We are living in the most politically violent period in our country since the deadly 1960s.

Assassinations, shootings, physical and verbal intimidation. The list is long.

Just in recent history, an extremist shot and killed a Minnesota state representative and also shot another state legislator and his wife in one shooting spree. The home of the governor of Pennsylvania was set on fire while he and his family were inside. A man was charged with attempting to kidnap the governor of Michigan. Another politically motivated man tried to assassinate the candidate who would become our current president.

And this small sampling doesn’t even include the political violence toward locally elected officials!

As faithful people who follow Christ, who preached peace, inclusion and community, these events should shake us.

In recent days, when the media referred to the shooter who killed Minnesota’s Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband as a “Christian” … well, I have to confess that I cringed.

“In what alternative universe can one think that Christ was somehow involved in this heinous act,” I thought to myself as I read those words in news reports.

This man was in no way practicing Christianity when he gunned down two people in cold blood. And I angrily wanted to shout at the media to give us our name back!

But then again, maybe this is the exact critical nudge that we faithful people need to stand up loudly and proclaim that anyone committing a politically violent act in the name of Christ is not Christian. How can they be?

Friends, it’s our silence that is taken by many as acceptance that this shooter’s acts were justified. It’s our lack of standing up to political bullies that contributes to many people’s misunderstanding of who we are as Jesus followers, and what being Christian actually means.

This is our reality: We already have a fight on our hands to convince many millions of “nones” that Christianity is relevant in the 21st century. Allowing misguided extremists who kill people in their homes in the dead of night to paint who Christians are only reinforces for many their reasons to steer clear of a faith life.

We as a church owe it to Minnesota’s recently murdered and injured lawmakers, and so many others impacted by political violence, to let it be known loudly and publicly that these are not Christ-influenced acts. Jesus never encouraged violence; rather, instead of inciting violence, he chose to sacrifice himself to conquer sin and death in this world and shine a mirror on our brokenness.

Friends, as faithful people, if your religious beliefs are leading you toward political violence, then please know that’s not Jesus’ influence.

That’s actually sin, evil and a moral transgression that is taking you down that path. Amen.

Devlyn Brooks is the CEO of Churches United in Moorhead, Minn., and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serving Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He blogs about faith at findingfaithin.com, and can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com.