After a horrific tragedy in a certain place, there is always debate about what should be done next, as some people want to reclaim the location from the evil that befell it, while others wish to never set foot there again.
That debate recently played out in regard to the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, the site of a mass shooting that claimed the lives of 26 people and wounded 20 others. It appears that the latter argument in that debate won out, according to CBS News.
After meeting with several top executives of the Southern Baptist Convention who had come to the rural town in a show of support, Pastor Frank Pomeroy — whose 14-year-old daughter was slain in the massacre — announced that the church would ultimately be demolished and a new church built elsewhere.
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The pastor stated that the old church would be “too stark of a reminder” of what had occurred.
“The pastor expressed his desire that perhaps the best way forward is to have the church demolished and replaced with a prayer garden,” convention spokesman Roger Oldham told USA Today.
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However, Oldham added that the remaining congregation of the church had not yet “had a chance to fully deal with the grief and then come together to make a decision.”
Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Pomeroy stated that he believed there was little support among his congregation to repair and continue using the small church, as “There’s too many that do not want to go back in there.”
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According to Baptist Standard, this difficult decision on the future of the building had already been reached before all of the victims had even been eulogized or laid to rest.
The president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Steve Gaines, as well as the president of the SBC’s executive committee, Frank Page, both confirmed that the building would be demolished and a new church would be built in a new location.
“They did say, ‘We can’t go back in there,'” Page said, referencing remarks from remaining church members. “It’s going to be a reminder of the horrific violence against innocent people.”
Page noted that an anonymous donor had agreed to fully fund the cost of construction of a new church, as well as the fact that the SBC’s North American Mission Board had volunteered to pay for all of the funeral expenses, even though those costs would have been covered by the Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation program.
“We’re going to take care of our own people,” Page said.
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Though some churches have decided to continue using the same building after a tragedy has occurred — such as the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, or the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, both sites of mass shootings — sometimes the trauma is so severe that demolishing and rebuilding is the only viable option for the congregation.
“Sometimes what happens in churches (that experience trauma) is they stay in the same place physically and spiritually when really it is impossible,” Steven Sewell, a Christian grief counselor, explained. “No one wants to be known as ‘that church’ where ‘that bad thing’ happened.”
“So their rebuilding is what I like to call hidden greatness,” he added. “That even in the midst of all of this tragedy, there is a hidden miracle that will come out.”
Sadly, roughly half of the congregation of the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs were murdered in the massacre, so they will be rebuilding more than just a new house of worship, but a new body of fellowship as well.
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