Twice in the past few days, Minot churches have been targeted for robberies, leading many to openly ponder “How desperate must someone be to rob a church?”

The reality is that in Minot and other small towns and cities, residents must come to grips with the idea that this is a sign of the times in which we now live.

Some who idealize the past might believe that in previous decades, only the worst, the hardest-core criminal would stoop to breaking into a church or victimizing people who are in a house of worship. Maybe that’s true to some extent. One would like to think that in the nation’s simpler days, even the criminal element had some respect for churches, since there was more respect for churches in general in the past.

Our world today is very different. People in small towns and cities aren’t safe from crime anymore. Identifying what the “criminal element” consists of is virtually impossible. Living in a remote location doesn’t isolate anyone from the ravages of drugs, mental illness, despair and the general decline in civility that infects culture today. There is nowhere to hide from these rough realities of the 21st century not in a quiet, friendly community such as Minot. And not in churches.

Recognizing this unfortunate reality will empower people to be more safety conscious. It will also, hopefully, prompt a broader discussion about crime in the nation, it’s roots and ways to combat it.