September 28, 2025
Dear Friends,
I find myself filled with anger and grief — a grief that is cumulative and overwhelming. This morning’s shooting and fire at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation in Grand Blanc is reprehensible.
We can presume that the shooter was angry. Clearly, he was violent. There also may have been mental health issues involved.
But what we know with complete and absolute certainty is that he had ready access to an assault-style rifle. The availability of firearms makes this crime commonplace in the United States of America, and unthinkable in most every other country in the world.
Day after day Americans shoot each other, while we as a nation stand by and watch gun companies make money, and beloved Children of God die.
Enough.
Right now, the Michigan Legislature is debating how much to cut from gun violence prevention and mental health programs — when we should be talking about how much more money we can invest in saving lives.
What will it take for us as people of faith and people of good will to come together and create a commonsense gun culture?
What will it take? Faith in God, who reconciles all people. And it will take you. It will take you calling your legislators. That call will be my prayerful response to this tragedy.
In Christ,