Peacemaking
United Methodist leaders are calling for peacemaking in the aftermath of an assassination attempt on current presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump. (Photo by Kiều Trường, courtesy of Pixabay; graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News.)
July 15, 2024 | UM News
Key Points:
- United Methodist bishops and pastors called for prayer and expressed grief following the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
- They also urged churchgoers to work to heal divisions in the U.S.
- One pastor said: “You never look at a person whom Jesus didn’t die for.”
The Rev. Chris Morgan choked up as he prayed at worship, the day after the attempted assassination of the current candidate and former President Donald Trump.
To say the violence felt uncomfortably close to home would be an understatement.
Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, where Morgan is senior pastor, stands just blocks from where the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, lived. Church members knew both the 20-year-old Crooks, killed by Secret Service agents, and Corey Comperatore, the firefighter who died protecting his family from the shots fired at the Trump rally in Butler, about 54 miles north.
After praying for all affected by the violence including the former president and the family of the shooter, Morgan called for prayer for “our country.”
“Democrat, Republican, independent, is irrelevant,” he said. “It is about showing people the love of Christ.”
Election resources
The United Methodist Board of Church and Society has worked to foster peaceful elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
The denomination’s social-witness agency offers resources for nonviolent and faithful civic engagement in Creating Change Together.
Morgan is among the United Methodist pastors and bishops speaking out after the attack that also left two people critically injured. These church leaders all condemned the violence, shared their grief and urged church members to act as peacemakers in both a divided nation and a denomination that is still recovering from its own separations.
“Whether a child attending school, a grandmother buying groceries, or a politician attending a political rally, all deserve to go about their daily lives in safety,” wrote Western Pennsylvania Conference Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi in a call to prayer.
“Our civil society and democracy depend on it,” she added.
The bishop leads a conference that encompasses United Methodist churches across the Pittsburgh area including Bethel Park and Butler. The conference has struggled with political and theological divisions of its own.
Last year, Western Pennsylvania saw nearly 300 churches — about 40% of its congregations — disaffiliate after longtime denominational debates over the place of LGBTQ people in the church.
Moore-Koikoi’s statement noted that the conference is not only praying for the family of Comperatore but also the members of Cabot Church where he was a member. The church was among those that left The United Methodist Church.
Christ United Methodist Church is a big-tent congregation that never considered disaffiliating. The church has an average weekly attendance of more than 750 worshippers who bring a variety of perspectives to church and politics.
Morgan told United Methodist News that the church has been trying to get people focused on what they share in common and not where they differ.
“When we use where we differ as the jumping off point, we never get to anything that we agree on, because it becomes immediately us versus them,” he said.
Even before the weekend’s attack, Morgan had planned to lead a fall study titled “Do Unto Others,” aimed at helping church members navigate the tense season that culminates with the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5.
The study, which references the Golden Rule, is based on a series developed by Resurrection, a United Methodist Church, in Leawood, Kansas. The church, which has the highest attendance of U.S. United Methodist congregations, also plans to offer a kindness campaign focused on "Do Unto Others” this fall.
“This assassination attempt points to the extreme end of the political polarization we find ourselves stuck in with its rhetoric and acrimony,” said the Rev. Adam Hamilton, the church’s senior pastor, in a call to prayer on Facebook. “This is not where most Republicans and Democrats are or want to be.”
Political rhetoric
The Rev. Chris Morgan, senior pastor of Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park, Pa., asks for prayer following the attempted assassination on former President Donald Trump. The church is just a few blocks from where the shooter lived. Church members also had connections to Corey Comperatore, who died protecting his family during the attack. (Screengrab courtesy of Christ United Methodist Church by UM News.)
In an Oval Office address after the attempted assassination, President Joe Biden urged Americans “to lower the temperature in our politics.”
United Methodist leaders offered a similar message.
“Denouncing violence is the Christian response, and prayer is our daily commitment,” wrote Indiana Conference Bishop Julius C. Trimble in a statement. “Assassination attempts are an affront to democracy and the sacred worth of all people. May God protect those who serve in leadership and those who offer themselves in their service.”
The Rev. Alyce Weaver Dunn, the Western Pennsylvania Conference’s director of connectional ministries, was guest preacher July 14 at Christ Community United Methodist Church in Butler. USA Today included her prayers in its coverage of the Butler community’s response.
“We need to listen more deeply to one another so we know each other’s story,” Weaver Dunn told United Methodist News.
“A person is not equivalent to their particular opinion or political/theological perspective — that opinion or perspective is only one part of a person. We need to be forming relationships with others that recognizes and appreciates the fullness of the other’s humanity. Our faith in Jesus Christ compels us to know one another fully as Christ has known us.”
The Rev. Deborah Ackley-Killian, the superintendent whose Butler District includes the Butler, Pennsylvania, community, also prayed that the Holy Spirit would guide Americans to live in harmony.
“May the Spirit be our guide as we desire to live together in mutual respect for one another as citizens of this nation and the kingdom of God,” she wrote.
Morgan said that all people must learn to look at people through the lens of how God looks at people.
“What I tend to say all the time from the pulpit is that you never look at a person whom Jesus didn’t die for,” he said. “And if we look at people through that lens, you treat people differently, regardless of how they treat you.”
Heather Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News.