By Robert Medley
Managing Editor
The assassination of a former president on Saturday evening altered the sermons of Sunday morning.
In places of worship across the nation, faith leaders responded from the pulpits to the shocking Saturday evening events of July 13, 2024, an assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.
At the First United Methodist Church of Piedmont Sunday morning, The Rev. Jink Barber encouraged calm.
Trump had been shot in the ear, a 20-year-old sniper shot and killed by U.S. Secret Service snipers, a father and former firefighter shot dead, and two other people were seriously wounded about 5:10 p.m. CST Saturday at a campaign rally for Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“When we try to solve an issue with violence it’s the wrong answer. And of course, what happened yesterday was awful. It should have never happened,” Barber said. “And as religious leaders I think we need to encourage everyone to take the temperature down. It is our responsibility as faith leaders to have our people take the temperature down. If we don’t do that, if we continue to incite them it is just going to get worse.”
He talked about how he reworked his sermon in the aftermath of the Saturday shooting of Trump. A gunman identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks reportedly opened fire at the rally. A rally attendee, Corey Comperatore, 50, was shot and killed by the gunman’s fire. Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper, authorities reported.
The horrific events were too much to ignore at church Sunday morning, Barber explained.
“Obviously you can’t go without mentioning it. I think that if we ignore it, then we are part of the problem. It is something that has to be addressed. We have to come to a reality that this is the world that we live in, but it doesn’t have to be the way that the world is,” Barber said. As religious people we believe that we are called to change the world and build a kingdom on earth and not be a part of the world but be a part of the solution.”
The Saturday shooting at the rally for former President Trump also causes a sense of heightened security at places where crowds gather, said John Shriver of Surrey Hills. Shriver is an usher at Surrey Hills Baptist Church at Mustang Road and Northwest Expressway.
Shriver is also part of the church’s safety team. He was quick to walk outside the church from the foyer doors to meet a visitor walking up from the parking lot.
A number of ushers and others work the front doors with safety team badges on their shirts, helping people in a friendly way and keeping an eye open for visitors and the congregation as well.
After the Sunday sermon from senior pastor The Rev. Doug Brown at Surrey Hills Baptist, church member Rick Word commented on what he thinks of the future days in the country.
“We are going to have to live with the Ds (Democrats) or the Rs (Republicans) regardless of who wins (presidential election). We need to get some of the moral issues straightened out,” Word said.
At First United Methodist Church of Yukon, The Rev. Kirt Moelling said he addressed the assassination attempt in the sermon but did not preach about it too much. It was not something that could be ignored, he said.
“I don’t know who would condone that kind of violence in our political realm,” Moelling said. Prayers for all affected were lifted up.
“We are a country based on vigorous debate and different ideas about governance–about how we should be the people called the United States of America. It’s good and appropriate to debate those strongly and to feel strongly in our positions, to be vociferous about that, to tell the truth about things. But we can’t demonize and we can’t resort to violence in our land, Amen? We can’t do that as people–we are Americans, in the end,” Moelling said.
In his Sunday sermon prayer he said, “Help us as a people of this land, to be a people of diversity and difference, yet of unity and peace. Help us to be a people you would be proud of.”
“Help us remember who we are, despite the acts of one individual, and that we would never condone violence in our political system,” Moelling said in the prayer.
There was a moment of silence during the service.
“As we enter into this time of prayer together, let’s be mindful of our nation; those whose lives were lost, their families; those injured as well. Let’s think of all those impacted in this moment of silence….”
At Surrey Hills Baptist Church Rev. Brown said, “Evil was revealed once again. This is a moment that will be sealed in our memories. The tragedy of the moment is the loss of a family man who was simply in the wrong place, shielding his family. Others were injured, and of course, the story that won’t be lost is the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump. This morning, the former President had this to say: “…it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.” Just a few days before the assassination attempt and many times in the past, President Trump asked for prayers. I, too, believe the former president is alive today because of the protection of the hand of God,” Brown said.
“I pray that this moment will be a shocking one that God uses to get our attention as a people. For years, many in the United States have willingly chosen to remove God from our institutions and public discourse. We must not be surprised that discord, division, and evil are part of our nation’s experience because we have rejected God. We must return to God as a nation and as individuals. Americans must come together and unite around the truth.”
Read more community coverage in The Piedmont-Surrey Gazette.
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