November 5, 2025 - Good Morning. It’s Wednesday, November 5.
On Sunday, November 5, 2017, a man walked into a little Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, just outside of San Antonio. He was dressed all in black, wore a face mask in the form of a skull, and carried an automatic weapon. When he was done, 26 people lay dead. It was the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history, and the deadliest church shooting in the history of America. The pastor’s 14-year-old daughter was among the fatalities. He was out of town that day. The visiting preacher had brought 8 members of his family with him. All of them died. The oldest person killed was 77. The youngest was an unborn baby. Unbelievable. Unimaginable. Unspeakable.
There have been over 30 church shootings within the last 30 years. All faiths, all denominations. A Jewish synagogue in Pennsylvania, a Buddhist temple in Arizona, a Black church in South Carolina, Lakewood in Houston, a Mormon congregation in Michigan - just last month. In the fall of 1999 I was on staff at a church in the DFW metroplex. The nearby Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth was hosting a youth rally, when a man walked in, carrying an automatic weapon. When he was done, eight people lay dead, most of them teenagers. Initially, the crowd thought the gunman was part of a drama skit. It was a simpler time - before we became numbed by the sheer numbers.
Most churches today have protection plans in place. I recently visited my sister’s church in San Antonio and saw uniformed policeman at each entrance. I visited a church in East Texas last Sunday and passed a uniformed policeman in the hallway. With most people accessing the Word of God through their phones now, there may be more church members carrying concealed weapons, than there are carrying Bibles. The traditional term for the place where Christians worship is “sanctuary.” Websters defines that word as “a place of refuge, a place of protection, a place of safety.”
Frank Pomeroy, pastor of the Sutherland Springs church, retired in 2022, after 20 years of service. In his farewell sermon, he encouraged his congregation to move forward, not as victims, but as victors. The old sanctuary, pock marked by hundreds of bullets, has been torn down now, replaced by a new house of worship, four times larger. Next year the church will celebrate its 100th anniversary. The faithful will gather once again. And they will claim the promise found in Psalm 85:8 - “the Lord will speak peace to His children, will speak peace to His church.”
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
