Lakes Region houses of worship earn security grants

LACONIA — Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) hosted a roundtable discussion at Temple B'nai Israel on Thursday, speaking with faith leaders, law enforcement and nonprofit organizations regarding grant funding efforts for security. Each member at the roundtable had received federal grant funding from a 2020 bipartisan bill that provided security funds for houses of worship and nonprofits in rural areas.

“No matter your faith or background, this should be a concern for all of us,” Hassan said at the top of the meeting. “We should be united against hate, antisemitism and acts of violence.”

Among the attendees were Laconia Police Chief Matt Canfield, Don Bliss of the First Congregational Church of Christ in Hampton, Ira Keltz of the temple, Allyson Guertin of the New Hampshire Jewish Federation, Craig Fitzgerald of the Nashua Boys & Girls Club, Cathy Pellerin of the Claremont Learning Partnership, Pamela Brown of the Center Harbor Congregational Church, and Bob Christensen of New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

According to a press release, Hassan pushed to increase the federal funding and shared there will be an additional $2.1 million for the Granite State.

Of the grant funding, $38,500 has gone to the temple, according to Keltz, the board president, who said they have yet to spend $25,000 of those funds.

“With the rising number of antisemitic events that have been occurring across the country, it’s reassuring to have the support of the state and federal government in supplying security grants, so we can bolster our building security and make us feel more comfortable and safer in the area,” Keltz said. “Luckily we haven’t had any problems to date, but better to be prepared than sorry.”

Places of worship were not the only benefactors of the grants.

“We’ve had a number of shootings, random shootings, and Claremont is a small community, so it’s shocking,” said Pellerin. “Two of them happened right on our street. They have involved young people and the at-risk population that we work with.”

Such funds can be used to reinforce places like the Learning Partnership with better alarm systems, shatter-proof glass, and electronic locks to buy time for first responders during a worst-case scenario.

In other cases, such as at the Hampton Congregational Church, the funds were used for online safety training.

The temple has long had security cameras, but Keltz said the grant has allowed for an expansion and upgrade of the system, as well as making the cameras more modern and user-friendly.

Temples, churches, mosques and other places of worship have been particularly vulnerable targets for shootings and other forms of violence over the last few years.

While there haven’t been any recent direct, threats to the temple, Keltz noted incidents of antisemitic graffiti at the public library and at the former Laconia State School in the last two years. In some instances, among the racially charged images, was "NSC-131," which stands for National Socialist Club 131, the name of a New England white supremacist group known for harassing and threatening LGBTQ+ events.

Brown, who represents the Center Harbor Congregational Church, said their pride flag had been stolen more than once. “We realize we are on a list. I think it was the Free Staters,” said Brown.

“We are on a list of ‘woke’ churches. That made us realize that we ought to be thinking about [security].”

In August of last year, the Free State Project shared a link to a full list of New Hampshire churches with the caption “A Free Stater has compiled an incredibly detailed and comprehensive list of New Hampshire churches, including research into which churches are woke.”

The list includes the websites and physical addresses of each house of worship. 

The Center Harbor Congregational Church was listed on the site as “woke” because the “church is pro LGBT.” Other churches could be grouped into the “woke” category for following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for COVID-19, flying a pride flag, or in one case, acknowledging the church was on stolen Native American land.

Carla Gericke, president emeritus of the Free State Project, first denied the tweet, questioning if people were being paid by grant money to say untrue things.

When pressed, Gericke countered, “When was the last time there was an act of violence in a church in New Hampshire?”

Gericke eventually acknowledged the tweet, and referred to the project’s “decentralized” nature.

“My understanding is that the list was not generated by the Free State Project. We tweet things that other people do,” Gericke said. “We sent out a tweet to a third-party website that collects information that various religious people seek. It was just for informational purposes.”

Gericke added that some people go to progressive churches, and some people don't, and stated the FSP had no concern that such a list could be used for targeting or harassing houses of worship.

“Woke” has become a politically charged term in the past few years, as has the pride flag. Just last week, a woman in California was allegedly shot to death during an argument over her hanging of a pride flag outside her business.

“Certainly, what you heard today about concern about a list of churches that at least one group disagrees with is concerning,” Hassan said. “You really heard people talk about what it’s like to be on a list. And you’re seeing nationally, some rhetoric that seems to attack entities that seem to be open and affirming or welcoming people of all gender identities.” 

Brown has been a member of the Congregational Church for nearly a decade. When asked what has changed since 2014, Brown said, “I think divisiveness is cultivated almost by the conversations happening by our political leaders, and that divisiveness trickles down.

“I’ve seen it even in The Daily Sun and the letters to the editor, you see certain people who stir up divisiveness, so I think that’s part of the problem.” 

“I try to remember that people in New Hampshire work together every day to solve problems, and they do it regardless of what the politics are because they know that we are all Granite Staters, and we’re all Americans and we need our democracy and our economy to work,” Hassan said.

“I encourage people to talk with each other about your common interests, to remember your capacity in your business or in your community to solve a problem with people you may not agree with on everything, and just trying to hold your elected leaders accountable for following that example.”