{"id":113759,"date":"2025-11-25T11:07:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T18:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=113759"},"modified":"2025-11-26T09:27:59","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T16:27:59","slug":"from-a-mass-casualty-hate-crime-survivor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/11\/from-a-mass-casualty-hate-crime-survivor.html","title":{"rendered":"From a mass-casualty hate-crime survivor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Kentucky,<\/a>
A view of Cincinnati, Ohio, from Covington, Kentucky (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I spent several minutes yesterday skimming through a few newspaper letters to the editor regarding the expletive-heavy chanting that was directed at me and other adherents of my faith during Saturday night\u2019s BYU\/Cincinnati football game. \u00a0A surprising number of those letters directed us to stop whimpering, to get over our \u201cvictim mentality,\u201d and to ponder the significance of the fact that it\u2019s certainly the fault of the Jews themselves<\/del> of the Latter-day Saints themselves that everybody everywhere hates them.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another reflection on the incident from the Deseret News<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cWhat record donations and derogatory chants are teaching me about giving this holiday season:\u00a0Before the chants started in Cincinnati, BYU fans showed up to serve\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Jared<\/a>
Jared and Brandi Hicken at Saturday night\u2019s football game in Ohio between Brigham Young University and the University of Cincinnati (photo shared publicly by Brandi Hicken)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, I will also share with you a letter that was sent to athletics officials at the University of Cincinnati by a Latter-day Saint in Michigan named Brandi Hicken. \u00a0She herself publicly shared it and the photograph above, so I hope (and trust) that she won\u2019t mind my passing them on to you here:<\/p>\n

\n
\u201cJared and I got to sneak away this weekend for a much needed date night. We went to the BYU vs. Cincinnati football game. This is us trying to move on from the attack on our church two months ago. Trying to do something fun where the attack is not at the forefront our our minds for once. This is us at the game before all the heaviness and fear still found a way to creep in and overtake my emotions and thoughts the next few days as the Cincinnati fans chanted hateful words directed towards us. This has got to stop.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cI emailed the University of Cincinnati athletic director and assistant athletic director yesterday and shared my thoughts with them. I am going to share that email here as well, in hopes the message can extend farther than just this incident because it happens at a lot of football games. It is unacceptable.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\u201cDear Mr. Cunningham,<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\u201cI am writing to you from my heart as a disheartened college football fan. More specifically, as a BYU football fan and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> commonly know as \u201cthe Mormons<\/a>.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cAs a BYU alumni and huge fans of college football, my husband and I took the opportunity to travel 4.5 hours from our little city in Grand Blanc, Michigan to come spectate and enjoy our favorite pass time at the BYU vs. Cincinnati football game at Nippert Stadium last night.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cI want to provide a little bit of background for you in order to portray the strength and courage it took for us to travel to this event and really try to enjoy ourselves.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
You see, just eight short weeks ago, while attending church, we were attacked at our place of worship simply for being \u201cMormon.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSomeone with hatred in their heart rammed their truck into the front of our church building, entered the chapel, and began shooting us and setting our church on fire while many people were still hiding inside. As my family (me, my husband, and our three young children), ran for our lives, my husband and my 5 year old daughter were both shot. I was also running with my 15 month old baby and my 3 year old in my arms as I was struck in my back with shrapnel. I will spare you any further details about the nightmare we lived through that day and the recovery that has followed, but miraculously, me and my family all made it out alive.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThe anxiety and fear we have felt since that day has been debilitating. We have put in a lot of work in that short 8 weeks so we can try to feel some sort of safety and normalcy again and enjoy the things we used to, including football games.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWe had been planning to come see this game for months as we don\u2019t get the opportunity to see many BYU games in person since we moved across the country for my husband\u2019s medical training. We almost didn\u2019t come because it felt scary and overwhelming since the attack on our church. However, we know we cannot live in fear and we need to enjoy the things that used to make us happy. We decided to come and that took a lot for us both mentally and physically. I was nervous putting on my BYU fan gear that day because I knew it would identify me as one of \u201dthe Mormons.\u201d I did it anyway.<\/div>\n
\u201cI was apprehensive when I walked down to my seat and saw that the nearest exit was pretty far from me. I continued to my seat anyway. We came. We smiled. We cheered. We enjoyed ourselves\u2026.Until the University of Cincinnati fans began to chant \u201cF*** the Mormons.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThis is not a new chant. This is not a chant that is specific to your university. This is a chant I\u2019ve heard before while enjoying a football game whether in-person or on tv. It\u2019s always disheartening to hear. However, now that we Mormons have been quite literally targeted, attacked, chased, shot at, and some of us have been killed simply for being \u201cMormon,\u201d this chant is no longer just disheartening. It\u2019s crippling. It\u2019s personal. It\u2019s unacceptable. Period.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWhile I did hear the announcer give a warning over the speakers at the game that such chants will not be tolerated, it was simply just that- a warning. It was not just a few fans, it was tens, possibly hundreds of the university\u2019s student fans chanting \u201cF*** the Mormons.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cPlease, Mr. Cunningham, do not tolerate it. Remove them from the game. Don\u2019t let them come back. Educate them on the seriousness of their actions. Set that standard and expectation moving forward and enforce it. We are hurting. Badly. We just want to enjoy the things that make us happy again without the fear of being targeted and attacked for our religious beliefs.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cI know you have no control over the Cincy fans on the shuttle after the game ranting about Mormons and how awful we are and how we must have just paid off the refs because we\u2019re corrupt and evil. I don\u2019t get it, but I am used to it. It\u2019s not new to me to hear this stuff and these huge misconceptions about my faith. But now it is personal. Now it is me fearing for my life everywhere I go because someone decided to take it there. Someone tried to kill me, my kids, and my husband. Someone killed 4 of my friends. Now the chanting means something more than it used to.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cI know you can\u2019t control the actions and words of the fans on the bus. However, I do believe you have the ability to get control of the students\u2019 hurtful and hateful chanting.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
If you made it this far, thank you for listening. If I am mistaken about any actions that were or were not taken as a result of the chanting, please feel free to correct me.<\/div>\n
I would welcome the reassurance.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cSincerely,<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Brandi Hicken<\/div>\n
A fellow college football fan<\/div>\n
A Mormon<\/div>\n
A Christian<\/div>\n
A mass casualty hate crime survivor<\/div>\n
A human deserving of respect\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I thought her letter quite powerful, especially because of her own personal history.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
The Cincinnati Ohio Temple is still in the planning stages (Intellectual Reserve image, fair use)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And here\u2019s another thought: \u00a0Considerable attention is given these days \u2014 especially, for good or, sometimes in my view, for ill, on college campuses \u2014 to the importance of providing \u201csafe spaces\u201d and avoiding \u201chostile environments\u201d for women and for minorities of various kinds. \u00a0I expect that the good folks who were chanting \u201c[Expletive] the Mormons\u201d at Saturday\u2019s game think of \u201cthe Mormons\u201d and Brigham Young University as being essentially the same thing. \u00a0And, of course, as the Other. \u00a0But I\u2019m guessing that there must be at least a few Latter-day Saints who are studying at the University of Cincinnati and at least a handful of Latter-day Saints who live in the greater Cincinnati area \u2014 which will shortly have a temple of its own. \u00a0I wonder how they<\/em> felt about the chanting. \u00a0(In at least some other cases of such chants, there have actually been Latter-day Saint players on the team for which the chanters were cheering<\/em>.) \u00a0Did it feel welcoming to them? \u00a0Did it feel safe?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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