Over $265K Raised by Mormons for Family of Michigan Church Attacker

In one of the most bizarre and disturbing twists following a mass shooting, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) have raised more than $265,000 not for the victims of the tragedy, but for the family of the gunman who murdered four people during a Sunday church service in Michigan.

Yes, you read that right.

On September 29, Thomas Jacob Sanford drove his truck into a Grand Blanc Township LDS church, stormed the building with a semiautomatic rifle, opened fire, killed four people, wounded eight more, and reportedly attempted to set the church on fire. He was fatally shot by responding officers.

Now, instead of rallying exclusively around the families of the victims, a segment of the LDS community has turned its efforts toward financially supporting Sanford’s family. A GiveSendGo fundraiser, started by a Utah-based Mormon named David Butler, has already drawn in more than a quarter-million dollars.

The fundraiser reads like a eulogy for the shooter’s household, calling them “victims” and citing a sick child with a rare medical condition. Butler insists that while others are rightly helping the victims’ families, the shooter's wife and kids are also “grieving” and need help.

Let’s put this in perspective:

• Four innocent Christians were gunned down in cold blood while worshiping.

• Eight more were wounded, some critically.

• The killer acted out of what federal authorities suspect was anti-Mormon hate.

• Yet hundreds of thousands of dollars are now flowing to the killer’s family some of it directly from members of the very faith community he targeted.

This kind of twisted moral calculus where the perpetrator's family is immediately uplifted and financially supported could only happen in a culture where accountability has been replaced with feelings and virtue-signaling.

It’s no surprise this unfolded under a national climate that downplays attacks on Christians, barely covers them in the press, and treats religious belief like a punchline. Imagine the reaction if the roles were reversed if a Christian had stormed into a mosque or a synagogue. The outrage would be relentless. The headlines would be wall-to-wall. Federal task forces would be deployed overnight.

Instead, the Biden administration has barely said a word, while the corporate press runs soft-focus pieces on the gunman’s family and Mormons who “forgive” before the blood has even dried.

Of course, families are not responsible for the actions of an adult son. But the idea that a murderer’s household should be financially rewarded before the victims have even been buried is a symptom of something deeper: the decay of moral clarity in America. We’ve gone from comforting the afflicted to glorifying the families of those who inflict.

Justice and mercy aren’t opposites they must be balanced. But this is not balance. It’s surrender. And it's a dangerous signal to send.

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