SALT LAKE CITY — Days after the fatal shooting at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church in Michigan, it wouldn't be surprising to know that some are feeling fearful about expressing their religion in Utah.
Those visiting Temple Square in Salt Lake City on Monday were a mixed bag, with some being fearful and others not.
“It is a scary situation," said Church member Jeremiah Olsen. "The fact that such a sacred place that so many people go to escape the world and just have a moment with God, to turn into a place that is now obviously vulnerable.
For those who are nervous, a Salt Lake City trauma therapist shared ways to cope when fear starts.
“None of [the victims] had a hope and a dream that they would get ready and go to church on Sunday and have a tragedy strike," said therapist Kent Allen. "What it does is it destroys our hopes and our dreams. And so we start to fear.”
Safety, security top of mind for Utahns following church shooting, fire:
While some are now scared to express their religion publicly, Olsen has a different point of view.
“I'm not fearful at all," he said. "Am I afraid of the situation? For sure, I'm not going to sugarcoat that; it's scary hearing about all these things that have been happening around the world in the past month. I think that's exactly why the voice needs to be louder.”
Olsen thinks it’s a time when people should take their fear and turn it into action.
“In a way, it is important that this attack happened, because now we are realizing that we have a place to put action into our own safety. We can't just rely on God to protect us. For us, we have to take that initiative as well,” he said.
Allen stressed how it’s important to talk about how you're feeling instead of getting trapped in the negative news cycle, which can make one even more paranoid.
“The goal is to get, number one, people talking. The next thing is to get them moving and doing so that their focus goes back to something besides the tragedy," he said. "Isolated incidents that are happening, they're becoming more and more frequent. But we can't live our lives in fear.”
Although the deadly shootings are not the norm in everyday life, Allen said there is still so much kindness out in the communities where the tragedies occurred, which is a message the late Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Russell M. Nelson often preached.
