There’s been no clear motive as to why Thomas Jacob Sanford, a 40-year-old former U.S. Marine, drove his truck into a Latter-Day Saints Church in Grand Blanc, Michigan, and set the building on fire.
White House Press Sec. Karoline Leavitt told “Fox and Friends” Monday that the FBI believes Sanford “hated people of the Mormon faith.”
For now, Sanford’s attack has left four dead. Not all of the hundreds attending the Sunday morning service have been accounted for.
Overall, attacks on Christian churches in the U.S. totaled 415 in 2024, down from 485 in 2023, but still significantly higher than the annual totals from 2018 to 2022, according to the Family Research Council's 2025 report.
In August, a transgender gunman opened fire during Mass at a Catholic elementary school, Annunciation Church, in Minneapolis, killing two children and injuring 18 others, including 15 children.
In June, a man attempted a mass shooting at CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, Michigan, but was shot and killed by church security before he could enter the facility; he was armed with an assault-style rifle, multiple magazines, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
In April, an Arizona man was found guilty of a hate crime for leaving backpacks at churches to intimidate Christians, motivated by anti-Christian sentiment.
More recently, Catholic school children were gunned down during mass at Annunciation Catholic Church. In a YouTube video, the gunman shared drawings of the church before his attack. The AR-15 rifle he used was scrawled with the question, "Where is your God?"
The attacks continue, but the thirst for Christ has risen since Kirk’s death.
JustTheNews.com took a deeper look.
The Kirk Effect
Craig Dyson, the head pastor of Convo Church in Reno, Nevada, who was also a friend of Kirk's, said church attendance was overflowing the Sunday after his death.
He told Sinclair Media's The National News Desk that church turnout was “unlike anything we’ve seen.”
"We were filled ... overflowing,” Dyson told the news outlet. “We had more people give their life to Christ yesterday than we’ve ever had on a single Sunday, and it was absolutely incredible to watch."
Catholic nonprofit group Newman Ministry co-founder Matt Zerrusen said college Catholic leaders told him mass attendance has been up in multiple states.
“I have not talked to anyone who has not seen an increase in mass attendance,” he said, according to the Catholic News Agency. “Some schools are reporting increases of 15%.”
Users on social media with massive followings posted videos of mass church attendance the Sunday after Kirk died.
While hate is on the uptick, so is hope.
“All across the country, people began to ask and answer the question, ‘how do I feel about what happened to Charlie? How do I feel about it personally? And for many, many people, they're going back to what I think is stability. They need normalcy,” Gino Geraci, the former pastor at Denver’s Calvary Chapel and now an FBI chaplain, said on American Family Radio Monday.
When people begin to ask these questions, it’s not surprising that church attendance increases.
“For many, many people despair doesn't work. Despair and hopelessness doesn't work. And so they're looking for something that will anchor them personally and then socially and civilizationally,” Geraci told show host Jenna Ellis.
From the perspective of evil, the church attacks, the goal appears to be to weaken community resolve, Geraci said.
When houses of worship are attacked, “imagine people waking up and asking, ‘Is it safe for me to go to church?’”
Hopeful that good may win out
But Kirk’s murder has had the opposite effect. Resolve has been strengthened.
“Even in the midst of this horror, there are people who are going, ‘I wonder if what Charlie said about the Bible is true. I wonder if people really are made in the image of God. I wonder if the social and societal problems are linked to the reality that we're in rebellion against God, and the solution is going to once again come by trusting Him, believing Him,’” Geraci said.
Conflicting forces are at work, and it’s quite possible good may win out.
Horrific attacks bring loss of life, psychological trauma, fear and distrust.
“There’s a social response to the strain, but underneath it all people are asking, ‘I wonder if whether or not a return to civility, normality and stability is our best option,” Geraci said. “I'm wondering if we really are on sort of the precipice of a revival, and I'm hoping that's the case.”
