On September 28, 2025, a Sunday worship service at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, became the scene of a mass killing. Authorities say 40-year-old Marine veteran Thomas Jacob Sanford drove his pickup truck into the church, opened fire on congregants, and then set the building ablaze with gasoline. Four people died. Two by gunfire and two in the flames, while eight more were injured. Sanford himself was killed in a gunfight with police less than ten minutes after the attack began.
Investigators recovered improvised explosive devices at the scene, though it is unclear whether they were ever deployed. The FBI has classified the case as an act of targeted violence. While Sanford’s precise motive is still under investigation, neighbors, acquaintances, and even a local political candidate reported that he had ranted against the LDS church, calling its members “the antichrist.”
In the wake of this violence, it would be easy to frame the attack through a purely political lens. Much of the country’s public discourse already focuses on whether gun violence is driven by right-wing extremism or radical leftists, depending on one’s political position. But what happened in Michigan stands out for another reason. It was one Christian attacking other Christians.
Many Americans outside of conservative religious circles may not realize how deeply some evangelical sects reject the legitimacy of other Christian groups. Among certain evangelicals, Mormons and Catholics are not considered Christians at all. In these communities, Mormonism is labeled a “cult,” Catholicism is denounced as idolatry, and members of both are accused of following a “false gospel.”
This rhetoric has sometimes spilled into violence. In 2008, Jim David Adkisson entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville and opened fire, killing Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger. He said he targeted the church because of its liberal Christian teachings.
In 2015, Robert Lewis Dear Jr. attacked a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, killing Jennifer Markovsky, Keenan Vannessie, and police officer Garrett Swasey, a devout Christian who was also an elder at his local church. Dear justified his murders through his interpretation of Christianity and opposition to abortion, putting him in violent conflict with other Christians.
In 2017, Willie Cory Godbolt killed eight people in Mississippi, including his estranged wife, Barbara Mitchell, and several of her family members, claiming his actions were influenced by his faith and religious struggle.
While these incidents differ in motivation and setting, they share a disturbing theme: violence justified through one version of Christianity against others who identified with the same faith.
The tragedy in Michigan highlights a contradiction within American Christianity: the faith that proclaims “love thy neighbor” has too often turned its anger inward. The New Testament is clear on this point. In 1 John 3:15, we read, “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”
Elsewhere, the apostle Paul urged believers to accept and respect those whose practices differ: “Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters” (Romans 14:1). These verses remind Christians that their faith calls not for violence against other believers, but for fellowship, patience, and peace, even when deep theological differences exist.
The Grand Blanc Township attack is both a horrifying crime and a sobering reminder of how divisions within Christianity can become deadly. At a time when places of worship should serve as sanctuaries, this violence underscores the need for Christians to confront not only the wider problem of gun violence in America but also the sectarian prejudice that persists within their own ranks. If the faith is to live up to its teachings, Christians must begin by rejecting hatred of other Christians and by remembering the biblical command to love one another.
—By Greg Collier
