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Bible school last week. Sadly, on Tuesday, the church received an anonymous threat via e-mail. Basically "I/we are going to kill all the children, bring gas, and burn them all and any adults we can."

The threat was taken appropriately. Doors were locked, extra 'security' was in place. Cops were notified, AND shown the e-mail. They couldn't trace it though.

Sunday morning, same threat with the only different part being "church goes", and not kids. Same thing/reaction from the church - doors locked, guards at the entrance that was open.

Pastor, each time, reached out to other churches in the area, and no other threats were received by any of them.

In an ironic way, pastor had reached out to me a few weeks ago asking if I was getting mailings from a church in a different town. I hadn't. He said "okay, it's probably a targeted mailing. Targeted at me." I asked him if it was from someone that HAD attended our church and left. He felt it was. He didn't KNOW that, though.

The threats did not stop Bible School, or the service on Sunday.

Just recently I had served on the safety and security committee. Our guidelines were followed. On the committee though, I was a tad disappointed one of my suggestions was nixed.

But, here in small town Ohio, threats about safety of church goers is real.

Thoughts?

The chance this threat would result in action is very slim. Doesn't matter, we've cross the Rubicon of "all things sacred" and anything can happen at any time.

Our church sent members to classes at a Tactical Academy. My father-in-law is a combat veteran and is armed (along with another member) during services on Sunday and other events. We're a small church (75-100 members), nothing prompted this other than news and another area church experiencing a near tragedy.

I also have a former employee's husband that has started a company with other officers that will train and advise threat assessment for any situation. They have specialized in school bus drivers and are receiving widespread acclaim for their services (as much as he loves being a cop, he's debating moving to part time because of how fast this business is growing).

Send me a message if you need more details.

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Already been done.

I'm sure people want to say "what a sick individual", but he's not sick....he's just a criminal. I hope they find him and throw the book at him with as little publicity as possible. What a loser.

Second that.

Sorry to hear about this arch. Nothing can excuse an attempt to prevent people from worshiping as they so choose. I hope they quickly find out who is behind this and that they are dealt with appropriately.

Something about "Freedom of Religion" comes to mind. Hmmm? Now where'd I hear that from???

Keep us posted Arch. Hope they find the dirtbag.

That's truly sad. I hope they find those that made those threats. Hatred and intolerance in this country needs stopped

You should not have to be dealing with something like this. At all.

It's awful that a group of people are being subjected to terrorism like this.
It's abhorrent, and the person doing this deserves the strictest punishment allowable.

From the way you've described the timeline and your conversation w/Pastor, this thing sounds personal. Even so, when hate mail of this sort is sent, a threat to one is a threat to all. I'm certain that the pool of potential suspects is pretty shallow, and that this person is snatched up off the streets quickly. A mind that would choose to do something like this is best kept away from good people.

Sorry you're dealing with this.

Plz keep us up to date.

Just an update. I won't have all the details correct, so those that know computer stuff better may have questions I can't answer.

But, the e-mail came through our church's website. Local police said it's untraceable. A lady at church contacted google to see if they could share the address it came from. Google said no. User privacy.

Only option for us would be lawyer ing up and dragging google to court. Thousands, and maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars. Who knows?

We have changed some procedures at church, and because it was threats of mass murder, have taken some precautions.

I'm also on the building committee - we're planning a renovation soon. Cameras, and doors that can only unlocked (during the day) remotely are now on the list.

I was usher for the early service yesterday. Prior to the service, the sound guy came up to me. Now, he was a teacher of mine. Asked me if I was 'prepared'. I just said "I don't know. What do you think?"

I did spend more time in the halls than normal. In our church, being in the hall gives you sight of every entry. And the cops have increased patrols in the area, and actually drive into the parking lot.

Doubt we'll ever find out who it was.

He's could be a she'd......or whatever a biological man and mentally female person is called now. Sad you can't go to church without threats.

Unless the perpetrator really knew what they were doing, it should be easy to find them. Email is no longer the wild west, they can track most people down now.

Sounds like the church should hire its own hacker and visit this slime. Sorry you are going through this. Keep the faith, baby!

I'm not sure this would help but it may be an avenue worth looking into. Such a threat as this may be breaking federal law as it pertains to a threat against religion and or may be what the FBI considers a terrorist threat. i know you come from a smaller community and it could very well be that your local law enforcement simply lacks the resources to track this down. If you haven't contacted the FBI and made a complaint to them it may be worth looking into.

It's been discussed.

And yes, I figured a threat (threats) such as the ones received would prompt a little bit deeper look.

I hope the FBI can help your church solve this problem. Religious persecution has no place in our society. All people of all religions should have the ability to congregate in peace without the threat of violence being imposed upon them.

Wouldn’t think they’d take that lightly in this day and age in America. Could be some kid trying to get out of family church time, could be a cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs type thinking they need to act out against decent people. Hope they find them.

Well, someone has it in for the pastor/preacher/reverend, etc.

Now there's a scam going around: Supposedly him calling, texting people asking for cash or gift cards. Cops were called, again. And this morning I get an e-mail from the town stating as much: A scam going on supposedly involves a local pastor asking for cash or gift cards. It's not him, and it's a scam. Ignore the calls and texts."

Hope this person gets nailed.

I hope whoever it is gets nailed too arch. This is BS!