a tactic in its propaganda.

While Christians in other countries have been taught that carrying weapons or serving as soldiers conflicts with their religion, Americans have been taught the opposite. American Christians, particularly evangelicals, link defense of one’s country, one’s loved ones and certainly one’s church to their faith, with ample examples to encourage them.

Most notably, in the Bible, King David, one of God’s most favored sons, killed countless warriors on the battlefield. In American history, the image of George Washington praying at Valley Forge, whether the event actually happened or not, has become a symbol for American Christian soldiers of how their faith fits with military service.

Eisenhower, Patton and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt each have at least one famous wartime prayer associated with their names. More recently, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has made prayer a regular feature of military life.

In the United States, armed church members and security teams have ended attacks at churches in Colorado, Texas and Michigan.

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Armed church members are part of the security plan at most Protestant churches in the country. In a 2022 Lifeway Research survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors, 54 percent said armed church members were part of their security measures, up from 45 percent in 2019. The figure rose to 65 percent among pastors in the South and 74 percent among churches with 250 or more in attendance.

In the 2019 survey, 71 percent of Pentecostal pastors, 65 percent of Baptist pastors and 53 percent of Church of Christ pastors said armed church members were part of their security measures. Only about one in five pastors reported a no-firearms policy at worship services.

It is generally believed that a robber’s worst nightmare is when his intended victim turns out to be armed. An interesting demographic data point about churches is that the people in the pews are more likely than other Americans to own guns and vote Republican.

According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 32 percent of American adults personally own a gun, including 45 percent of Republicans and 51 percent of conservative Republicans, compared with 20 percent of Democrats. A 2022 Public Religion Research Institute survey found that 54 percent of white evangelical Protestants and 58 percent of white Republicans have guns in their homes or garages. Pew’s most recent breakdown by religion, from 2017, found that 41 percent of white evangelicals owned a gun, more than any other religious group.

PRRI also found that white evangelical Protestants were the only religious group in which a majority did not support gun control measures.

According to Pew, 62 percent of registered voters who attended religious services at least monthly aligned with Republicans in 2023, compared with 41 percent of those who attended less often.

A church security industry has grown to train church members to serve as security volunteers in their own congregations, and some of its founders describe the work as a ministry. Training programs now operate in all 50 states and have trained thousands of people in hundreds of churches to build safety teams. Some courses run more than 70 hours, incorporate Christian principles, and cover conflict resolution, self-defense, threat assessment, firearm handling, trauma medicine, and local laws.

For these congregations, defending the church is part of serving it. The people protecting the worshippers are often the worshippers themselves.

Incidents like the January 18, 2026, disruption of worship at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, led by Don Lemon, as well as the political left’s assaults on everything from Christmas decorations to crosses on churches and public prayer, remind Christians that maintaining the Second Amendment is necessary to ensure that the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom is upheld.