Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Ala., is pushing for the Alabama Legislature to pass a law allowing it and other churches to have their own police departments. Many colleges and universities, including religiously affiliated ones, have their own forces, but Briarwood’s would be a church-first in Alabama and apparently in the United States. A cathedral in York, United Kingdom, has had its own police force since 1106.

Briarwood church administrator Matt Moore told me the 4,000-member church needs a qualified first responder “to cooperate and coordinate directly with the appropriate law enforcement agency in an emergency situation.” With church and school buildings located in unincorporated Jefferson County, the city of Vestavia Hills, and unincorporated Shelby County, Moore said coordination of efforts in the event of an emergency is complicated.

Briarwood member Hannah Singer has a different view: “I get being safe, [but] this is excessive.” Briarwood’s police officers would be full-time employees of the church, and Singer wants more discussion of “all angles of having a private police,” both “positive and negative.” She wonders how the church would handle an allegation of sexual abuse.

Most Americans could not fathom how Islamic terrorists could bring down the World Trade Center or an army psychiatrist could turn on his own soldiers, taking their lives in the name of his religion. How could an ex-army veteran blow up a federal building, or a Jewish doctor gun down Muslims at worship? Or how can one understand why a meditation guru would put sarin gas in a Tokyo subway? None of these incidents fit our conceptions of the benevolence of religion. More importantly, is there something inherent within religions that justifies the taking of human lives?