As I write this letter we are 8 days removed from the tragic and senseless Valentine’s Day shooting at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb that resulted in the deaths of 5 students and the shooter. I know that each and every school shooting in the past touched us in some way. But the proximity of this shooting has had a much more profound effect on me. This one was just too close to home....and not just in terms of the number of miles to the campus.

You know that one of the victims - one of the murdered students - lived just a few miles down the road in Meriden. You probably also know someone who was on campus that awful afternoon. Four of Nathan’s high school classmates are students at NIU and one of those classmates (a neighbor to our church) was in the lecture hall during the shooting (and thankfully came out of the incident physically unhurt). I know that I have spent a couple of restless nights since Valentine’s Day thinking about how vulnerable Nathan is on a campus 100 miles from NIU. It doesn’t surprise me that the mother of the student in that classroom has hardly slept in a week.

I recall the horrible events of February 14 at Northern Illinois University for you in this letter because there are a couple of things that have happened in the aftermath of which I think you should be aware.

First, you, as a member of a congregation of the Northern Illinois Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, have been there for the victims, students, faculty, staff and families of those affected by the attack at Cole Hall. Pastor Diane Dardon, campus pastor at Lutheran Campus Ministries (LCM), was at Kishwaukee Community Hospital almost immediately after the attack to offer comfort and support. Bishop Gary Wollersheim, along with a number of local pastors from our synod, spent countless hours at the LCM center in DeKalb offering prayer, counseling and support for students and families. They have been there participating in and leading prayer vigils and worship services. In the midst of the darkness of this evil act, we - as members of the Northern Illinois Synod - have been on campus offering the light and hope and promise of Christ.

Secondly, for some reason beyond my comprehension, a group of people who call themselves Christian, are threatening to protest a memorial service scheduled for Sunday, February 24 at NIU. Westboro Baptist Church is planning to picket the service. According to their website, "Recently, God sent a shooter to carry out His vengeance on Illinois and America for their grievous crimes against His Standards and His People, the charges being the sins of the Doomed American people and their flagrant rebellion towards him...." Their message is one of nothing but hate.

I believe that in the face of such blasphemy (and I don’t use that word lightly), we have a responsibility to stand up and boldly proclaim the message of Easter that we soon celebrate. In a recent gospel lesson we heard John 3:16, " For God so loved the world..." God loved the world. God sent his Son into the world to save the world. God is not one who sends shooters into crowded lecture halls. God is one who sends people into terrified campuses to provide love and support.

The Easter message is one of hope and forgiveness and resurrection and love. That is the message we will boldly proclaim on Easter Sunday. It is the message that we are already boldly proclaiming on the campus of Northern Illinois University. And it is the message that I encourage you to boldly proclaim in word and deed wherever you are and whatever trials the devil may throw your way.

Our God, the God we worship through Immanuel Lutheran Church, is not a God of hate and violence. Our God is an awesome God. Our God is a God of love who sends, not haters and shooters into the world, but lovers and healers.

In the Love of God,

Pastor Knowles