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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.”
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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.
"As Christ’s followers, we are called to be healers in our churches, communities, countries, and the world," said Council of Bishops President Tracy S. Malone in a statement condemning the violence. "In these times of political tension and disagreement, we must remember our shared humanity, the sacred worth, and the inherent dignity of every person."
After the attack, Western Pennsylvania Conference Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi issued a call to prayer.
“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,” she wrote.
“Our civil society and democracy depend on it."
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.”
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.
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“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.”
Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free daily or weekly Digests.
