An Assassination Attempt at a Trump Rally

How did you respond when you heard the news about an assassination attempt on former President Trump’s life? I personally felt, shock, anger, grief, fear, and shame. I wondered to myself: “How does a great country like our own arrive in a situation like this?”

I had a conversation with a friend of mine, a fellow United Methodist Pastor named Shawn. I told him, “this is not who we are.” I felt so strongly this event went against everything we value and stand for as a country. He heard me and he responded in a way that highlighted the large gap between our aspirational values and our lived reality. He really made me think. He began by looking back into our history with the revolutionary war, the violence of slavery, and civil war tearing the fabric of our country apart. He reminded me politically motivated assassinations have happened before to leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy. He reminded me, we have a history of contributing to political violence in other countries in the Middle East, Africa, and South America even carrying out political assassinations and coups in some cases.  

Then he reminded me of more recent violence in our country like January 6th 2021, Paul Pelosi (the husband of former Speaker of the House) beaten with a hammer in his own home, senator Steve Scalise being shot at a charity baseball event, plots of violence against supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh, governor Gretchen Witmer, and so many other political leaders. How has it become normal in our country for elected leaders to receive death threats, even for positions like school board? How has the number of death threats to members of congress risen 10 times since 2016? I confess to you I find these realities disturbing and unacceptable.  

The gap between our ideals and reality feels like a chasm. I lament that the shooting on Saturday cannot be written off as a singular event. It came out an escalation of violent words and violent conduct. So how do we respond? We respond as people of faith by remembering our theological truths, praying, and Inviting God to use our lives as part of the solution. 

Remember what we know as people of faith

1. We know that the cross and resurrection are God’s definitive no to violence of all kinds including political violence.  

2. We know that every person is made in the image of God with inherent dignity and worth.  This is true regardless of whether we agree or disagree with that person.

3. We know that the heart of God is for peace.  We call Jesus, the Prince of Peace. 

4. We know that as the people of God we are called to plant the seeds of peace and live peaceably with others.  

Pray 

1. Lament and acknowledge we are in a place we don’t want to be as a nation. 

2. Grieve with those who have lost a loved one to violence and grieve with those who were seriously injured in the recent shooting. 

3. Ask God for healing for those physically injured in the shooting as well as those who were traumatized by the event. 

4. Reconcile the broken relationships in our nation.  Instead of being fractured, suspicious, fearful, and hateful may we become more compassionate, more understanding, and more loving.  

Lord use our lives

1. Give us grace to truly embrace people, looking beyond our own self-interest recognizing the humanity, pain, anger, despair, and grief of others. 

2. Make us vessels of peace and healing through our own actions, relationships, and witness. 

Willis Tate, the former president of Southern Methodist University spoke these words in the wake of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. "Wherever there is a sin and injustice, the church must call us to repentance. Wherever there is hatred, fear and suspicion, the church must call us to repentance and reconciliation. Wherever there is lethargy and disloyalty through inaction to our noble faith, the church must call us to repentance and action."  

May we be the kind of church that tells the truth even when it is uncomfortable. May we be the kind of church that honestly names wrongs and fosters a culture of repentance when we participate in those wrongs. May we be the kind of church that is nonpartisan and critiques leaders by how their actions align with the teachings of Jesus. May we be a church that offers a counter cultural witness against immorality, Christian nationalism, and policies that negatively affect marginalized people.  

I recognize other pastors are responding by invoking the name of God in ways that are different than myself. I read news reports of mega church pastors using the fact that former president Trump was grazed by a bullet as God’s intervention and as affirmation that Donald Trump is God’s chosen one. What do we make of claims like that? If we are comfortable saying that God directed Trump’s movement away from the bullet, are we also comfortable with implying God directed the movement of the man behind him who was killed by that same bullet? As United Methodists, we believe in both God’s sovereignty and in human free will. If someone fires a gun, that reflects the will of the person who pulled the trigger, not the will of God. If we allow ourselves to believe God directs every tiny detail of life then we can easily make God a monster who wills tragedies that create deep human suffering. This harmful theology redirects accountability away from people who made sinful decisions that harmed others and instead places blame on a loving God.

What if this tragedy could become a turning point? We ask for the rhetoric of our leaders become more peaceable not just for a week or two but for the future. May we recognize the path we are on that has led us to this point and decide to change our ways. May we the church lead away from fear, suspicion, division, and self-righteousness which foster polarization. May we hear the call of Christ in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”