Vance Boelter a "Devout" Christian, the Fashion of Pope Leo XIV, and Fatherhood within in Islam

Religion links for 6.17.25

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A 1938 photo by Marion Post Wolcott of the remains of a slavery-era church for Black worshippers in a cornfield near Manning, South Carolina. [Library of Congress: Public Domain]

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Top Story: The Suspected Minnesota Assassin is a Pastor and Missionary

Over the weekend, a man named Vance Boelter, 57, was apprehended in what Minnesota law enforcement are calling “the largest manhunt in state history.” He killed one state lawmaker in a targeted attack early Saturday morning and left another wounded.

The victims, as reported by NPR:

Boelter was the subject of a days-long man-hunt involving hundreds of local, state and federal law enforcement after the shocking deaths of Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband. Officials say the couple were shot and killed in their Brooklyn Park, Minn., home by a man impersonating a police officer.

Earlier that same morning, Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were shot at their home in nearby Champlin, Minn. In a statement shared with Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Sunday night, Yvette said John “is enduring many surgeries right now and is closer every hour to being out of the woods.”

There’s a significant religious element to this politically motivated assassination story. Friends have described the suspect, Boelter, as a devout evangelical who founded an evangelical ministry and delivered sermons during missionary activities in Africa.