Attack on Michigan church leaves at least four dead

Sunday morning, a gunman rammed his vehicle into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan. He then opened fire on congregants and set the building on fire.

At least four people have died and eight others were injured, one of them in critical condition. Authorities were still combing through debris last night to find additional bodies; up to seven people are possibly still unaccounted for at this writing.

The shooter, armed with what appeared to be an assault rifle, exchanged gunfire with officers at the scene and was killed. The FBI, ATF, and federal officials are investigating.

The suspect who staged the attack has been confirmed to be a former Marine. He served from 2004 to 2008, including deployments to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He earned several awards during his four years of service, including the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has ordered US and Michigan flags at the State Capitol and public buildings across the state to be flown at half-mast in honor of the victims.

The “Gunfighter’s Code” of the Old West

This tragedy illustrates the fact that seemingly anyone in any setting can be a victim of deadly violence, and seemingly anyone from any background can be a perpetrator.

In some ways, our technologically advanced society is mirroring a world previous generations would have recognized.

In The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild, bestselling author Bryan Burrough describes what he calls the “Gunfighter’s Code” of the Old West, which was “all about defending one’s honor, emphasizing pride, courage, and the necessity never to back down from a fight and to avenge every insult, no matter how small.”

But violence was not confined to the Old West, according to Burrough:

In 1842, Abraham Lincoln, then a legislator in Illinois, reluctantly accepted a challenge from an opponent and, upon learning he was a skilled marksman, chose to fight with broadswords; bloodshed was avoided only when seconds talked the men out of it. It’s said the fifth president, James Monroe, once sought to duel the second, the prickly John Adams, until talked out of it by the fourth, James Madison.

And yet, generations beset with the threat of violence were also generations that repeatedly experienced transformational spiritual awakenings.

As I often note, the darker the room, the more powerful the light.

“The ‘Charlie Kirk effect’ is real”

An article by author Chip Kendall in Premiere Christianity is headlined, “The ‘Charlie Kirk effect’ is real. Thousands are coming to faith in Jesus.” He writes:

In the weeks since the shooting, something remarkable has been unfolding: thousands upon thousands of young people are not only exploring Christianity but actually turning up in churches, praying, and professing faith in Jesus Christ. For those of us who sometimes wonder if the gospel still works in a post-Christian, skeptical culture—here is our answer.

According to Kendall, the same is happening in the UK. For example, The Telegraph had an article claiming, “Charlie Kirk’s evangelical uprising is taking root in Britain.”

Then Kendall asks the question I want us to consider today:

Why are so many people coming to faith in the wake of tragedy? Partly, it’s because moments of crisis strip away our illusions of control. When someone so young and influential is gunned down, the fragility of life is laid bare. People are desperate for hope, for answers, for something solid in the chaos.

“When you pass through the waters”

I have often reflected on the fact that America has not seen a “great awakening” in more than 120 years.

Prior movements of the Spirit transformed the culture in dramatic ways. Each was preceded by desperation—immorality, decadence, crime, and threats of war. Each time, Americans turned to God for the help he alone could give. And God kept his promise: “You will seek and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

I am praying today for those devastated by yet another horrific tragedy, asking God to give them his strength, help, and peace. And I am praying that the mounting hopelessness from so many tragedies in recent days would lead Americans to turn to the God of all hope.

The prophet asked in his grief, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). But he pointed to our only source of transforming hope in a fallen world: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lᴏʀᴅ, whose trust is the Lᴏʀᴅ” (v. 7).

This is because our Lord hurts as we hurt, grieves as we grieve, and walks with us through all pain:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lᴏʀᴅ your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior (Isaiah 43:2–3).

And one day, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

As Gilbert M. Beeken famously noted,

“Other men see only a hopeless end, but the Christian rejoices in an endless hope.”

Let us claim and share this hope today, to the glory of God.