Religious leaders: No plans for procedure changes in light of Tenn. shootings

After a fatal shooting on Sunday at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, members of the local religious community laud its safety and don't foresee changes in procedures.

Knoxville police said the gunman targeted the church's congregation out of hatred for its liberal social policies.

Grand Island, however, is more committed to faith than many other areas, fostering an environment where the threat of church violence does not reign, the Rev. Kip Smith said.

"Our connection to our faith-based community makes for well-balanced people," said the Peace Lutheran Church pastor. "There's more sanity here."

The shooting shows the lack of peace in the country and the world today, Smith said, but that is not linked to Grand Island.

Kay Walton of the First Presbyterian Church said security measures consist of locking the back door at night.

"That's it, the front doors are always open, and people are in and out all the time," said Walton, the church's financial director.

The thought of violence at First Presbyterian has never been discussed, she said.

"Churches can't lock doors and have metal detectors. It's not like City Hall," Smith said.

A welcoming and warm environment is innate in a church and cannot be destroyed, said Bishop William Dendinger of the Catholic Diocese of Grand Island.

"We don't want a harsh atmosphere -- to turn church into something like an airport," Dendinger said.

The Rev. Matthew Fowler recently graduated from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., and now works at Faith United Methodist Church.

"Violence at churches wasn't invented in the 20th century," Fowler said.

He said violence was addressed more in his studies than it is now at Faith United.

"But there's nothing to say it can't happen here," Fowler said.

Sunday's shootings are a reminder of the anger and hostility that exists today, Smith said, and when appropriate, it can be used as a teaching point.

"It's fairly common but not said enough that Christian teachings are not of violence," Fowler said. "It doesn't touch a nerve because it was violence at a church but because it was an act of violence.”