Frequent church attacks pose no fear to local worshipers

Several violent attacks against places of worship around the world and in our own country have taken over national news headlines.

The Sri Lanka church attack is another one of the many recent hate crimes happening against religious institutions around the world.

News 11 spoke to pastors in our community about the current state of religion.

Albert Garcia, senior pastor at Calvary Chapel Yuma, and Jeremy Diaz, youth minister at Vertical Church, both agreed the recent attacks on religious centers worldwide are heartbreaking but haven’t brought fear to our local religious communities.

With all of the social and political chaos in the world right now, people most often seek answers to why this is happening through faith.

However, Garcia said he’s noticed a rise in intolerance against traditional Christian morals.

Still, they urge the religious community to focus on love and understanding, not fear.

Even though other faith followers around the world may feel threatened or fearful when hearing the news of another church attack, Garcia said the answer is to, “Love your neighbors like yourself. I think if we’re doing that, we’re not attacking people, we’re not going to be being biased or assuming things.”

Diaz added, “People commit hate crimes out of ignorance because they don’t know the group that they’re hating against. And that ignorance can only be erased when we stop, listen to each other, [and] we have conversations with people that are different than us.”

Diaz even welcomes non-believers into his church, offering them a place to feel they belong.

Although the two churches here in Yuma confirmed they aren’t fearful of an attack, they still have security, and cameras on the premises to remain alert to any suspicious activity.