Leaders in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from across the U.S. are mobilizing to help members of their group affected by the Sept. 28 attack against their church in Grand Blanc, one of the deadliest attacks in Michigan on a house of worship in recent memory.
“Members of our local congregation and members of the church and leaders of the church from other parts of the country are here and seeking to help,” Greg Geiger, director of communications for the metro Detroit region of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often referred to as the LDS Church), told the Free Press Sept. 29, the day after Sunday’s attack that left at least five dead. “We’re at this moment, meeting with our senior leaders to talk about the needs of the individual members of our congregation, who of course, are traumatized, physically, emotionally, in every other way. So our focus at the moment really is on how can we help, help the survivors and all those impacted … to make it through and to begin to deal with the feelings that they have.”
In a four-minute video posted late Monday, Sept. 29, Latter-day Saints Bishop Jeffery Schaub of the Grand Blanc ward said he was grateful for the outpouring support the church has received since the attack, including from many people not part of the LDS Church.
“It’s been very inspiring the amount of contact we’ve had with friends not of our faith,” Schaub said in the video on the church’s website. “As I returned home late last night, we had dozens of notes and packages and meals and food and treats waiting for us. Members of football teams, baseball teams, basketball teams, music had reached out to make sure that our family was okay.”
Schaub added that “our members are quite shaken in spirit and in body, and it hurts.”
Geiger, who is also president of the InterFaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit, and other church officials did not comment on the possibility that bias against members of the LDS Church may have played a role in the attack. Burton City Council candidate Kris Johns said that the suspect, Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, of Burton, told him that “Mormons are the antichrist.” Law enforcement officials have not yet said what motivated Sanford.
For decades, Mormons have struggled with bias against their group. When he ran for governor, George Romney, the most prominent Mormon in Michigan’s recent history, faced prejudice from some opponents because of his faith.
In Michigan, there are 46,847 members of the LDS Church, out of 17.5 million members worldwide, according to the church’s website. There are a total of 99 congregations, 62 of them wards, and 37 are branches, which is a smaller congregation than the larger wards. The Grand Blanc congregation was a ward, Geiger said. Michigan has ten stakes, a phrase the LDS Church uses that is similar to a diocese in other Christian denominations.
Michigan has one LDS temple in Bloomfield Hills that opened in 1999, one of only 208 dedicated temples worldwide. Another temple, in Grand Rapids, is under construction. Mormon temples are not used for regular worship, but for certain ceremonies such as marriages. The Bloomfield Hills temple serves members in parts of Michigan, some other states, and areas of Canada that are close to metro Detroit.
The roots of the LDS Church in Michigan stretch back to the 1830s. Lucy Mack Smith, the mother of the church’s founder, Joseph Smith, came to Pontiac in 1831, just one year after LDS was organized, according to the church. Joseph Smith sent missionaries to Pontiac, where they baptized 22 people from another denomination, and he visited Michigan in 1834. After Joseph Smith was killed a decade later by a mob in Illinois, the Mormon presence in Michigan faded, but it came back in the 20th century when the first Detroit church was opened in 1928.
The LDS Church says that it’s acceptable to describe members as Mormons, but asks people not to describe their denomination as the Mormon Church. Some conservative Protestants have claimed over the years that LDS Church members are not actual Christians, claims its members said are rooted in misinterpretations of their faith. After Charlie Kirk was killed by a man who grew up in the LDS Church, some of that prejudice was renewed in online posts. Mormons have also sometimes been falsely stereotyped as being polygamists because some of their early founders and members were, but the group banned polygamy in 1890. A story published Friday, Sept. 26, by Utah’s NPR affiliate, KUER, discussed the relationship between evangelicals and Mormons after Kirk’s death, interviewing an expert who said there’s an uneasy relationship between the two groups, but have drawn closer at times.
In 1959, Romney, at the time president of American Motors Corp. in Detroit, wrote an essay for the Detroit Free Press explaining his Mormon faith.
“My religion is my most precious possession,” wrote Romney, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “It teaches me the purpose of life and answers life’s greatest questions: Where we come from, Why are we here, and Where are we going. It provides me with yardsticks for life based on eternal values.”
A few years later, Romney was elected governor, and reelected two times, serving as Michigan’s top political leader from 1963 to 1969. When he ran, the president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, August Scholle, said: “He thinks he has a private pipeline to God,” to which Romney responded, “the same pipeline is available to Mr. Scholle, if he cares to take advantage of it.”
Romney, who was outspoken in support of Black civil rights in the late 1960s, later became U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Richard Nixon. When his son, Mitt Romney, ran for president in 2008 and 2012, he faced criticism from some evangelicals because of his Mormon faith. Mitt Romney addressed the issue head on in a December 2007 speech in Texas: “No authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions. If I am fortunate to become your president, I will serve no one religion.”
Romney later became the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, losing to President Barack Obama.
The day before the shooting and arson in Grand Blanc, the president of the LDS Church, Russell M. Nelson, a noted heart surgeon who performed the first open-heart surgery in Utah, died at 101.
In a statement Sunday after the attack, Doug Andersen, national spokesman for the LDS Church, said: “We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of prayers and concern from so many people around the world. In moments of sorrow and uncertainty, we find strength and comfort through our faith in Jesus Christ. Places of worship are meant to be sanctuaries of peacemaking, prayer and connection. We pray for peace and healing for all involved.”
The Grand Blanc church’s building, which appeared to be destroyed in the fire, is closed for now, the church’s website said. The congregation was active in the community: The Grand Blanc church’s website said they were planning to take part in an interfaith clothing distribution event in October, offering free winter clothing for people in need in Michigan.
Schaub touched upon the church’s message in his remarks on the video, saying that the support shown reflects its teachings.
“The amount of unity and love that has been shown within our congregation from ward member to ward member is truly a testament of the love of our savior, Jesus Christ,” the bishop said. “It’s only through him that we can love so deeply during these times of trials.”
He added that their faith will help them one day find happiness again.
“It was very humbling to see how much good there is in the world today, and that, above all, we are all children of the same father in heaven, and we love each other,” Schaub said. “I am extremely grateful for a loving heavenly father and his son, Jesus Christ. I know that they are aware of the challenges that we are experiencing. And I know that through our savior, Jesus Christ, we can find joy again.”
Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com, X @nwarikoo or Facebook @nwarikoo
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: LDS Church reaching out to members traumatized by Grand Blanc Township attack
Reporting by Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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