Grand Blanc Twp family. LDS Church Sagittarius shocked Mormons for them accumulates money

When a man dies after committing a brutal crime, his relatives can get rid of guilt.

According to the police, Tom James Sanford, the police said the deadly attack on the Church of Jesus Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ in recent days, was scared, said Katie Hamilton, Sanford’s sister.

Some people harassed her stepdaughter after the attack, Hamilton said. Now the widow has to move her child and mother to a new home – they do not feel safe what should have been their home forever.

Sanfords are grieving, overwhelmed by guilt, fear and deep family trying to take into account the actions of their son, brother and husband they need to be buried now. Sanford’s father, Tom, told free press for apologizing for his son’s actions, but called the effects of the attack a “nightmare.”

It was with excitement Hamilton decided to learn a little more about the voter of the funds.

There are several online voters who helped victims, four murdered people and eight injured after police say Sanford had crashed his pickup to church by building it forward and shooting several people while law enforcement officers killed him.

However, this funds voter was allocated to her family.

The girlfriend sent her information: Mormons and many others wanted to give her family money. It cannot be right, Hamilton thought. It has to be some kind of sick joke. She was afraid that someone was pretending to be her family in search of a quick kick or another effort to lubricate the loved ones of a man who had performed cruelty.

Because there was simply no sense that the members of the community attacked by the little brother wanted to save their family.

Then, three days after the attack, she read several hundred comments related to the voter of funds, who has since exceeded a quarter of a million dollars.

“I was breathing that this church was so forgiving, and understanding and concern, and their first thing was to worry about the family abandoned,” Hamilton, 43, said in tears.

“It was the grace of the Lord. I have no words, I can’t express you. It was the forgiveness they did. It was forgiveness and concern and wrapped their hands around our family. They did not forget us.”

With the help of strangers

When David Butler, a Utah writer and a Mormon, learned about the attack on the LDS Church in the Grand Blanc, he said he was thinking almost immediately about the Sanford family.

So, without knowing any family, during the day after the attack, he created an online gift page through the site called “Prokendgo”. It was not a hard call.

“This is quite predictable, this is not an exotic answer: you are sad with those who are sad, you turn the other cheek, you take care of widows and orphans,” Butler said in a telephone interview.

Given his modest social media, he realized that his voter could receive enough attention to pay $ 5,000. He hoped it would cover the costs for about a month.

As of October 2, Thursday morning, the victims exceeded $ 275,000. More than 7,000 people contributed and supply ranged from $ 10 to $ 5,000. The voter received a lot of recognition of national media attention to politicians, including US rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

An anonymous poster that gave $ 200 and identified himself as a LDS couple in South Korea, noted that Mormons are taught: “I promise that the rescuer will forgive you from anger, resentment and pain. The prince of peace will bring you peace.”

Another anonymous donor, who brought $ 1,000 in early Thursday morning, said, “Let you be surrounded by heavenly and earthly angels, especially in your darkest moments.”

Butler is proud of the huge answer.

“Does it say beautiful things about Mormons? You bet that does it. Does it say beautiful things about the many non-Mormons that have contributed? Absolutely,” Butler said.

This is evidenced by the Mormon and others living in their faith, Paul Mason, a professor and a church member of the Utah State University, shows.

“These are the beautiful example of religious communities living to the best ideals and saying: ‘How do we react to something really negative? We try to change that darkness with light. We try to change that hatred with love, ”said Mason.

“These are the reports that people hear about the pulpit and read in Scripture, and it really refreshes when people actually do it in real life.”

Mason said he hoped the Church would provide financial and additional support for the victims of the attack.

Even before the attack on the LDS community, it was a difficult time: Russell M. Nelson, the president of the Church and was considered a prophet of Mormon, died on September 27th.

In addition to the church’s lost leader, Mason explained that Mormones often feel like outsiders. Members of faith fled to Utah several decades ago, faced with religious persecution and, according to Mason, Mormons “have a long memory.”

“If you live in Michigan, if you live anywhere outside the Utah, you always need to know that you are on the outskirts. You are a minority, you are a little on the margin,” Mason said.

“Sunday’s attack actually raises all those anxiety … It just revives those memories of what is sometimes persecuted by a minority.”

He emphasized that most Mormons face their neighbors, even if there is a false lack of opinion or understanding. Some people still believe, wrong, the church promotes polygamy. Others can only know about the LDS community through the Mormon Book musical, South Park or other forms of pop culture.

Whatever the experience, Mason said people often think about Mormons, “have some funny ideas, but they are really nice.”

This image, if a little basic, is the result of the “Skuolis” recommendation year. As Mason explained, forgiveness, and the creation of peace is the basics of religion and basic principles of the Nelson leadership.

“When church members go to church every Sunday, they hear many reports of dismissal, information, compassion for others, and about independence,” Mason said.

“I think that knowledge just drowned in the hearts of people.”

“We as a family have no reply”

Hamilton loved his brother and saw him providing regular actions of dedication and kindness. However, she admits that she does not know exactly what was in his heart. She has no year.

“Honestly, I lost my brother when he went to the Marines Corps 21 years ago,” Hamilton said. “He returned as another man.”

Sanford worked in the Marines since 2004. June Until 2008 June, earning a sergeant degree. He deployed in Iraq in 2007. August 2008 March

Although he did not like to talk about his service, Hamilton said it was clear that her brother was fighting for what seemed to be post -traumatic stress disorder, commonly known as PTSS. Although Hamilton said her brother had no official diagnosis, the family sought care. It seemed like she was doing nothing.

Browse their battles became part of their lives.

“When they do not realize they are sick and do not know that there is a problem, they are not going to get help. So you will face it, right? You remove it, you go and distract information somewhere else, you give them stock,” Hamilton said.

“This is how we lived as a family for almost two decades.”

She knows that Sanford lived in Utah for a while when he was young. He moved to Michigan more than a decade ago, living with his family at a time. A friend and a local political candidate told about the media, Sanford expressed the hatred of Mormons for potentially born in the Utah.

However, like his service in the Marines, Hamilton said he did not like talking to his family about what had happened before returning to Michigan.

“We, as a family, have no answer. And this is probably the hardest thing right now because we don’t know. We don’t know what happened. We don’t know what experience he had there,” Hamilton said.

“It was his own struggle that we had no idea what we were walking into. And so I say that at the time he was at home from Utah or what was just something, we were condemned as a family. We were smooth. We treated it.”

This included the testimony of grace after Sanford was reportedly trying to steal from his parents.

Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson said FREE Press this week that Sanford was arrested in 2011, accused of breaking into his parents’ home. Finally, Sanford’s parents decided to contradict the accusations.

“It was a family problem, so it never happened,” Swanson said.

Hamilton said her brother had done her best to provide her family, including a son who suffers from a rare disease called congenital hyperinxulism. Hamilton said it is like the opposite of diabetes – the body creates too much insulin.

This meant operations as a newborn, followed by months in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. When he returned home, Hamilton said the boy could not swim in a typical bath because it could damage the power tube inserted near his stomach. To this day, the family follows a strict care regime.

Throughout, Hamilton claims that her brother has never been too much. It did not press him over the edge.

Hamilton said her sister Sanford’s widow survives. In addition to being ready to sell, she is engaged in insurance and her work, juggling her bills.

Hamilton said her nephew, the son of Sanford, also asks questions. This is the case of Hamilton’s sons themselves. That’s how she is.

For a few hours before the attack, Hamilton said her brother had pulled the meat out of the family freezer. She thinks he wanted it to be thawed on time for dinner.

Earlier this year, he planted beets and released food plots to lure deer before the autumn hunting season. He promised to take his nephews to the deer camp; His nephews and their friends looked at him, appreciating his desire to include them in one of the favorite times of the past. He planned a cruise in February.

Hamilton knows her brother had mental health problems, but she was sure she had a different plan.

Throughout his life, Hamilton does not understand what happened, which caused her little brother to radically change his thoughts.

“So when they say,” Did you not see the signs? No. He went a little mania and went back. And then he was Uncle James, “Hamilton said recently in an interview.

“I don’t want to beat myself as a family because it won’t do anything good, sit there and go, ‘What if? And what?

Answers can never come. But Hamilton said he wanted others to face their impossible questions, realizing that they were not alone. She went to therapy. She wants her brother and others who are trying to deal with any inappropriate pride and accept help they may need.

After the attack, when the Sanford family fought a panic, trying to adapt to a new normal, it seemed impossible. To some degree it is still there.

This will affect their family for the rest of their lives. However, at the time, some moment borders with unbearable, Hamilton said that at least they don’t have to worry about looking for the money to turn on the lights, pay the car or cover the funeral costs.

“I would never want to do it for anyone. But the grace that was given to our family from this church, which came out and forgived to my brother, and helps to put together the works to my sister and her son that we were completely replaced by life,” Hamilton said.

“The forgiveness and compassion of the Church allows our family to heal strangely.”

Reach Dave Boucher by email By email dboucher@freeepress.com and x @Dave_boucher1.

This article initially appeared at Detroit Free Press: Mormons raised money for the family of the Michigan LDS Church Sagittarius Sanford