Author: Pablo Birriel
ISBN No:
Review date: 09/12/2023
No of pages: 0
Publisher: Kingdom Rule Publishing
Year of publication: 11/09/2012
Brief:
The Ministry of Defense, the title of a paperback by Pablo Birriel, is not about the UK government department but - to give you the sub-title - about 'executive protection for the ministry', that is, church people.
While he only occasionally goes into the Bible, consider the stonings and mob threats recorded in the Acts of the Apostles onwards. Church people as Birriel writes may face robbery, assault, gang-related and other loiterers, and drug-dealers in church grounds. That is, threats may be against a church building simply because it’s there, besides protests and heckling specific to religion (and yes, it does happen in the Church of England). A fair part of the book with many photos covers self-defence and ‘improvised’ and diversionary weapons, from a broom to a fingernail file. It’s written by an American, for Americans, so the final chapter on firearms may seem strange to a UK reader, including the five pages of pictures of guns and holsters. What comes through in the book is the particular duties of a church protection specialist like the author. The protectors of a house of worship, and the pastor and congregation, are also representing it, as Birriel says: "For this reason I am constantly prayerful that I put my best effort forward and that I never approach any attacker with malice. However, we must make potential attackers aware that just because we love Christ doesn’t mean that we are incapable of defending our place of worship or ourselves."
