LANSING, Michigan: An online fundraiser for family members of the man who opened fire in a Michigan church and set it ablaze has raised over $275,000 as of Thursday in what the organizer described as a “whirlwind of love and forgiveness.”
On Sunday, Thomas “Jake” Sanford, 40, drove his pickup truck into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in Grand Blanc Township, near Flint, shot at the congregation and set the building on fire.
The attack killed four people, injured eight others and left the church destroyed. Police killed Sanford at the scene.
Dave Butler, a Utah resident and lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, watched news coverage of the attack for hours. The following day, he considered that Sanford’s family were also victims of the attack.
“We understand that there is a family that needs to be taken care of,” he said.
Butler set up the fundraiser on the platform GiveSendGo on Tuesday morning. He leveraged media connections from his participation in podcasts about the Latter-day Saints faith to help promote the fundraiser.
Donations poured in and the effort quickly drew attention, too, highlighting many people being far more familiar with efforts to raise money online for victims of mass shootings in the US
Authorities have not discussed Sanford’s motive for the attack this week, though they have described it as an “act of targeted violence” by Sanford alone. Longtime friends have said he expressed hatred toward the faith known widely as the Mormon church after living in Utah, where he dated but later broke up with a woman who was a member of the faith.
Butler’s original goal was to raise $10,000 to help the family through the next few months.
He said many members of the faith have articulated that contributing felt like the right way to respond to the tragedy.
“I feel like I’m responding to an attack against us in the right way. Not to get revenge, not to get justice, not to blame the wrong people,” Butler said.
Over 7,000 people contributed to the fundraiser for the Sanford family in the 48 hours since it was posted, raising more money than any of the verified online fundraisers for the churchgoers who were killed or injured in the attack. Many left messages saying that they are members of the wider church.
“Another Latter-Day Saint here, praying for this family to feel loved and supported during these challenging times,” wrote a donor who did not list a name.
An attorney for the Sanford family did not return a message left by The Associated Press on Thursday. In a previous written statement release by their attorney, family members said, “No words can adequately convey our sorrow for the victims and their families.”
Forgiveness is a mandate for members of the faith, said Deidre Nicole Green, assistant professor of Latter-day Saint/Mormon Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She said Joseph Smith’s Book of Doctrine and Covenants states that “it is up to God to forgive who God wants to forgive, but as human beings, we’re required to forgive everyone – even our enemies.”
“There is still some nuance that could apply to different situations,” Green said. “In one passage in the Book of Mormon, we’re told we need to forgive those who repent or when a perpetrator is seeking forgiveness.”
Green teaches a class on forgiveness and has conducted research among women members of the faith who survived the genocide in Rwanda and in post-apartheid South Africa. Green said a Rwandan woman felt compelled to forgive her father’s killer because she wanted to break the cycle of violence.
“She talked about how without forgiveness, there is this ongoing cycle of retaliation where the sense of justice gets lost,” Green said. “So in that sense, forgiveness was necessary for justice.”
Butler pointed to several tenets of his faith that have likely inspired contributors, including the Christian ideal of forgiveness and turning “the other cheek.”
“The Epistle of James says to care for the widows and the orphans,” Butler said. “Jesus says, ‘Blessed are those that mourn. They shall be comforted.’“
Lisa Louis, who was in the chapel when her father, Craig Hayden, was fatally shot, said she instantly forgave the gunman “with my heart” after looking into his eyes.
Butler said he is in contact with the Sanford family and believes the messages left by many donors online were meaningful to them.
“The event is awful. There’s no way around it,” Butler said. “I hope that healing can come soon and that this can be part of the experience of healing.”