I was dismayed by the violent attack on a Jewish synagogue and preschool last week in West Bloomfield. The attacker drove his vehicle into the building. Security engaged him in a gunfight that left the attacker dead while the guards sustained some injuries. The building then caught fire. All 140 young children escaped unharmed, along with their teachers. A few days later, journalists revealed that the attacker was Lebanese, and that his two brothers were recently killed in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon.
This information doesn’t justify the violent attack on a house of worship and school for little children—but it does explain it. For anyone who commits a mass shooting or similar violence, the cause is likely to include some mix of emotional anguish, mental illness, and hatred towards a certain group of people. And acts of violence beget further violence. Bombs and missiles in Lebanon lead to fire and gunshots in Michigan. In turn, the Israeli military who carried out the airstrikes may have been retaliating for past violence done by the Lebanese, which was part of a pattern of warfare in the middle east. And the attack on the synagogue in West Bloomfield may move the victims (and the public at large) to hate the attacker and his people.
Or it may not.
The cycle of violence begetting violence is part of human nature. Of course I have an instinct to punch back if you punch me—or to seek revenge if you harm my loved ones. This is how wars and terrorist attacks are perpetuated. And also part of human nature is the capacity to love and to forgive, to transcend the violence within us. It is emotionally hard to break the cycle of revenge and to choose forgiveness instead. This is deep spiritual work.
And our spiritual work calls us to condemn violence in all forms, as well as hatred and retaliation. As a people and as a religion, we say with one loud voice: No more war! No more gun violence! No wars of choice in the Middle East that risk American lives, destabilize the region, and create echoes of violence and pain around the world. As Unitarian Universalists we are called to resist hatred and othering in our own hearts; and to protest war, terrorism and gun violence anywhere in the world.
PRAYER:
God of Jews and Muslims, may there be peace and safety in the town of West Bloomfield today. May the families traumatized by this attack know healing. And may they find forgiveness and love in their hearts.
May every human have the same instinct to protect Jewish babies, and Muslim babies, Lebanese and Iranian and Israeli babies. May we nurture this loving, protective instinct within us as we reject violence and hatred.
Shalom. Salaam. Peace.
Rev. Drew Frantz
March 17, 2026
This information doesn’t justify the violent attack on a house of worship and school for little children—but it does explain it. For anyone who commits a mass shooting or similar violence, the cause is likely to include some mix of emotional anguish, mental illness, and hatred towards a certain group of people. And acts of violence beget further violence. Bombs and missiles in Lebanon lead to fire and gunshots in Michigan. In turn, the Israeli military who carried out the airstrikes may have been retaliating for past violence done by the Lebanese, which was part of a pattern of warfare in the middle east. And the attack on the synagogue in West Bloomfield may move the victims (and the public at large) to hate the attacker and his people.
Or it may not.
The cycle of violence begetting violence is part of human nature. Of course I have an instinct to punch back if you punch me—or to seek revenge if you harm my loved ones. This is how wars and terrorist attacks are perpetuated. And also part of human nature is the capacity to love and to forgive, to transcend the violence within us. It is emotionally hard to break the cycle of revenge and to choose forgiveness instead. This is deep spiritual work.
And our spiritual work calls us to condemn violence in all forms, as well as hatred and retaliation. As a people and as a religion, we say with one loud voice: No more war! No more gun violence! No wars of choice in the Middle East that risk American lives, destabilize the region, and create echoes of violence and pain around the world. As Unitarian Universalists we are called to resist hatred and othering in our own hearts; and to protest war, terrorism and gun violence anywhere in the world.
PRAYER:
God of Jews and Muslims, may there be peace and safety in the town of West Bloomfield today. May the families traumatized by this attack know healing. And may they find forgiveness and love in their hearts.
May every human have the same instinct to protect Jewish babies, and Muslim babies, Lebanese and Iranian and Israeli babies. May we nurture this loving, protective instinct within us as we reject violence and hatred.
Shalom. Salaam. Peace.
Rev. Drew Frantz
March 17, 2026
RSS Feed
