Why Church Shootings Don't Intimidate the Church

Today I have a piece in The Washington Post reflecting on the tragic shooting that took place yesterday at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Here’s an excerpt:

While millions of other Christians were singing hymns or opening their Bibles or taking communion this past Sunday, at that very moment, a gunman was opening fire on the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas. This, the largest church shooting in history, ends with 26 people killed. Several children were among the fallen, including pastor Frank Pomeroy’s fourteen year-old daughter Annabelle. Whatever the shooter’s twisted objective might have been, we do know this: it won’t work.

Someone who would commit mass murder in this way is obviously deranged and unhinged, but the goal he sought, to terrorize worshippers, has been attempted constantly over the centuries and around the world by cold, rational governments and terrorist groups—all thinking that they could, by the trauma of violence, snuff out churches, or at least intimidate those churches into hiding from one another. Such violent tactics always end up with the exact opposite of what the intimidators intend: a resilient church that, if anything, moves forward with even more purpose than before. Why?

Read the entire piece here.

Publication date: November 6, 2013