Jana Riess: I am proud of my Latter-day Saint people

This time last week, all of them were still alive.

Four of my fellow Latter-day Saints were slain on Sunday, Sept. 28, while worshipping at church. Eight others were wounded. The youngest shooting victim, who is recovering, is only 6 years old.

All week, I’ve been following the story, praying for the victims and their families. And I’ve been trying — and failing — to pray for the alleged shooter, who also died that day. I’ve been too filled with righteous anger to pray for him.

This afternoon, I was finally able to pray for him, too, and it was because of something that happened at General Conference.

Or rather, I should say it was because of something that didn’t happen Saturday. None of the conference speakers used the shooting to whip our people into a frenzy of tribal grievance.

It would have been easy to do. We’re so primed for it. Right now we’re mourning a one-two punch: not only the horrifying and unexpected deaths of our fellow Saints who died violently, but also the more expected loss of Russell M. Nelson, who died peacefully the night before the shooting at age 101.

The irony that Nelson, whose last major written words were an op-ed about peacemaking for Time magazine, died just before this violent event shook our people is something I’ve been thinking about all week.

At the start of General Conference, senior apostle Dallin H. Oaks, who will be our next church president, made a point of saying that Nelson had already planned all the speakers and the music for this conference and that one way to honor him would be by following the schedule he had approved. Oaks asked the speakers to refrain from giving long personal tributes to Nelson and instead stick to the conference-as-usual plan, saving any personal remarks for Tuesday’s funeral.

But Nelson’s handprint was evident from the very first speaker, whose topic was peacemaking. Apostle Gary Stevenson opened by acknowledging that “our hearts are mourning loss” and that tragedy and violence have marked our world. “Even devout people gathered in sacred spaces — including our hallowed chapel in Michigan,” he said, “have lost their lives or loved ones.”

What I took from his talk was that the times when it seems most impossible to make peace are the times when it is most imperative to make peace.

It made me think of the GoFundMe campaigns that have been started for the victims of the shooting, so I went and made a donation there. You can go to that site to support the families of those who died and also the families of those who are recovering — people who will need surgeries and therapy and time off work.

But there’s also another way to donate, and that’s to the family of the alleged shooter.

A Latter-day Saint has set up a GiveSendGo page to help the wife and children of Thomas Sanford, the man police say shot the victims and burned the church. As of this writing, it had raised more than $361,000 to provide support for the Sanford family.

The man who started it, David Butler, is a Latter-day Saint science fiction writer with no connection to the Sanfords. He set up the fundraiser because in the New Testament Book of James, we learn that “pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.”

The fund creator said he had been “standing in a hurricane of love and generosity for three days now. Thank you.” He has been in touch with the Sanford family, who expressed gratitude “for the massive outpouring of support and compassion.”

Somehow, this flood of love — not just for my own people who have been wronged but for the family of the one who wronged them — softened my heart. I gave, too. I prayed. And I cried — not just the tears of sorrow and anger I’ve succumbed to this week, but tears of joy as well.

I am proud of my people. This is how we conquer the hatred and prejudice of the world: not with an eye for an eye, but with an inundation of love. President Nelson would, I believe, smile on this response.

How fitting Saturday were the words of “Now Let Us Rejoice,” sung by The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square at the opening of General Conference:

Now let us rejoice in the day of salvation.

No longer as strangers on earth need we roam.

Good tidings are sounding to us and each nation,

And shortly the hour of redemption will come,

When all that was promised the Saints will be given,

And none will molest them from morn until ev’n,

And earth will appear as the Garden of Eden,

And Jesus will say to all Israel, “Come home.”

May we be safe, inhabiting a Zion where none will molest us from morn until ev’n. But may we also strive for more than that: to create such a Zion for all people, even the ones who seek to do harm. This is the gospel.

Note to readers • The views expressed in this opinion piece do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.