The following op-ed was adapted from Wednesday’s opening monologue of the Ari Hoffman Show. Listen weekdays 3-6 PM Pacific on Talk Radio 570 KVI, the KVI app, KVI.com, and your preferred podcast platform.
Two children are dead. More than a dozen others were injured in the horrific shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis this week. For Christians and Catholics across America, this tragedy should be a wake-up call: it is time to take security as seriously as the Jewish community has long been forced to do.
A message for my Catholic & Christian friends:
"You need to do what the Jews do when it comes to security…we're in an environment where you guys are just as big targets as we are. You need to make your churches hard targets." pic.twitter.com/C6ITRsXJms
— Ari Hoffman 🎗 (@thehoffather) August 28, 2025
A Hard Truth About Safety
How many church shootings must there be before congregations recognize the new reality? Christians are now just as much of a target as Jews. Houses of worship are no longer sanctuaries free from violence, they are soft targets in a society where killers deliberately seek them out.
I can tell you what us Jews have had to learn the hard way: houses of worship need to be hardened targets. In our synagogues, we know who enters, we train for emergencies, and we spend heavily on security infrastructure. It is costly, and some may even say it make the community feel less “welcoming.” But the alternative is unacceptable, and if you value something, you protect it.
Churches, by their very nature, are more open. They seek to bring in newcomers to proselytize, they invite the less fortunate to offer them support. That openness is admirable, but without security, it is dangerous. Welcoming people and protecting them cannot be mutually exclusive. Congregations must invest in metal detectors, trained security personnel, and robust entry procedures.
This is not paranoia. It is prudence. If you love your children, your parishioners, your churches and schools, you must make them fortresses.
The Budget Tradeoff
I understand the pain of diverting money from charity to security. My synagogue applies for federal homeland security grants, raises donations, and shoulders enormous financial costs. Like churches, we would rather spend every dollar on programs, feeding the hungry or supporting those in need. But without safety, those missions collapse.
The fact is, America prioritizes the security of politicians, celebrities, sporting events and banks more than it does children in church. That imbalance must change.
Faith Under Attack
The greatest tragedy is the murder of innocent children. Their lives were cut short; their families shattered forever. Yet even in this moment of grief, politicians showed their true colors and belittled people of faith. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey dismissed calls for prayer, sneering, “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying.”
Think about what he’s implying, that prayer is meaningless, that children were fools for believing in it, that the faithful deserve mockery in their moment of suffering. It is callous. It is cruel. You know who else hated prayer? The shooter.
Anyone who says prayers don’t work because prayers don’t stop school shootings completely misunderstands what prayer is for.
We don’t pray after a tragedy to magically turn back time and prevent it from happening. We pray for the elevation of the soul to God. In Hebrew we call it an aliyah neshama. And we pray for God to provide some comfort to the families.
When Jews experience tragedy, we gather to pray. No one mocks us for it. Christians deserve the same respect. Instead, their mayor turned his fire not on the murderer, but on the believers kneeling for comfort. That is shameful.
Yes, some prayers were answered, some children were spared when the gunman could have slaughtered them all. Others were not, and that is the unexplainable mystery of tragedy. But to deride prayer itself is to attack the very source of comfort and strength that sustains communities through such horror.
What Must Be Done
Christians must learn from the Jewish example: take security seriously, harden your targets. You can protect your community while still living out your mission of compassion and service.
If you love something, your children, your congregation, your faith, you must protect it.
